Free Party Games, Part 2: Scavenger Hunt

Yet another no-cost (or little cost; you’ll need paper, and a printer if you your writing skills resemble a second grader’s) game that everyone’s sure to have fun with is a scavenger hunt. Sure, you could go with the normal scavenger hunt, with a list of things people have to find (remote control, pine cone, tube of Preparation H). You could even give it a twist by making it into a grid where people can “bingo” their finds to win. But there are much more entertaining ways to play this game.

For starters, you can make a game of “embarrassing finds” (the Preparation H will still work for this one, as long as it’s in someone’s purse and not in your medicine cabinet). Add bra stuffing, a toupee, tampons, and a man wearing women’s underwear to your list.

Or how about an adult game? If that’s the kind of party you’re having, nobody will mind having guests peek down their cleavage to see who has a boob freckle, or impromptu mooning to reveal plaid boxers.

You can always “plant” things on people, too. Myra may not know why you told her to hold a candlestick when she walked in the door, but that doesn’t matter; just tell her to hold onto it, and to not club anybody with it. Tell Larry the same thing when you give him the giant blue vibrator.

If your party has a theme, make it part of your hunt. For the Oscars, find the chick with the Angelina Jolie lips—surely she’ll be grateful you wrote her name next to that? Be sure to add “worst-dressed” and “biggest sore loser” to your list.

If it’s a costume party, find out what everyone is going to be and make a list from that. (This one is particularly good if your house is going to be full of drunks, since it’s an easy one.)

Try a destination scavenger hunt, where all clues lead…somewhere. Maybe it could be in a barn, or the Jacuzzi, or just outside in the dark. If your party has a Halloween theme, be sure to have a guy with a chainsaw ready if you’re going to use this one.

If you want to give out prizes for your scavenger hunt (which sort of defeats the purpose of being cheap), divide everyone up into teams. Assign points to each item (double chin-2, white stockings-5), and whichever team has the most points at the end wins.