party games

National Trivia Day: January 4

By sarajean on 12/31/09 3:36pm
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I’ve always had a fondness for trivia games. It’s not just because I’ve loved Jeopardy! ever since I figured out how to form an answer as a question; it’s also because trivia games are the only games—aside from cards and dice—that my mother enjoys playing. Every time I was in the hospital, Trivial Pursuit was her game of choice when she came to stay with me.

You could definitely play Trivial Pursuit at your party; there are plenty of variations out there to get your guests interested. But there are plenty of other trivia games, too, such as…

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Host Your Own Middle Earth Party

By sarajean on 12/31/09 1:08pm
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Hooray! January 3 is J.R.R. Tolkien Day! We celebrate the life and works of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien on this day because it also happens to be his birthday. If you’re not already getting excited about the prospective ways to celebrate, you are either A. not a fan or B. comatose. Just in case you need some ideas for your own Middle Earth party, here are a few:

Dress in costume. What fun would a Middle Earth party be without costumes? Encourage couples to come as book couples, or make a few Elf ears and felt shawls to don people with as they walk through the door.

Decorate with your favorite scene. I’ve always wanted to live in the Shire myself, but if you want to try and make your pad into a Rivendell replica, go for it. This could be pretty hard to do, however, so you might just want to hang up LOTR posters and memorabilia if you’ve got it around.

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Free Party Games, Part 6: Bodily Contact!

By sarajean on 8/30/09 11:06pm
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We’ve don some nearly-free drinking games, getting-to-know-you games, and basic obnoxious games. Now it’s time to get dirty with some bodily-contact games!

Okay, so we won’t really be getting that dirty; you’ll get to keep your clothes on, after all. But if you want to take your party up a notch and make everybody giggle, here are some drink-free games that are bound to get you cracking up.

The Sucking Face Game: Take a post-it note (or something similar) and line up everybody boy-girl-boy-girl (or randomly to make it interesting!). The first person has to suck the post-it note, open-mouthed, to his or her face, and pass it to the next person using only both their mouths!

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Free Party Games, Part 5: Getting to Know You

By sarajean on 8/15/09 1:21pm
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When you have a group of people who don’t know each other assembled for an event—a birthday party, a family reunion, your uncle Larry’s bris—things can seem rather awkward at first. Nobody knows each other, people are wondering if they can legally ask someone out—or do so without crossing bloodlines—and it’s like a seventh-grade dance.

You don’t want to resort to name tags because, let’s face it, they don’t help because when you look down at Barbara’s name you think she thinks you’re looking at her boobs. And maybe you are—and why shouldn’t you be? There’s a big sign with her name on them! How can you not stare at that?

There are easier ways of making people get to know one another. Here are some free (or nearly-so) games geared at doing the thing Julie Andrews was so good at doing—getting to know you.

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Free Party Games, Part 2: Scavenger Hunt

By sarajean on 6/7/09 9:45pm
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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.

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Free Party Games, Part 1: Who Am I?

By sarajean on 5/23/09 8:41am
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Who Am I?Who Am I?Not everyone has the money to fork out for the various games-in-a-box on the market. When you’re planning a party, there’s food, music, booze, vomit cleaner, and loads of other things to pay for—why spend more money on games?

Not to mention, people tend to forget “the seventeenth time we played Scene It at Dave’s house.” By offering a unique game that your friends have never heard of, you’re more likely to create lasting memories (at least for the ones who are sober). You may even end up at so-and-so’s house sometime and find that nobody wants to play the Jenga she’s got on the table; they want to play one of the games they learned at your party!

Here is a fun, basically free game you can play (it does require things you have on hand at home).

Who Am I?

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