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Henrie's Recipes
Festive party games
Marchelle Hermanus
Posted Fri, 12 Dec 2008
The festive season is here, meaning countless hours of schmoozing with fellow work colleagues, trying to impress the in-laws and making idle chatter with unknown New Year's Eve party guests.
You have two choices: either endure your social events through an alcohol-induced haze or opt for the healthier option and lighten up senseless banter and shop talk with some interesting games. Who knows, you may even end up enjoying yourself...
Getting to know each other
As an introduction to each guest and an ice-breaker that will get them mingling, give each person an index card and tape it to their back as they enter the party. Don't forget to arm them with a pencil as well. Then have them mingle and meet each other, and have each one write their first impressions of the people they meet on the cards on their backs.
Get them to write funny things, and not rude or insulting comments. After about 15 to 20 minutes, have each person read the card off the adjacent person's back for a few laughs. This should leave them more relaxed and comfortable, and is especially for getting those new arrivals into the mix.
Speed dating
Give each guest a paper plate and have them draw the face of a clock on it with a line next to each number. Then have them walk around and find a "date" for each hour, not forgetting to write their name by the hour. But there is a trick: no one can make a "date" with more than one person per hour.
After everyone has made their dates, speed up the time and allow one to three minutes for each hour. The facilitator then gets to asks questions for discussion on each date, and the pairs will have a chance to get to know each other.
Remember, this exercise is harmless fun and a chance to get to know your fellow guests, so it doesn't matter if the "date" is male or female.
Bad taste in clothes
This game, called 'Hot potato pants' will have your guests in stitches of laughter. Get each person to bring along their most embarrassing item of clothing from home. Each person must put their item into a black garbage bag and pass it around in a circle while the music plays.
When the music stops, the person with the bag has to take out a clothing article and wear it. The game ends when all the clothes are gone and the winner is the person with the least clothes from the bag on.
To add an interesting twist, get each person to own up to the story behind their specific "contributions" to the bag.
Clockwork oranges
For this game you need a couple of oranges and a large group of eager participants.
Appoint a referee to time the game and announce the winner, and place your players in two rows facing each other.
As soon as the ref shouts "go", contestants must pass the orange from neck to neck using only chins and necks, with their hands folded behind their backs. The team that can get the orange to the last neck in line the quickest without dropping the orange wins.
Truth or dare with a twist
Everyone sits around a table and starts off with one person saying something true that begins with "I never... " (eg. "I've never been to Disney Land"). Then, if any other player has done what the person has said they haven't, this player is then dared to do something they've never done before.
As the game progresses, the statements tend to get more personal and explicit. But the game only works when people are honest and relies on a certain degree of intimacy between guests — this makes it a good one to pull out after a few icebreakers. Then you can be creative as the evening permits...
Now that you've got some party tricks up your sleeve, the only thing for you to do afterwards is keep them guessing about what you'll have planned for next year!
