New Year's Eve is a time to gather family and friends together to ring in the new year. Including some games in the night's festivities is a great way to break the ice and ensure that your guests will have a fun time counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds until the clock strikes midnight.
Exciting Games for New Year's Eve
No matter what age your guests are, they are sure to enjoy a mix of fun party games while ringing in the new year.
Guess How Many
This game can be for both kids and adults. You will need to fill a clear jar with a mix of items related to New Year's Eve and have your guests guess how many items are in the jar. Some ideas to use to fill up the jar are:
- Candy
- Small noisemakers
- Tiny toys
- Coins
For filler, add some colorful confetti that will also obscure the items and make it more challenging.
Provide slips of paper near the jar and have your guests write down their name and their guess. The slips of paper can be placed in a hat or basket. At the end of the party, award the jar of items to the guest who has the closest guess.
Old News
Before the party, search through old magazines or newspapers from the past year and find specific events that took place during the year. You can also search online. Make a list of the events and ask the guests which month the event took place in. Whoever guesses the most events correct is the winner.
New Year's Eve Countdown
For this game, you will place a note with an activity written on it inside a balloon. Have a balloon for each hour of the party. Pop a balloon every hour until midnight and have your guests do what it says to do at that hour. Some activities to include on the notes are dance to music, play a game, and sing a song.
Hide the Clock
This game is fun for all ages. To play, you'll need a clock that ticks loudly. Designate a specific room or area of the house to hide the clock. The first person takes the clock and hides it. The rest of the guests must search for the clock, using the ticking of the clock as a clue. The first person to find the clock gets her chance to hide it.
Volley Balloon
People of all ages can participate in this fun game. To play, hit the balloon back and forth to an opposing team while linked to an arm of a partner. Have your guests divide into teams of two and tie one arm of each player to another. Whatever team volleys the balloon for the longest amount of time is the winner.
Another twist on this game is to have the teams race to a finish line while volleying a balloon in the air. If the balloon hits the ground, the team must return to the starting point and start over again.
Pop the Confetti
Have four balloons filled with confetti for each player. Players must try to pop all four balloons in 1 minute using their hands. Divide players into teams to encourage cheering on their teammates.
Ball Drop
Place a bowl behind a chair. Set the timer. Player must stand on the chair and try to drop ping pong balls into the bowl. Player must successfully land three ping pong balls into the bowl within one minute.
Drink If
Gather the party started with a fun New Year's Eve drinking game. Gather guests around a table and hand them a drink. Choose someone to start the game by choosing a card randomly, then read it "Drink if you have someone to kiss at midnight". Whoever has someone to kiss at midnight must drink. The order of players should be clockwise. You can use the printable below or create your own. If you need help printing, check out the Guide for Adobe Printables.
Dry Bean Blow
Player must use a New Year's Eve noisemaker to blow a dry bean from one end of a table to the other. First player to knock off their dry bean wins.
New Year's Scattergories
Have these New Year's Scattergories cards printed and cut for the number of guests invited. It's a great conversation starter and a way to engage with guests who don't know each other very well. Whoever has the most answers wins!
New Year's Charades
Begin with a bowl of printed and cut charade cards. Each player draws a card from the bowl and acts out the words shown using hand signals and body motions only. The player who gives the correct answer earns one point. The player or team with the most points wins the game.
Beverage Relay Race
Have a bowl filled with beverage, a teaspoon, and an empty drink container. Player fill the drink container with the beverage using a teaspoon. The first player to do so wins the game.
Who Am I? A Famous Person Game
As guests arrive, ask them to choose write a famous person's name on a sticky note and attach it to another guest's forehead. Each person asks the other guests questions to guess who they are. Questions can only be answered with a simple, "Yes," or "No." A few examples: "Am I singer?" "Do I have blond hair?" "Am I a politician?"
Midnight Kiss
Divide players into pairs. One player holds a craft stick with a Hershey's kiss on top and tries to pass it to another player who is also holding a craft stick in their mouth. The second player must drop the chocolate kiss inside a bucket. The team that places more chocolate kisses in the bucket within two minutes wins.
New Year's Clock
Players will need to create their own clocks striking midnight using candies, paper plates and straws. Whoever completes the task within two minutes wins!
Pass the New Year's Hat
Players must sit in a circle and attempt to pass the New Year's top hat from head to head without using their hands. If a player drops the hat, they must leave the circle. The last player left wins.
Party Blower Destruction
Players must attempt to knock over six champagne flutes using a party blower without using their hands. The first player to knock over all the champagne flutes wins.
Clock 'em
Hide an alarm clock and set it to ring in three minutes. Whoever finds the clock before it rings wins.
Hats Off
Arrange New Year's hats on a table. Player must bounce a ping-pong ball and try to knock all the hats off within 1 minute.
New Year's Eve Bingo
Print out a bingo cards and a set of calling cards. Cut out the calling cards and place the cards into a bowl. Pull one card at a time from the bowl and describe the image to the players. For example, "Midnight Kiss". Cover the corresponding image on the bingo card with a small object (candy, coin, cereal). The player who covers 5 spaces in a row either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and shout out "BINGO!" wins.
Name That Tune
Divide players into equal teams. Create a playlist of last year's best songs and see which team can guess the name of the song and the artist first after listening to the first 20 seconds of the song.
Free-for-All
If you are hosting a party with children, be sure to have a variety of toys and games for them to play with during the party. That way, if they do not want to participate in the games that the adults are playing, they have an option to play with a toy or game that they choose. Options to include are puzzles, board games, coloring books, and crayons. You can also print out coloring pages online and hold a coloring contest for the kids. Award each participant a small prize.
Make Memories
New Year's Eve is the perfect time to begin a new year with friends and family while making memories that will last a lifetime. Including a few fun games in your party will break the ice and get your guests socializing with one another. You can make your party an annual tradition that will have your guests excited each year to play games and have some fun.
