Family-Friendly Party Games You Can Play For Any Occasion

With Nintendo, Wii, Xbox, and every other type of digital box becoming the status quo for children's entertainment, I thought I'd introduce some good old fashioned favorites back into our society.....games that don't require a quick thumb nor a lazy gluteus maximus. Here are a handful of my favorite games that you can use at your next party or family activity. I hope you enjoy them as much as our family of seven has. Make some real memories together and set aside the digital high for a season. I think you'll will enjoy getting reacquainted with those that matter.

BALLOON RELAY PARTY GAME Divide the group into two or more equal teams and have each team stand in a line. Give each team ten balloons in a basket. The first person in each line takes a balloon and runs to the other side of the room/yard/area and sits or stomps on the balloon to pop it. After popping the balloon he runs back to his team and tags the next person who does the same thing. The team who pops all of their balloons first wins. You can award the winning team a small prize (like a ribbon) and/or give everyone a small toy or candy for participating.

BIG BOOTY Number of Players: 4 or more

Description: Everyone sits in a circle and one person is chosen to be "Big Booty". Everyone else is given a number (1,2, 3, 4, etc.). Then, while everyone slaps their legs, keeping the beat, they chant: Ahhhhhh, Big Booty! Big Booty! Big Booty! Big Booty!

Then Big Booty starts the game off. They say, with the beat, their name (Big Booty) and then someone else's number. Such as, "Big Booty, number 3!" Then number 3 would say their name (number 3) and then someone else's. The point of the game is to make Big Booty mess up. Big Booty messes up if they: get off the beat, accidentally send it to themselves, or don't respond when someone sends it to them. Whoever messes Big Booty up becomes the new Big Booty, and the numbers are changed accordingly. Skills/Lessons Learned: Accuracy, Rhythm

BLACK MAGIC

Number of Players: 3 or more

Description: This is a game where there's a secret. Two people have to be in on the secret for the game to work. One of the two people goes out of the room, and one stays in. The person in the room helps the group decide on an object. Then the other person comes back into the room and tries to guess what object was chosen. The person who remained in the room, let's call her "Jo", points to different things around the room, and say, "Is this it?" Then the "seeker", let's call her Sally, either says "yes" or "no". The object can be anything, even a zipper or something discreet like that. The object of the game is for the other members of the group to figure out how Sally is guessing it, so don't tell the secret to the group. The secret is: Sally knows what the chosen object is because Jo points to a BLACK object before she points to the chosen object, thus the name, "Black Magic".

BOY/GIRL GAME Number of Players: 4 or more

Description: This game is one of my family's favorites, and it's great because most people haven't heard of it before. The group sits in a circle, and each person is handed a blank piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Each person writes a male's name; one that everybody in the group would know. It can be a real person, a family member, someone in the room, or a TV character (Example: George Bush or Big Bird, etc.) They then fold over what they wrote, so no one else can see it, and pass the paper to the person on their right. The next person adds the name of a female (i.e. Minnie Mouse, Elizabeth Taylor, Mom, Grandma) and folds it over, passing it on to the person on their right. The next person writes "where they were" (Example: McDonalds, in the ocean, etc.) They pass it again, and the next person writes "what they were doing" (Example: Picking Apples, flying paper airplanes, etc). After that, the next person writes a question the boy would ask the girl, such as: "Why are you so beautiful?" Or: "Do you like Homemade pickles?" It can be anything. The more random the better. This time, when the papers are passed, the person who wrote the question tells the person they give it to the first word of the question. This helps so the person knows how to respond. It's not very funny when someone asks: "Do you love me?" And the other responds: "Because I like chocolate chip cookies." So, if the question starts with "Do...", someone could write as a response: "Only when the moon is full and I am washing socks". After this they pass again, and the next person writes "what the two people ended up doing" (Example: "They went to the moon in Santa's sleigh.") After the story is completed, everyone passes one final time, and then the stories are opened and read, one at a time. Thus, using our example, the story would read: "Big Bird and Minnie Mouse were in McDonalds picking apples. Big Bird asked, "Do you like Homemade pickles?" Minnie said,"Only when the moon is full and I am washing socks. They ended up going to the moon in Santa's sleigh." Skills/Lessons Learned: Reading, Writing, and Creativity

CAN YOU GUESS?

Number of Players: 2 or more

Put several small items into a brown paper bag. Blindfold one person and hand them one of the items in the bag. Give them a few seconds to guess what the item is. If they are unsuccessful, they are out. Then blindfold the next person and have him/her try to guess another object in the bag. The game is over when all the items have been identified or only one person remains in the game.

I hope you have a great time playing these games!