Entertaining Ideas
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
I seriously need ideas!
I am new to this board but I am need of some help. I am hosting a Christmas party this week-end and need to come up with a couple of "Christmassy-type" games. We are doing the white elephant gift exchange. Last year I found a fun one on-line - something to do with Rudolph (panty-hose, balloons, etc). There will be about 30 people and unfortunately people will have to be standing at the time of the games (otherwise they will be upstairs or downstairs). They will not have a table to write on or anything like that. Also last year I found a game where I said a phrase and they had to tell me what Christmas carole it was from. I'm hoping someone can give me some ideas. Sorry so long and TIA.
Re: I seriously need ideas!
I agree with the pp - I'd do the White Elephant thing and then let people mingle.
Could you have a table with a deck or two of cards, maybe something like Pictonary, Apples to Apples, etc. That way the people who want to play a game can, and those that want to chat can do that as well.
I'm not a fan of organized games at parties. Perhaps you can put out some notecards that have holiday conversations starters on them? (Just a few here and there on end tables, coffee table, etc.) Like, "What is the first present you remember getting?" "Funniest family holiday story" "Worst present ever"
I like Julie's idea with the convo starter and agree whole heartedly that organized party games are the worst, no offense to you. There's always a good number of people who do not enjoy them and that's just not really fair or fun to make them participate, imo.
I agree about the white elephant thing too it will take time for sure
GL with your party
Games aren't really necessary and I'm sure they would much prefer to mingle, talk, eat before your swap. We're doing our annual white elephant exchange and we let guests hang out and as one person mentioned, the exchange always takes longer than you think!
Have fun!
Tell all your guests to bring socks for the White Elephant because everyone loves random socks. Idea courtesy of my crazy SIL.
Honestly, WE's can be a lot of fun as long as guests aren't expected to bring the same thing. They just take a long time. Holiday parties are about socializing and enjoying each others company. Save the games for a children's party.
The only "organized" game that I enjoy at parties is the "Who am I?" game. Make up a bunch of notecards with the name of a famous person on them, and as your guests come in you tape a notecard on their back. As they're socializing and mingling, they can ask people yes/no questions to try to figure out who they are. The first person who correctly guesses who they are wins a prize.
It's nice because it's not too organized, and doesn't require everyone to stop and look at what you're doing. They can keep mingling and talking, and they can participate to whatever extent they want to (no one knows or cares if they don't ask questions).
And I hate White Elephant exchanges. I really need another piece of junk to haul over to Goodwill like I need a hole in my head.
I have to say I've played this game two ways. One when people brought random items from their house and one where people actually tried to buy nice gifts. I once ended up with two action figures playing it the first way! because of that I much prefer the latter.
LOL...good thing YOU are not my guests. HA HA MY guests DO enjoy the games AND definitely enjoy the White Elephant exchange. Matter of fact, we didn't do it last year and we got a lot of complaints!! So this year we definitely will do the White Elephant. We make it easy. It has to be something you already have and don't want or don't mind parting with and it has to be worth under $10. All the gifts are wrapped and put under the tree. Everyone just helps themselves to a gift. Then I read a story with a lot of "right" and "left" in it. It takes literally 10 minutes. They end up with a gift and open it. That's it. Total time...maybe 20 minutes for about 40 people. Not sure what kind of White Elephant you all do that takes so long. As for other games...what we've done in the past is to as Triva Questions about Christmas stuff (What article of clothing made Frosty come to life? type of things). Everyone just calls out the answer. There re no winners to the game. This also literally takes 10 minutes...if that. Everyone cracks up at some of the answers people throw out. Many of these people don't know each other. They are obviously all of OUR friends, but not friends to each other so they don't stand around chit-chatting to each other a lot. Also, there will be kids there too (ages 1-8) so the trivia games is appropriate for the older ones, as well as the adults.
Maybe because it is an older crowd (30-65) they like the games. I get complimented on a great party (and they even mention how fun the games are). Not sure if those of you who don't like games are young or whatever. Our crowd are not big drinkers either...maybe that is why.
Thanks for your comments though. If my adult DD decides to have a party I'll tell her NOT to play any games...but she loves them (and she's in her 20's)...matter of fact, my son (early 20's) does too. LOL
One that we typically play at holiday gatherings is the hat game. It's pretty low-key, and you can play while socializing or eating. Everyone brings a hat of their choosing to wear. The game starts by the "it" person discretely taking off their hat (preferably when no one is paying attention), and anyone who sees or realizes then takes off their hat. The game continues until the last person still has their hat on, and they become the "it" person for the next round. We like to play where you swap hats between rounds. It gets pretty interesting when a 20-something guy wears a red hat society hat.
It's a good group game because it's not so involved, and those that don't want to play don't have to.