“Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear …, Happy Birthday to you”.
When these lines are being sung for you, it is that time of the year again. Birthdays come with lots of birthday cake, presents, time with family and friends, and of course, a birthday party. Throwing a birthday party is not the easiest thing and sometimes you just need a little inspiration to start the planning, in which case this article is perfect for you. If you are out of ideas for fun games that can easily be played with a bigger or smaller group, keep reading and you will find the best games that are a must-do at your next birthday party.
- Chocolate Unwrapping
With a little bit of preparation time and equipment, you will make the children’s eyes shine with joy. Before the birthday party starts, a chocolate bar has to be wrapped. We always do it with a few layers of newspaper to not waste any gift wrap, but you can choose any kind you want. You additionally need a scarf, a beanie, gloves, a knife, a fork, and a dice. To play the game, each child rolls the dice once and then passes it on to the next player. If someone rolls a six, they have to put all the clothing on as fast as possible, try to unwrap the chocolate bar, and eat it with the cutlery. They keep unwrapping it until someone else rolls a six, in which case they have to take the clothing off as fast as possible and pass everything on to the player with the six. During the game, the dice has to be passed among each player, with the exception of the player who is unwrapping the chocolate; he or she is being skipped. The game goes on until the whole chocolate bar is eaten. - Egg and Spoon Race
The title pretty much already gives away the gist of the game. You start by setting up a parkour course with whatever objects you want to use. The next step is to split the players up into two teams and give each team a spoon and an egg. You can play it with plastic eggs or with an actual egg, ideally boiled. Once the signal is given, the first player of each team must run the entire course with the egg on the spoon. The egg can’t fall off, and if it does, you can either play it so that the player has to go back to the starting line and start again or just pick up the egg, put it back on the spoon, and keep running. When the player has reached the finish line, he or she hands the spoon with the egg to the next player and it starts again. - Sack Race
For this game, all you need are two hessian or burlap sacks. Again, the race is divided into two teams. One player from each team steps inside the sack, and on “go”, both players race to the other side of the playing field and back to their teammates to hand the sack to the next player in line. The first team to have all members jump is the winner. - Find-The-Pot
This is a very simple, yet fun game. One player has to be selected to be the searcher; he or she has to leave the room for a few minutes. In that time, the other players hide a pot with candy or any other object underneath it somewhere in the room. The searcher then has to be blindfolded and handed a cooking spoon. They must then find the pot by using the spoon and when they hear the sound of the cooking spoon hitting the pot, they can take the blindfold off and lift the pot to see what’s underneath it. The other players can also give hints by saying ‘hot/cold’, depending on if the searcher is close to the pot or goes in the right direction (“hot”) or not (“cold”). - Treasure Hunt
This game can either be played very simply by hiding candy or tokens around the play space for the players to hunt for or by making a trail of pre-written clues and hints that the players have to solve to find a hidden treasure. This game can be designed and set up in any way you want, and it can be adapted to any situation. - Pretzel on a string
To set this game up, all you need is a long rope and small pretzels. You tie the pretzels to the rope and need two people to hold it up. The players then have to put their hands behind their backs and try to get the pretzel out of the rope by only using their mouths. The first player to get and eat the pretzel wins. Instead of pretzels, you can also use sausages, gummy bears, etc., whatever you can tie on the rope. - 3-legged-race
This game starts by splitting up the players into teams of two. The players then have to stand close together and the inner legs of both players are tied together, resulting in them having “three” legs. On “go”, the two pairs run to the finish line and back. Whoever reaches the line first wins. - Freeze Dance
It’s the perfect game to spice up your normal dancing. The instructions are very simple: when the music is on, everyone dances and as soon as the music stops, everyone has to stand still and stop moving. The person who is still moving when the music stops is out and the one who is left at the end is the winner. - Charades and its variations
The game is easy to prepare and was even released as a board game. To prepare the game, you have to write a word or phrase on a small piece of paper and fold it. Depending on how you want to play it, you also need paper and a pen. The idea behind the game is that you have to act out a phrase or a word without speaking while the other members of your team try to guess what it is. Instead of playing pantomime, you can also play the variation in which you draw the phrase or the word that is on your card and your team members guess the word. - Gift Hiding
Last but not least, here’s a way to make the gift-unwrapping process more fun. The birthday boy or girl has to leave the room while the guests hide their gifts. Once they are all set, the person comes back inside and has to find each gift before unwrapping it.
Now that you have 10 more ideas for what to do at your next birthday party, I’d say you are ready to go and can start the planning. Have fun playing, and happy birthday!
