These party games for adults and families come with full instructions. 29 tried-and-tested party games, each with how to play, what you need and a tip for the host. Music games, icebreakers, birthday, Christmas, wedding and children’s games, with free tools to run them.
29 party games for adults, families and kids, with how to play, what you need and a tip for the host. Pick who’s playing, the occasion and how many guests, or let us choose one for you.
Showing all 29 games.
Games built around music, from music bingo to a quiz, plus Last One Standing, the free quiz game Tim brings to every booking.
How to play: Everyone gets a card of song titles. Play the songs in a random order and players cross off each title they recognise. The first to fill a line calls out, then keep going for a full house.
Host tip: Play 30 to 45 seconds of each song so people have time to recognise it and sing along. The singing is half the fun.
How to play: Split into teams and run three or four short rounds, such as finish the song title, who sang it and what year it was a hit. Teams write their answers, swap sheets to mark, and the quizmaster reads out the scores after each round.
Host tip: Mix the decades so every generation has a round they shine in. A mixed-age table that has to work together is where the laughs come from.
How to play: Play the first few seconds of a song. The first team to call out the title and the artist wins the point. If nobody gets it, play a little more until someone does.
Host tip: Start with ten seconds per song, then make it harder as the game goes on. A three-second final round is always loud.
How to play: Everyone dances while the music plays. When it stops, everyone freezes. Anyone still moving is out and helps judge the next round. The last dancer in wins.
Host tip: For grown-ups, judge the most dramatic freeze instead of knocking people out, so nobody ends up sitting on the side.
How to play: Stand in a circle with everyone but one wearing a hat. While the music plays, each player takes the hat from the head in front and puts it on their own. When the music stops, whoever has no hat is out. Take a hat away each round.
Host tip: Silly hats make it. Christmas hats, cowboy hats and a sombrero turn a simple game into the photo of the night.
How to play: Tinsel Tim’s own live elimination quiz. Guests scan a QR code and play straight from their phones, every round is tailored to your event, and the last guest standing wins a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates.
Host tip: It comes free with every booking with Tim, whatever the occasion, and it’s entirely optional if it isn’t right for your crowd.
Easy party games for adults and mixed ages that get guests mixing, whether they know each other or not.
How to play: Each person says three things about themselves: two true and one made up. Everyone else guesses which is the lie. Score a point for every person you fool.
Host tip: Great for parties where half the room doesn’t know the other half, such as a 40th with friends from work and from school.
How to play: Each square says something like ‘find someone who has been to Australia’ or ‘who can play an instrument’. Guests mingle and write a different name in each square. The first to fill the card wins.
Host tip: Write a few squares about the guest of honour, such as ‘find someone who went to school with Sue’. It gets the stories flowing.
How to play: Everyone writes a famous name on a sticky note and sticks it on someone else’s forehead without them seeing it. Take turns asking yes-or-no questions to work out who you are.
Host tip: Pick names from the guest of honour’s era. Watching someone born in 2005 try to work out Bruce Forsyth is worth the entry fee.
How to play: One player picks a slip and acts it out without speaking while their team guesses. Use the classic signs: hold up fingers for the number of words and tug your ear for ‘sounds like’. Score a point for every correct guess within a minute.
Host tip: Let each team write the slips for the other team. They’ll be much harder, and much funnier.
How to play: Everyone writes three famous names and drops them in the hat. In round one, describe the names without saying them. In round two, use one word only. In round three, mime. The same names go round every time, so the clues get funnier.
Host tip: Round three is where the in-jokes from rounds one and two pay off. Leave plenty of time for it.
How to play: Deal one card per player in secret. Whoever gets the ace of spades is the murderer and the king is the detective. The murderer kills people by winking at them; victims wait a few seconds, then die dramatically. The detective has three guesses to catch the murderer.
Host tip: Turn the lights down a little. It makes everyone braver and the deaths more theatrical.
Games that put the guest of honour at the centre of a 40th, 50th, 60th or any big birthday.
How to play: Pin up a numbered baby photo of each guest who sends one. Guests write down who they think each photo is. Reveal the answers later in the evening, and the best score wins.
Host tip: Ask for photos two weeks before the party and put the guest of honour’s photo last. It’s always the one everyone talks about.
How to play: Ask questions such as their first car, their first job, or the song they played at their wedding. Teams write their answers and the birthday star reveals the right ones.
Host tip: Get the birthday star to answer the questions too, without them knowing the right answers have already been collected. They don’t always get their own life right.
How to play: Ask questions about the year the guest of honour was born: the Number One, the Prime Minister, the price of a stamp and the big news. Teams guess, and the answers come with plenty of ‘I remember that’.
Host tip: Print the year poster and reveal it after the quiz. It doubles as the answer sheet and a keepsake for the birthday star.
Party games for adults at the office do, and for the whole family at Christmas.
How to play: Everyone draws a name and buys one present within the agreed budget. Presents are opened together at the party, and the giver stays secret unless they own up.
Host tip: Keep couples apart in the draw and set a firm budget. It takes the stress out of it for everyone.
How to play: Pass the parcel round while the music plays. When it stops, whoever holds it removes a layer and does whatever it says, such as a joke or a song. The final layer holds the prize.
Host tip: Keep the forfeits kind and quick: a joke, a two-line song or a compliment for the person on your left. Nobody should dread their turn.
How to play: Run short rounds on Christmas films, festive food, music from every decade and a picture round. Teams mark each other’s sheets and the winners get first pick of the leftover crackers.
Host tip: Put a music round in the middle. It wakes the room up after dinner.
How to play: Sell numbered tickets during the evening, then draw winners one by one. Winners choose from the prize table, so the first ticket drawn gets the pick of the prizes.
Host tip: Draw the raffle before the dancing starts. Once the floor fills up, nobody wants to stop.
Games that keep guests entertained between the breakfast and the first dance.
How to play: The couple sit back to back, each holding one of their own shoes and one of their partner’s. The host reads questions such as ‘who is the better cook?’ and each raises the shoe of the person they think it is. The room sees when they disagree; the couple don’t.
Host tip: Twelve to fifteen questions is plenty. Save the funniest question for last and go straight into the first dance.
How to play: Put a short quiz on each table, such as questions about the couple and music from the years they met and married. Tables hand in their sheets before the speeches and the best table wins a bottle of fizz.
Host tip: Questions about the couple get tables talking to each other. That’s the real point of it.
How to play: Before the speeches, guests write down how long they think they will last in total. Time them, and the closest guess wins a small prize. No money needs to change hands.
Host tip: Tell the speakers about it. They usually play along, and a timer on the table keeps them to time.
How to play: Give each table a list of photos to capture, such as a selfie with the oldest guest, a group jump or someone on the dance floor in the first five minutes. Share the best ones at the end of the night.
Host tip: Add a pose wheel by the photo booth so guests always know what to do next.
The classics that still work, with tips to make sure every child has a turn.
How to play: Children sit in a circle and pass the parcel while the music plays. When it stops, whoever is holding it unwraps one layer. Whoever opens the last layer wins the prize.
Host tip: Put a small treat in every layer and keep an eye on who has had a turn, so every child gets to unwrap one.
How to play: Arrange the chairs in a row, facing alternate ways. Players walk round while the music plays and sit when it stops. Whoever has no chair is out, then take one chair away and play again.
Host tip: For little ones, play musical bumps on the floor instead. Nobody gets knocked over and it’s just as much fun.
How to play: Everyone lies down as still as a sleeping lion. A grown-up walks around trying to make them move or giggle without touching them. Anyone who moves becomes a helper. The last lion still sleeping wins.
Host tip: Play it just before food or home time. It calms everyone down.
How to play: Each clue leads to the next hiding place, and the last one leads to the treasure. Use pictures instead of words for children who can’t read yet.
Host tip: Make the treasure enough for everyone to share, so every child finishes a winner.
How to play: The leader gives instructions such as ‘Simon says touch your nose’. Players only follow an instruction if it starts with ‘Simon says’. Anyone who follows one without it is out.
Host tip: Speed up as you go and give the birthday child a turn as Simon.
How to play: Players take turns to lean back and walk under the pole without touching it or falling. After each round, lower the pole a little. The last one who can get under wins.
Host tip: Keep the floor clear and soft, and let grown-ups have a go at the end. It’s always the biggest laugh.
Planning a party?
Tinsel Tim hosts Boogie Bingo nights and brings Last One Standing, his own phone-based quiz game, free to every booking, along with the music and lights. Parties across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
Rather talk it through? Call Tim on 07796 565918 or 01760 722283, or message him on WhatsApp.
Quick guide
Questions
Music bingo, a music quiz, Name That Tune, the Hat Game and Two Truths and a Lie all work well with grown-ups, because nobody needs to be sporty and everyone can join in from their seat.
Musical statues, Name That Tune, Who Am I? and a mixed-age music quiz work for children, parents and grandparents together. Put different generations on the same team so everyone helps each other.
Two or three short games are plenty for most parties. Play them early in the evening, before the dancing starts, and keep each one to around 15 minutes.
Yes. Tinsel Tim hosts Boogie Bingo nights and brings Last One Standing, his own phone-based quiz game, free with every booking across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
Tim’s tip
Play your games before the dancing starts. Once the floor fills up, nobody wants to stop for a quiz, so I always run the games early and let the music take over afterwards.
Made by Tim Daymond (Tinsel Tim). Tim has been a DJ since 1976 and has run Mobile Disco Network since 2013. He plays weddings and parties across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. He is a Norfolk County Council Trading Standards Trusted Trader (ID 0000457), a member of the NADJ and the winner of 23 independent awards.
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Free to use, no sign-up. Last reviewed 11 October 2026.
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