Simple yet exciting! Recommended games and activities for year-end parties
Many of you probably attend several year-end parties—at work, with friends, and in your neighborhood—every year, right?
Looking back on the past year and chatting with colleagues and friends makes for a great time.
And the entertainment games—like bingo and quizzes—might be part of the fun, too.
But when you’re in charge of the entertainment, it can be hard to decide what games to play.
Ideally, you want something simple that everyone can enjoy and get excited about.
In this article, we’ll introduce classic games that meet those needs!
Once you’ve decided on the games for this year’s year-end party, don’t forget to prepare the prizes!
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Simple yet exciting! Recommended Games and Recreational Activities for Year-End Parties (41–50)
No equipment needed! Air catch ball
“Air Catch,” a make-believe game of tossing an imaginary ball without any props, is a very simple team-building activity.
Participants form a circle.
Someone calls another person’s name while miming a throw of the “air ball,” and the next person pretends to catch it and continues in the same way.
The rules are: make eye contact and call the person’s name before you throw.
Once everyone gets used to it, you can increase the difficulty by tossing multiple balls at once or speeding things up.
It builds communication skills and concentration and gets people laughing, making it great for training icebreakers and strengthening team cohesion.
It takes about 5–15 minutes, so give it a try!
Simple yet exciting! Recommended games and recreational activities for year-end parties (51–60)
NG word game
NG word games you play during golf or bowling are so much fun, aren’t they? For example, if you set “no English,” you suddenly can’t use a lot of golf and bowling terms—but as the game heats up, you can’t help blurting out things like “Nice!” anyway.
It really adds to the excitement of the competition.
The type where you stick an NG word on your forehead is great too.
A tip for making it lively is to set the NG word to something the other person says a lot.
Catchphrases really do get ingrained without us realizing it.
Both types are highly recommended party games that get everyone hyped!
Imitation shiritori
Participants face each other and stand on one leg.
Decide the order with rock-paper-scissors or similar, and the first person starts the word chain game (shiritori).
The basic rule of linking words stays the same, but after saying a word, you have to do an impression that matches it.
For example, if you say “gorilla,” you might pound your chest with your fists.
Everyone else copies the impression, and the shiritori continues.
It might sound easy, but you must stay on one leg the entire time.
If you lose your balance or can’t continue the word chain, you lose.
The more people there are, the harder it gets! Finger Catch
The “Finger Catch Game,” which trains your reflexes and lets everyone have fun, is played with everyone standing in a circle.
Put the index finger of your right hand into the open palm of the person to your right, just lightly touching it.
In turn, participants chant, “Ka, ka, ka, catch,” and at the moment someone says “catch,” everyone tries to pull out the finger they had inserted.
At the same time, you must quickly grab the finger that’s been inserted into your own open hand before it escapes.
If you fail to pull your finger out or fail to catch your neighbor’s finger, you’re out.
The last person remaining wins.
The exact timing of saying “catch” is key.
It’s a game that tests concentration, timing, and careful observation of others.
Improv Acting Showdown
Decide on three elements—the setup, the punchline, and the constraint rules—tell the performers, and start the game! Since it’s all improvised, you can’t practice beforehand or agree on the flow with the group.
In other words, it’s a pretty challenging game where you have to reach the punchline while sticking to the setup and constraints, all without knowing how the others will play it.
Even the person who came up with the setup and punchline doesn’t know how things will unfold, so it’s a thrilling, exciting experience! Who knows—an unexpected masterpiece might be born!
late hand in rock-paper-scissors
A normal rock-paper-scissors game is too easy! In that case, try playing “after-the-fact rock-paper-scissors.” The leader plays as usual by saying “Jan-ken-pon” and showing rock, paper, or scissors.
The participants must then respond after seeing it and beat that hand.
Because you have to instantly recognize what the leader showed and choose the winning hand, it’s trickier than it sounds.
A few people will slip up and lose or end in a tie.
Try turning it into a knockout format or speeding it up to increase the difficulty and have fun!
Tongue Twister Showdown
When it comes to games that get everyone excited without using any props, tongue-twister battles are a classic.
Gather a variety of fun tongue twisters and face off.
You can present one prompt at a time and decide rankings each round, or set multiple prompts with different difficulty levels and see who lasts the longest.
It’s a good idea to write the prompts on a whiteboard.
Since tongue twisters are tough at first glance, consider adding practice time and other tweaks so everyone can enjoy the game.