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 (51–60)
Lyrics Shiritori Game
A fun game where you play shiritori using song lyrics.
Sing a line from a song, then continue with lyrics from another song that start with the last character of the previous line.
It’s great for everyone from kids to adults—you’ll recall familiar tunes and discover new ones.
Not only for people who love singing, it’s also a chance to encounter songs you don’t know.
Perfect for karaoke, parties, and school activities.
Even those who aren’t confident singers will naturally smile—simple yet surprisingly deep.
Put your musical knowledge and creativity to use and have fun playing!
Guess the person game
A recommended guessing game for deepening communication is one where participants get lively conversation going and make new discoveries about each other.
The person posing the question should first choose a very well-known person as the subject.
The respondents ask the questioner about what kind of person it might be while imagining the answer, and the questioner should reply only with “yes” or “no.” If it’s too difficult, it’s also helpful to give simple hints, such as the person’s gender or a basic characteristic.
Set a time limit, and try it as individual or team play, adjusting to the ages of the group.
A quick-reaction game that’s fun for both kids and adults
Choose one representative from the participants, and have everyone else close their eyes.
The representative will instruct, “Raise your hand when you hear a cat’s meow,” so those with their eyes closed should raise their hand immediately when they hear the cat sound.
If animal sounds are difficult, using instrument sounds or saying a specific word is fine too.
It’s a simple game, but you can make it more challenging and exciting by adding feints, like using a dog’s bark instead of a cat’s meow.
Relying solely on sound with your vision blocked is surprisingly difficult, so it seems like a good brain-training activity.
11 Recommended Games for Networking/ Social Gatherings
Games with simple, easy-to-understand rules can be enjoyed by everyone from kids to adults.
When there are many participants, head-to-head games are recommended.
Games like Werewolf, escape games, or competitions where you add up everyone’s step counts from a pedometer seem great for deepening bonds as participants cooperate and strategize together.
There are also various other ideas introduced, including online versions.
Be sure to try incorporating them and have fun!
Simple yet exciting! Recommended games and activities for year-end parties (61–70)
In-joke quiz
Inside jokes really bring the energy up, don’t they? They might not land with people who weren’t there, but whether it’s a cringey past or stories of failure…
how about turning them into a quiz? From fresh memories to old things you’d rather not dig up.
Embarrassing, but a total crowd-pleaser!
Perfect Cola Drinking Game
The “Perfect Amount Cola Drinking Game” has been around for a long time, evolving in various forms.
If you’re not a fan of carbonation, feel free to switch to juice and enjoy.
The classic rules are: first, pour cola into a glass and mark a spot at some arbitrary level.
Put on a blindfold and drink; whoever stops closest to the mark wins.
We don’t usually pay much attention to how much we drink, so even when someone says “just one sip,” it’s hard to gauge what that actually means.
It’s the perfect game for parties where there are plenty of beverages!
Party Game Scratch
How about playing with party goods sold at 100-yen shops? Since they’re only 100 yen, they’re affordable and perfect for when you’ve got time to kill.
This one reveals a prompt like “Let’s do ◯◯” when you scratch it.
There’s a soft version and a hard version.