Entertainment ideas for year-end and New Year parties: games everyone can enjoy together
Are you struggling to decide on entertainment to liven up your year-end or New Year’s party? Bingo and karaoke are classics, but having games that make everyone smile can really boost the energy of the event.
If the rules are simple, easy to prepare, and anyone can join right away, it keeps things light for everyone.
In this article, we’ve gathered a wealth of ideas—from acts that instantly lift the mood to a wide variety of games that work regardless of group size.
You’ll find everything from show-stopping performances to conversation-sparking mind games and energizing activities that get people moving—plenty of variety to keep everyone engaged!
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Entertainment ideas for year-end and New Year parties: Group-pleasing game ideas (31–40)
3rd Year Class A Morning Assembly Dance
The 3-A Morning Assembly Exercise, which became a hot topic in the hugely popular drama ‘Mr.
Hiiragi’s Homeroom (3-nen A-gumi: Ima kara minna wa, hitojichi desu),’ is famous.
When you think of school, you think of morning assemblies—and you can imagine doing exercises at a morning assembly—but this “morning assembly exercise” is nothing like what you’d expect.
It’s a sharp, high-energy routine—more like a dance than an exercise.
It would be so cool if you could pull it off, right? There are lots of videos of the cast performing it, so practice and show it off perfectly!
We Asked 100 People: Quiz
「We Asked 100 People (Quiz)It’s a game where you tally answers to questions about banquet attendees in advance, and multiple teams try to guess the top 10 responses. If you directly interview people with minority opinions to draw out their stories, it’s sure to liven things up even more.
Flip joke
In a flip-board routine, comedians perform using boards (flips) with drawings or words on them.
Because the flips provide visual information in addition to words, the jokes are easier to convey and can be performed solo.
The content can be anything.
You can write part of the routine in words, or get laughs from the drawings on the flips.
Popular comedians like Bakarhythm and Sosina from Shimofuri Myojo also perform flip-board comedy, so use them as references and try creating your own original material.
Russian roulette
Is the dud a super-spicy chili pepper? Let’s bond over Russian roulette! Here’s a simple idea using the chocolate eggs you can find in the snack aisles of supermarkets and convenience stores.
Split the chocolate eggs in half, place marshmallows or gummies inside, and stick them back together.
Using the bottom of a warmed pot makes it easy to seal them.
Peanut butter or prunes can be fun fillings, too.
For the “losers,” add pickled plum—and for the ultimate dud, a fiery hot chili pepper! Finally, place the chocolate eggs into an empty egg carton and you’re done.
No matter what you get, it’s sure to liven things up—perfect as a welcome-party activity.
Body Clock Game
The “Is Your Body Clock Accurate? Game,” which relies solely on your own sense of time, is exactly what it sounds like: trust your internal clock and measure 30 seconds.
Participants will be blindfolded.
The host will start the stopwatch on the cue.
Participants should raise their hand when they believe 30 seconds have passed.
The person who raises their hand most accurately wins.
The longer the duration, the higher the difficulty, so you can start with shorter intervals and gradually make them longer.
Ranking Battle
How about trying “Kakuzuke Check,” the TV program that’s become a New Year’s favorite, as entertainment for your welcome party? The rules are simple: participants choose between a luxury item and a cheap one using their sense of taste or smell, and they take on the challenge while blindfolded.
Prepare two rooms, A and B; have people enter the room that corresponds to their chosen answer, and once everyone has chosen, reveal the correct answers.
It’s a surefire way to get both participants and spectators excited.
Inviting the newcomers themselves to join in should also help deepen interaction.
air guitar
It’s air guitar.
Step onto the stage empty-handed, and the moment the music starts, unleash a performance as ferocious as a demon.
The more emotionally charged the guitar track, the better—and the wilder your moves, the bigger the crowd’s reaction.
Study the stage presence of various guitar heroes and aim for a one-of-a-kind performance!
Crossdressing Spot-the-Difference
First, divide into two groups.
A man dressed as a woman appears in front of each team, and everyone observes for one minute.
When the observation time ends, the man leaves and changes his disguise.
It’s best to change about five things—such as belongings or hairstyle—so that anyone can identify them.
After the disguise, he appears again, and teams raise their hands to point out the differences as soon as they notice them.
The team that finds the most differences within the time limit wins.
Oshibori Roulette
Players take turns wringing out a wet hand towel, and the last person who can’t get any water to drip loses.
Prepare a towel soaked with plenty of water and a saucer, and each person gets only one squeeze! It’s a super simple yet fun game that you can play right on the spot.
Yamanote Line game where only one person doesn’t know the theme
The Yamanote Line Game is a game that’s often played at parties, but how about trying a variation called “The Yamanote Line Game Where Only One Person Doesn’t Know the Topic”? In this version, one person on the team isn’t told the topic, and they have to try to join in based on the answers given by the people before them.
The others should play as a team by giving answers that make the topic easy for the uninformed player to guess, indirectly conveying the theme to them.
It might be difficult if there aren’t many participants.
