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[For Seniors] Lively! Entertainment Ideas for New Year’s Parties
With the New Year upon us, some staff members at senior care facilities are likely planning New Year’s parties.
Are you perhaps racking your brains over what entertainment to prepare?
What kinds of activities would delight the elderly residents?
This time, we’ll introduce nostalgic New Year’s games and simple exercises set to New Year’s songs.
Classic New Year’s pastimes can spark memories and get people sharing stories from the old days.
Let’s liven up the New Year’s gathering and make it a fitting event to kick off a fresh year with joy.
[For Seniors] Crowd-Pleasing! New Year’s Party Performances (1–10)
Karuta card game
Karuta is a game that really evokes the New Year—listening carefully to the words, identifying the right card, and moving for it, which tests both concentration and quick reflexes.
This version lets you play while seated and adds an element of force control.
Cards with hiragana are laid out on the field, and players toss beanbags toward the hiragana that corresponds to the reading card.
Even if they spot the correct card, the beanbag might not reach it, so encourage them to pay close attention to their throwing technique and how they control their strength.
What’s inside the box?
One easy and exciting activity is “What’s in the Box?” It’s often featured on TV shows and is likely familiar to many older adults.
The rules are simple: place an item in a box beforehand.
Without being able to see inside, participants put their hand in and guess what’s inside by touch.
Offer hints like “It’s something white” or “It’s something from the kitchen,” and let the older adults make their guesses.
Relying on fingertip sensations and using imagination is said to help stimulate the brain.
Daruma-otoshi
Let’s liven things up with a game that uses Daruma, which are considered lucky charms.
Stack several cylindrical blocks with a Daruma on top, then use a hammer to knock out the blocks one by one from the side without letting the Daruma fall.
It’s said that if you make it to the end without collapsing the stack, you can avoid misfortune for the year.
It’s a lucky New Year’s pastime that older adults can enjoy as well.
Some people may recall playing Daruma-otoshi with their families.
It’s also a great idea to incorporate Daruma-otoshi items into craft-based recreation activities.
Battledore with a balloon
Recreating the classic New Year’s game hanetsuki with balloons, this is an easy game to enjoy even while seated.
Split into teams across a table and have players rally a frilled balloon using small wooden paddles.
The key is to return the balloon using the paddle: since it’s harder to control than using your hand, it encourages greater focus and control of strength.
Chasing the balloon too much can lead to awkward postures, so it’s also important to help by guiding the balloon back toward the center when needed.
Hatsumode indoors
As we welcome the New Year, some older adults may be visiting temples and shrines for their first shrine visit of the year (hatsumode).
However, there may be people for whom going out is difficult, making it hard to visit.
Others may avoid going out because the New Year season often brings cold winds.
In that case, create a space indoors where hatsumode can be experienced, and invite older adults to take part.
If facility staff dress as a Shinto priest or miko and set up a place to draw omikuji (fortune slips), you can create the atmosphere of hatsumode.
It allows people to express gratitude for safely getting through the past year and to pray for a good year ahead, which is likely to be appreciated by older adults.
New Year’s Exercises
Set to a New Year–themed song, this activity encourages moving your body to deepen your focus on health in the year ahead.
It’s important that it blends elements of exercise and dance, helping you loosen up your movements while enjoying the rhythm.
Pay attention to the words that appear in the lyrics as well—they inspire motions that connect naturally to the exercises, making it easier to visualize how to shape your body.
Since large, expansive movements that stretch the body are key, we recommend trying it at a slow tempo.
Comedy Skit “Mito Kōmon”
When it comes to TV dramas familiar to older adults, isn’t Mito Komon one of them? It follows Komon-sama traveling across Japan with Suke-san and Kaku-san, and the scene where he reveals the inro is famous, too.
How about creating a scene from the Mito Komon drama together with the seniors and facility staff? If it’s a story the seniors know, both the performers and the audience are likely to enjoy it.
Making it an original story for your facility will make it even more exciting.
It’s also a perfect performance for the lively New Year season.