[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.
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- Liven up the Respect-for-the-Aged gathering: A roundup of recreational activities everyone can enjoy.
[For Seniors] Liven Up the Party! New Year’s Party Performances (11–20)
New Year Brain Training Quiz
Around New Year’s Day and on New Year’s Eve right before it, there are various rules and customs tied to each event.
This content presents those detailed customs in the form of a quiz, aiming to deepen understanding and interest in the New Year.
Because we’ve welcomed the New Year many times, these customs may have become routine, so let’s take a fresh look at the meanings and wishes embedded in them.
You might discover you actually remembered something incorrectly, and gain new knowledge from this.
table boring
This is a game where you roll a ball energetically across the table and challenge yourself to see how many targets you can knock down.
The farther the distance to the targets, the harder it becomes to control the ball and the more force you’ll need, which helps build concentration and arm strength.
The amount of force also changes depending on the ball’s weight and shape, so it’s a good idea to try different balls to experience the differences in feel.
You can make it even more exciting by gradually adding variations, such as placing obstacles on the course or increasing the number of targets.
Omikuji game
How about enjoying a fortune-telling omikuji game? Put sticks marked with numbers into a plastic bottle, then shake and try to get as many sticks out as you can within the time limit.
Compete on how many sticks you got out or the total of the numbers on them.
At the end, choose one of the sticks you drew and receive the matching-number omikuji to enjoy your fortune.
Shaking harder doesn’t necessarily get more sticks out, so think about how to move it to draw more effectively as you play.
Decorate the plastic bottle to give it an omikuji feel.
Escape Show
Among various magic shows, the grand finale that really brings the house down is often an elaborate escape.
Let’s challenge an escape from an impossible situation and give the audience a huge surprise.
The classic routine is being locked in a box, having swords thrust into it, then removing the swords and opening the lid to reveal the performer unharmed.
The mechanism is simple—there’s a hole at the back to slip through—but the key is figuring out how to carry it out without letting the audience catch on.
Use clever touches to heighten the surprise, such as showing an initial failure to lower their guard.
Little Dance
It’s a dance performed with a uniquely shrunken look, where each movement exudes cuteness.
With the gimmick of only the face being real and the rest a doll, it really tests the skill of how comically you can make the movements appear.
Since the motions of the arms and legs tend to be simple, it’s also recommended to exaggerate facial expressions to bring out the humor.
There are plenty of elements you can get particular about—what kind of movements to show to what kind of music, what costumes to use, and so on.
puppet show
Puppet shows, which use puppets to present stories, seem to be something we see less often as we grow older.
This project aims to recreate well-known tales through puppetry and let audiences experience the world of those stories.
Even if you already know the plot, seeing it enacted through real movement may lead to new discoveries.
The variety of ways to arrange it—such as which kinds of puppets to use and what mechanisms to incorporate—is another point of enjoyment.
For Seniors: Crowd-Pleasing New Year’s Party Performances (21–30)
street performance
Street performance is a staple act at events, and the fun part is that you can see the effort behind it—whether it ends in failure or success.
To help people feel the excitement of street performance, it’s actually important to show some failures on purpose; the success that follows will stand out even more.
And since clowns are strongly associated with street performance, putting real thought into the costume can evoke a circus-like atmosphere.
We recommend taking on a variety of acts—like juggling or cigar boxes—and letting the audience watch you work hard as you rise to the challenge.