New Year’s Games: Traditional Play and Fun Activities That Excite Everyone from Kids to Adults
New Year’s is a special time when family and relatives gather.
But are you wondering, “What should we all do together?” In this article, we’ll introduce plenty of ideas to liven up the New Year, from nostalgic traditional games to easy, DIY activities you can make and play with everyday materials.
There’s a wide variety—games everyone can enjoy across generations and active ones that use a large space! There are also many activities you can enjoy while spending time with grandparents.
How about creating special New Year memories together as a family?
- New Year party games that get everyone excited: a fun collection of ideas from classics to DIY
- Recommended for upper elementary grades! Exciting indoor recreation and games
- Handmade ideas to create and play the traditional Japanese game “Daruma Otoshi”!
- Let's get excited with a New Year quiz! General questions about the Japanese New Year
- [Simple Games] Recommended Indoor Recreational Activities for Adults
- [Elementary School] Quick and Easy! Indoor Recreational Activities Perfect for Lower Grades
- Games and activities everyone can enjoy together. A collection of fun play ideas.
- [Part 2] Recommended Indoor Activities and Recreation Games for December
- Party games to liven up your New Year’s celebration: a fun collection that will keep everyone laughing non-stop
- [Perfect for New Year Parties] Recommended Psychology Test for January
- Indoor Games for Small Groups: Exciting Recreational Activities
- [Play Right Away!] Exciting Recreation Games Recommended for Elementary School Students
- [Children’s Club] Easy and fun indoor games. Exciting party games
New Year’s Games: Traditional Pastimes and Party Games That Excite Everyone from Kids to Adults (1–10)
karuta (traditional Japanese playing cards)
There are local karuta decks in towns all over Japan, aren’t there? What kind of karuta do you have in your hometown? Karuta originated from a Portuguese playing-card game.
Since hanafuda are also called hana-karuta, perhaps the whole set of cards came to be called “karuta.” Getting together with friends over New Year’s and having fun playing karuta is great, too.
You can even buy Pokémon karuta or Doraemon karuta, so some people might own those.
If you’re playing with elderly folks, Ogura Hyakunin Isshu is a wonderful choice!
Sugoroku
Sugoroku is a New Year staple and a board game you can enjoy year-round.
You move forward the number of spaces shown on the die and aim for the goal.
There are sugoroku sets featuring popular characters on the market, and those are fun too, but a major appeal is how easy it is to make your own.
You can customize widely—what kind of playing pieces to use, what kinds of spaces appear on the way to the goal, and more.
A common rule set includes spaces with instructions for players, and if you fail to carry out an instruction, you might have to move back a few spaces or skip your next turn.
Daruma-otoshi
Daruma-otoshi is a traditional game played with a wooden mallet and a tower made by stacking wooden cylinders.
It gets its name from the daruma figure placed on top of the tower.
The rules are simple: using the mallet, you knock out the cylinders one layer at a time from the bottom.
Of course, if you topple the tower along the way, you fail.
The trick to reaching the final daruma is speed and a bold, decisive “eiya!”
New Year’s Pastimes: Traditional Activities and Games to Excite Everyone from Kids to Adults (11–20)
Battledore and shuttlecock
Hagoita, which were originally used in Shinto and Buddhist rituals such as talismans against evil and fortune-telling, are said to have their roots in religious ceremonies.
These days, we tend to picture cute hagoita decorated with anime characters, so it’s surprising to think of them as charms against misfortune.
I’ve heard that it became a New Year’s pastime starting in the Muromachi period.
This New Year, let’s liven things up with hanetsuki and enjoy that satisfying ‘ka-kooon!’ sound.
I think the old-fashioned, fun penalty game of painting ink on the face of the person who makes a mistake is a great idea too! Just be careful not to get carried away and stain your clothes with the ink.
menko (a traditional Japanese card-and-coin-flipping game)
With the unprecedented Showa retro boom, old menko cards can fetch unexpectedly high prices.
I’ve even heard rumors of some old menko going for as much as 600,000 yen.
Menko featuring Dragon Ball or Kinnikuman are said to be pricey too.
You might even have some old menko tucked away in the back of a drawer.
Putting the money talk aside, it’d be nice to play menko over the New Year while reminiscing about the past.
There are many ways to play: you win by flipping over your opponent’s menko, or by knocking it out of a designated area, and more.
It’s a great way for adults and children alike to have fun together!
omikuji (a Japanese fortune slip typically drawn at Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples)
https://www.tiktok.com/@hoikushi_bank/video/7175083434849635586Omikuji—the fortune slips you almost always draw at the first shrine visit of the New Year! If something good is written, it feels like you’ll have a happy year; if it’s bad, the New Year can start off with an unsettling mood…
pretty scary, right? (lol) With homemade omikuji, you can freely choose what to put inside, so you can enjoy them with family and friends without dampening the mood.
They’re easy to make by combining familiar materials like paper cups, plastic bottles, and wooden chopsticks, so give it a try!
Ohajiki (traditional Japanese coin-flicking game pieces)
Ohajiki is a game played with flat glass pieces.
Most are slightly over 1 cm in diameter, and they come in various types, including ones with colorful patterns.
The way to play with ohajiki is very simple: line the pieces up on a table, then flick your own piece to hit your opponent’s pieces one by one.
If you hit one successfully, you get to keep it.
In the end, the player who has collected the most pieces wins.
If you don’t have ohajiki, you can substitute marbles or plastic bottle caps.
