23+ Super Fun Family Party Games
There’s no better way to bring people together than by playing some family party games together. Learning a new game, starting a tradition and just laughing together is a great way to bond and create memories that last a lifetime. Plus, it gives you something to do during birthdays, a holiday party or just any average day to make them even more memorable.
Some of my favorite memories of my family are when we played games together. Specifically, my brother was always down for a long game of Monopoly and my other brother and I would play UNO for hours.
Here’s a round of some super fun family party games you can enjoy!
23+ Family Party Games
Anagrams
This is a brain game that you can play anytime. Choose a longer word or phrase.
Pick a fun word or phrase and have players rearrange the letters to create anagrams.
Did you know the phrase, “minute to win it” has more than 5,000 possible anagram combinations?! They include “timeout in twin” and “wine intuit Tom.”
Use an anagram generator online for inspiration, choose a seasonal phrase if it’s around the holidays or someone’s name if it’s their birthday.
Whoever has the most anagrams after 60 seconds wins.
Apples to Apples
Apples to Apples is a game of comparisons. In each round, a new judge draws the Description Card.
Then all participants will decide which card in their hand matches the Description best. The judge doesn’t know who’s card is whose, but they choose their favorite and that person wins the round.
With all the cards in the game, the scenarios are always switching up and it stays engaging and very easy to play.
Blind Snowman
How to play: Each participant sits at a table with a sheet of paper in front of them. Everyone has a pen or marker and is blindfolded. Set a timer for 60 seconds and everyone tries to draw a snowman. Whoever has the best drawing wins!
Blow Em Off
This is a fun game to play at your family or work parties. Blow the snowballs (aka marshmallows!) off the top of plastic solo cups that are placed upside down along a table.
Then after blowing off the snowball with a noisemaker or blow-out, you then stack all the cups up. Whoever is done first, wins!
Blow Race
Another use for paper or plastic cups and noisemakers! Instead of blowing off marshmallows, just place the cups top down at one end of a table and push them to the opposite end by blowing through the noisemaker.
Whoever does this in the least amount of time wins!
Charades
A classic game for kids and grown ups!
To play charades, divide into two teams of equal size, or as close as you can get.
Write phrases down on slips of paper. These can be movies, songs, TV shows, books, etc. and place them all in a bowl.
Players take turns drawing a phrase from the bowl and acting it out for their team to guess. Have a time limit of 60 seconds.
Players can use gestures and body movements, but cannot speak out loud to convey the meaning of the phrase.
Award points for the winning guess and play until at least everyone has had a chance to draw a phrase and act out the charade.
The winning team is whoever has the most points at the end.
Conversation Card Games
I’d only somewhat consider this a game – but it’s a great way to get conversation flowing. Conversation card games are very popular and you can find versions for couples, dates, friends and family-friendly versions.
The gist is that each card will have a thought-provoking question or conversation starter – sometimes they’re serious or they can be more light-hearted.
Cookie Face
Materials Needed: Cookies!
How to play: Players place a cookie on their forehead and are challenged to move it to their mouth without using their hands.
All players should sit in a chair with their head back and then a cookie is placed on their forehead not touching their eyebrows.
They can use only their face to move the cookie from their forehead to their mouth and the cookie has to remain in contact with their face the entire team, meaning they can’t toss it from their forehead to their mouth.
Cups
Materials needed: Plastic cups. You’ll likely want a few more than the number of people playing in case they are damaged.
How to play:
Gather the players in an open space lined up so that they’re all facing each other in two rows.
Lay out the cups in between the two rows, with one less cup than there are people.
The leader of the game who isn’t participating starts to give directions like, touch your head, wiggle your toes, etc. And then the leader will say “cup” and everyone has to try to grab a cup.
The person who does not get a cup is out. Then remove another cup. So each round you lose a player and a cup until you’re down to two people and one cup.
Whoever grabs that final cup is the winner!
Fishbowl (AKA Names in a Hat)
Materials needed: Pens, paper and a vessel to hold slips of paper, like a bowl or hat.
How to play:
Each participant writes down 3-5 names on separate slips of paper. These names can be anyone from other family members, celebrities, fictional characters, historical figures, etc. Or you can choose a theme. Place them all in a bowl and form two teams.
1. Round one: Describing
For the first round, the player who pulls the name from the hat tries to describe the name to their team without using any of the words on the slip of the paper.
So if the name they pull is Lady Gaga, they could say “singer” or “Harley Quinn,” but they couldn’t say the word Lady or Gaga.
As soon as the name is guessed correctly, it is placed in the team’s “Guessed” pile and another is pulled from the hat. If the player decides to pass then the piece of paper goes back into the hat.
That player has 60 seconds to describe as many characters as possible. The play then moves to the first player in team two. Then to the second player in team one and so on until all slips of paper have been used. Whoever had the most right, wins that round.
2. Round Two: Charades Style
In the second round, you’ll still use the same slips of paper. The player will pull a slip from the hat but instead of using words they use charades to get their team to guess the name. Each person has 90 seconds to play.
3. Round Three: One Word
Again, using the same slips of paper, the player that pulls the slip of paper will try to get their team to guess the name by using just ONE word and one word only. And each round is 60 seconds.
Keep going until all slips have been guessed and tally up the points to determine the winner of that round and the game.
Mario Party and Mario Kart
Some of the best family party games are those in a video game format!
Mario Party and Mario Kart are classics and they always have new versions out. Spend a fun night playing video games!
Monopoly Deal
Monopoly Deal is the best thing that’s ever happened to Monopoly. It’s a card only version of the game that can be played in just 20 minutes versus the hour plus that a regular Monopoly game takes. It’s quick to learn and really engaging.
Saran Wrap Game
Materials needed: 1-2 rolls of Saran wrap, and various small prizes including gift cards, cash, candy, small toys.
Begin by rolling up the prizes. It helps to start with a round prize first and then every few layers add in a prize. As the ball gets larger you can also add in some larger prizes too.
With the second roll of saran wrap, you can tie it to the end of the first one or just layer it on without tying it to the first roll which makes it even harder.
Once you finish wrapping the full wrap, you should mark the very end with a bit of marker so it’s easy to get the game started.
How to play:
All the guests sit in a circle. One person will be going first to unwrap the saran wrap ball and they must put on oven mitts or mittens to play.
The person to their left has the dice and will try to roll doubles once the round starts. As soon as they do so, the person unwrapping the ball has to pass to the person who just rolled doubles and same with the dice.
Once they do so they pass on the ball along with the dice and so on. The game keeps going until all the prizes are out of the saran wrap ball.
Sardines
This game is similar to hide and seek, but with a twist.
Select 1 player to hide. The other players count to a number, then split up to find the hidden player.
When the hidden player is found, the person who found them just joins them in the hiding place.
The round ends when everyone is hiding in one place.
The player who first found the hidden player becomes the hider in the next round.
Snow Shovel
Materials needed: 2 paper bowls per person, 1 plastic spoon per person and a bag of large marshmallows
How to play:
Place two bowls in front of each player, with all the marshmallows in one. Players need to put the end of the spoon in their mouth and try to shovel the marshmallows from the first bowl to the second one.
Whoever gets the most marshmallows from one bowl to the other in the minute wins. You can hold onto the bowl while you play which helps keep things steady.
Spoons
Materials needed: Spoons and a pack of cards
How to play: This is similar to Cups, but instead all players sit around a table.
Lay out the spoons in the middle of the table, one less than the number of participants. Then deal all the cards in the deck.
On “Go,” you pass one card from your hand to the person on your left and they pass one card to the person on their left and so on. This keeps going until someone gets four of the same cards.
Once someone has four of the same cards, they can make a grab for the spoons in the middle. As soon as they do that, anyone else playing can go for a spoon too.
At the end, whoever is left without a spoon is out of the game. Remove one spoon and start again until only one winner remains.
State of Fun
Another brain game!
Materials needed: Paper and pens or pencils.
How to play: Give everyone a piece of paper and ask them to write down all 50 states!
You can make this more challenging by adding a time limit of 60 seconds, or even adding in the state capitals. Whoever can get the most correct wins.
Suck it Up
Materials needed: Small paper plates, Smarties candies, and straws.
How to play: Place two plates in front of each player and place an equal number of Smarties candies on one of each player’s plates.
Using a straw, players suck the Smarties to the bottom of their straw and transfer them to the other plate.
Whoever gets the most moved in 60 seconds is the winner.
Take 5
Take 5 is a very popular classic card game that I wanted to include as an easy suggestion in this party games list. It’s appropriate for kids aged 8 and up and is fun for adults too.
It’s a strategic game that’s easy to learn and you can play with up to 10 players with each round lasting about 20 minutes meaning people can jump into a round, take a break and come back without being in the game all night.
Water Pong
Instead of beer pong, you can play a family-friendly version of water pong!
Materials needed: Plastic solo cups – at least 20. And ping pong balls.
Place 10 cups in a triangle formation at each end of a long table. Fill each cup up with water about 75-80% full.
Split into two teams of two.
Choose whoever goes first – whether you shoot to see who makes it in first, or whoever is youngest, etc.
Take turns throwing the ping pong balls. Each player of the team gets to shoot before going to the other team.
If a ball lands in a cup and stays in, the other team needs to take a drink. We used to play that they would have to drink the liquid that was in the cup itself, but that’s pretty germy so instead just keep a clean drink off to the side that’s not contaminated.
If both teammates make a cup, they get to shoot again. You can also bounce into a cup and that counts as two cups. But if you bounce, the other team is allowed to swat the ball away.
The first team to hit all the other team’s cups wins the game!
Would You Rather
This is an easy game you can play at a party or on a road trip. It’s even one of my favorite games for a slumber party.
In the game, players choose between two “This or That” choices or two “Would you rather” situations that are impossible to choose between – but they have to. Players don’t have to explain their answers, but I find it sparks some fun conversation when they do.
You can go around and have each person choose a scenario or just look some up online.
How to Make Family Game Night Fun
Have a theme
Choose a theme for the game night and weave it into the entire evening. Have a menu that pairs with the theme, choose on-theme music, maybe end the night with a movie for the theme too. Incorporate prizes that fit the theme, etc.
Make it a Competition
Make the night more fun and engaging by making it even more competitive. Create a big scorecard for all the games played and track who wins the most for a big prize. And have awards for other categories like the most creative, etc.
This post was all about family party games. I hope you find inspiration and have some fun during your next party!
