New Year's Party Games

A New Year's party can be a fun and festive way to welcome a brand new year with your friends and family. In addition to invitations, decorations and food, you'll need fun party games to keep your guests entertained. Read on for some ideas for New Year's party games that everyone can enjoy!

New Year's is a great time to look back in time -- and you can do so with some fun games like Guess the Month. To play this game, make a list of newsworthy events and celebrity happenings that occurred in the last year. Such as, "In what month was Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's daughter Shiloh born?" The player who answers the most questions correctly is the winner. Another fun game is "Whose Resolution?" Have everyone write down three New Year's resolutions on a slip of paper and give it to the game leader. The game leader reads the resolutions and the players guess who they belong to. The person who gets the most correct answers wins.

Another fun idea is to host a board game tournament. This simply involves choosing three to five favorite board games and award points to the first, second and third place finishers. The person who ends the tournament with the most points wins. Just don't choose games that take a long time, such as Monopoly. For a board game tournament, shorter games are best! Or, you could go traditional and invite your guests to play a card game like poker or canasta. Pictionary (also sometimes called Win Lose or Draw) is another fun game that can be modified to fit a New Year's theme or any theme of your choice.

If you're hosting a New Year's party for a crowd of little ones, you may need some different games. Simon Says is a classic kids' game that is easy to play. Simply give the players instructions like "Touch your toes," or "Simon says stand on one leg." Players should only obey when the command "Simon says" and if they follow a command without "Simon says" they're out of the game. Another fun game for kids and even adults is Guess How Many. Fill a glass jar with a pre-counted number of candies and have players guess how many are in the jar. The closest guess, of course, is the winner. Award a prize to the winner, then divide the candy from the jar between all the players for a sweet treat!

No matter if your party is for kids or adults, you'll need prizes for your games. Good prizes for adults include scented candles, gourmet chocolate, gift certificates and even bottles of champagne. Kids will love prizes like coloring books and crayons, small inexpensive toys, and of course, candy! All it takes to host a fun and memorable New Year's party is a bit of creativity and a little planning. Good food, fun games and cool prizes will keep your guests coming back for your parties year after year!