10 New Year's Eve Games for Family and Large Groups

A family New Year’s Eve has an unusual problem: the evening is long, the ages are mixed, and the one fixed event is a countdown that the whole room is waiting for. Games fill the gap. The ones below are games that work with children, parents and grandparents together, need almost no setup and run without alcohol. For the whole evening, see New Year’s Eve party ideas at home, and the New Year’s Eve party hub collects the tools and guides.

How to Choose and Time Your Games

Three habits make games work in a mixed room.

• Play from a seat. A game that can be played at a table or on a sofa tends to be easier for more people to join than one that asks people to stand up and perform.
• Keep the rules to one breath. If it takes more than about thirty seconds to explain, the youngest players and the most tired adults will drift away.
• Have a prize and a clock. A small prize, such as a sticker, a chocolate or a funny paper trophy, and a visible timer keep a game short and fun.

For timing, one idea is to place a quiet game after dinner, a louder one around 10 or 11, and a short quiet one in the last half hour before the countdown, so that nobody is overtired at midnight. These are our own suggestions, not a rule. If children will be awake for a noon countdown instead, the noon years eve party guide has an earlier schedule.

Ten New Year’s Eve Games for Family

1. New Year’s bingo

Give each player a card filled with words or pictures from the year, such as “snow,” “fireworks,” “countdown” or “resolution.” Call the items in random order, and players mark what they hear. The first to complete a line calls out. Bingo is the easiest opener because all ages can play at once, and with several prizes there can be more than one winner.

2. Trivia

Ask questions on topics a family can share: animals, food, geography, holidays around the world, the year just ending and a few about the people in the room. Play in mixed-age teams and keep a written answer key to settle disputes. Include a few easy questions for the youngest and a few harder ones for the adults, so every team has a chance.

3. Would you rather

Read out a choice, such as “would you rather have snow every day or sunshine every day,” and have players move to one side of the room or raise a hand. There is no right answer, which makes it fair for any age. Ask a few players to explain their pick, because the explanations are where the laughter comes from.

4. Who’s most likely to

Read a friendly statement, such as “who’s most likely to fall asleep before midnight” or “who’s most likely to eat the last cookie,” and on three, all the players point to the person they think fits. Keep statements kind and avoid ones that single someone out in a way they might not enjoy. It suits a room whose players already know one another.

5. Word scramble

Hand out a sheet of New Year words with the letters mixed up, such as “RIWOREKFS” for fireworks or “COTUNDWON” for countdown. Set a timer for five minutes, and the player or team with the most unscrambled words wins. Children can work with a grown-up, and you can keep an answer key on your own copy.

6. Word search

A grid of letters with hidden New Year words. It is the quietest game on the list, which is the point: it gives a tired player or a shy one a way to join in without being watched. Print a few extra copies, because some players like to start over.

7. A-to-Z challenge

Pick a category, such as foods, animals or places, and have players or teams write one entry for every letter of the alphabet before the timer ends. Players get a point for each answer that no other team wrote down. It is loud in the right way, since teams argue about whether “xylophone” counts as a food. Choose an easier category for younger teams, or let them skip hard letters.

8. Pass the present

Wrap a small prize in many layers of paper, with a short instruction or a small treat between layers. Players sit in a circle and pass the parcel while music plays. When the music stops, the person holding it unwraps one layer and follows the instruction, such as “say your favorite food” or “name a wish for the year.” Whoever unwraps the last layer keeps the prize. If small children are playing, make sure no small parts are hidden in the layers, and supervise.

9. Scavenger hunt

Give each team a list of things to find or do inside the party space, such as a blue object, a photo with someone wearing a sparkly accessory, something that begins with the letter N, or a picture of the oldest person’s favorite thing. The first team to complete the list wins. Keep it inside the house or party space, walking, with no running, and set a fixed time limit.

10. Draw it blindfolded

One player is blindfolded, or simply closes their eyes, and tries to draw a word from a card, such as “clock,” “party hat” or “snowman,” on a large sheet of paper at a table. The others guess what it is within a time limit. The drawings are rarely recognizable, so skill does not matter. Play it seated and clear the space around the player so no one trips.

Scaling to Large Groups

Not every game works the same way at 8 people as at 30. For a large group:

• Use teams. Divide the room into teams of four to six as a starting point, with a mix of ages on each. Trivia, A-to-Z and the scavenger hunt scale easily by adding teams.
• Print in bulk. Bingo cards, word scrambles and word searches cost almost nothing to print.
• Choose a caller. One adult or older child reads for the whole room for bingo, trivia, would you rather and who’s most likely to. A microphone or a loud voice from a chair is enough.
• Split the room. In a large house, you can run two games at once, a quiet one for younger children at one table and a trivia round for the adults at another, then bring the whole group together for the last game.
• Keep rounds short. The larger the group, the faster attention drifts. A round of five to eight minutes is a starting point.

Mixed Ages: Keeping All Ages in the Game

A game that is easy for a six-year-old can bore a teenager, and the reverse is also true. Mix the teams so each has a younger and an older player, give the youngest players the jobs they can do, such as holding the card, drawing the picture or reading the easy clue, and let grandparents keep score. Make a few of the questions easy on purpose. Two levels of difficulty in the same game can work better than two games.

Make joining optional. A child who is tired should be able to move to a quiet corner without comment, and an adult who does not want to perform should be able to score or judge. At the end of the game, hand out the prizes to every team, with a small extra for the winners.

Prizes and a Midnight Cooldown

Keep prizes cheap and fun: stickers, small notebooks, chocolate, paper crowns, a hand-drawn certificate. Check ingredients with parents or guardians before handing out food prizes to children, and keep very small items away from children under age 3, since small parts are a choking hazard.

About 20 or 30 minutes before the countdown, finish the last game and move to something calm. Hand out cups for the toast, with sparkling juice for the children. When children are present, put the adult drinks on a separate tray in visibly different cups, out of the children’s reach, and keep the alcohol-free options with the children’s cups. Then gather around the clock. If you want a countdown activity that runs through the evening, the countdown bag guide and the New Year’s resolutions printable guide have ideas that pair with these games.

Where the Printables Fit

The Host Kit of our printable New Year’s Eve suites includes a PDF of 10 New Year’s Eve games with answer keys, and the Everything Kit adds a big-screen game show and a party planner. They are digital downloads, and nothing ships. You can see the kits in the suites section of the hub, but each game above can also be run with a pencil, a printed sheet and a timer.