Swipe through all 21 ideas
See every idea at a glance, then jump to the one you like.
Every New Year’s Eve our house fills up with kids, cousins and neighbors, and the hardest part is not the food. It is keeping everybody happy from supper until the ball drops. A few good games make the hours fly by, and they are what the kids remember.
Here are 20 New Year’s Eve party games that real families and hosts have played and shared. You will find Minute to Win It challenges, printable word and drawing games, quiet games for little ones, and a few loud team games for a big group. Almost all of them use things you already have in the pantry or the junk drawer. Each game links to the person who shared it. Looking for more? Our New Year’s Eve party ideas include a balloon pop countdown, bingo and a family time capsule, and our New Year’s Eve appetizers will keep the players fed.
1. Chopstick challenge
SaveCredit: Little Bins for Little Hands
This is the game that gets the grandparents out of their chairs. It looks easy until the clock starts.
Give each player a pair of chopsticks and two bowls. They have one minute to move as many small things as they can from one bowl to the other, like marshmallows or big beads. Whoever moves the most wins. Little Bins for Little Hands has a whole printable set of New Year’s Minute to Win It cards, so you can just print and go.
2. Sweet potato nose roll
SaveCredit: Little Bins for Little Hands
I laugh every single time someone plays this one. Grown men on their hands and knees pushing a sweet potato is just plain funny.
Tape a start line and a finish line on the floor. Players push a sweet potato across with only their nose, and the first one over the line wins. Stay low to the ground and give it little nudges. I keep a few extra sweet potatoes from the root cellar for this, and they go right into a casserole the next day.
3. New Year’s dice game
SaveCredit: Passionate Penny Pincher
This is my pick for a quiet night at home with just our family. All you need is a die and a bag of little candies like Hershey’s Kisses.
Everyone takes a turn rolling. The number tells you what happens with the candy, like take a piece, pass one left or put two back, and it also tells you what to share, like something funny from this year or something you want to do next year. Passionate Penny Pincher made a free printable chart, so you do not have to remember the rules.
4. Stack the cup pyramid
SaveCredit: The Educators’ Spin On It
Plastic cups are cheap and they make about ten different games. This one is my favorite.
Using only one hand, stack 27 plastic cups into a pyramid in one minute. The Educators’ Spin On It made this one of their family’s favorite New Year’s Eve games. Have a second round where you unstack them back into one tower just as fast.
5. Year in review conversation cards
SaveCredit: Hip2Save
Our teenagers would never admit it, but this was the game they talked about all week. It gets everybody off their phones.
Print the cards, cut them out and drop them in a jar or a hat. Go around the room and have each person pull a card and answer it, like the best thing you ate this year or your proudest moment. Hip2Save included a few blank cards so you can write your own questions about your family.
6. Ping pong ball bounce
SaveCredit: The Chaos and the Clutter
You can buy everything for this one at the dollar store. Red cups and a pack of ping pong balls will keep the kids busy for an hour.
Line up a few plastic cups at the end of a table. Players bounce ping pong balls off the table and try to land them in the cups, and whoever lands the most in one minute wins. Make it harder by moving the cups farther back each round. The Chaos and the Clutter has a whole family night of these dollar store games.
7. Cookie face
SaveCredit: The Chaos and the Clutter
This is the one everybody wants to watch. Have your camera ready.
Set a sandwich cookie on your forehead. Without using your hands, wiggle your face and tilt your head until the cookie slides down into your mouth. Tilting your head back a little helps. You get one minute, and if the cookie falls you start over with a new one.
8. Surprise ball unwrap
SaveCredit: Red Ted Art
If your family loves the plastic wrap ball game, this version uses crepe paper instead. It is just as much fun and a lot less waste.
Wrap a little gift in crepe paper, then keep winding the paper around it and tuck in small treats, stickers and slips with jokes or would you rather questions as you go. A dab of glue stick every so often makes it harder to unravel. Pass the ball around while the music plays. Whoever holds it when the music stops gets to unwrap until it starts again.
9. Photo booth challenge
SaveCredit: KiwiCo
A photo booth keeps the kids and the grownups busy, and you get pictures to keep. We turn it into a game.
Hang a shiny curtain and set out props on sticks, like masks, mustaches and paper hats. Then call out a challenge for each pair, like best fancy party pose or silliest midnight face, and let everyone vote. KiwiCo has an easy guide for making the backdrop and the props.
10. New Year’s Eve scavenger hunt
SaveCredit: Mombrite
This keeps the kids busy while you finish getting the snacks ready. Mine love crossing things off a list.
The free printable from Mombrite has 16 things to find, like balloons, a clock, a noisemaker, a top hat, confetti and a tiara. Make sure you have the items around the house first. If you are missing a lot of them, print a second copy, cut out the pictures and tape them around the house instead.
11. Picture hunt for little ones
SaveCredit: Toddler Approved
The littlest ones want to play too, even if they cannot read yet. This hunt is all pictures.
Print the card and the extra pictures on cardstock, cut the pictures apart and tape them around the house with painter’s tape. Kids hunt for each one and mark an X on their card when they find it. When they finish, move the pictures to new spots and play again.
12. New Year I spy
SaveCredit: The Best Ideas for Kids
This is a good quiet game for the hour before bed, or for the kids who need a break from all the noise.
The I spy page is packed with little New Year’s pictures for kids to find and count. The Best Ideas for Kids pairs it with a free scavenger hunt and bingo, so you can make a little activity packet for each child.
13. YEAR scattergories
SaveCredit: My Turn for Us
My husband swears he is bad at word games, and then he wins this one every year.
Everyone gets a sheet and a pencil. You play four rounds using the letters Y, E, A and R, and you have three minutes to write one word for each category, like party food, a resolution or a memory from the year. You only score for answers no one else wrote down, so the odd ones win.
14. New Year’s Eve Pictionary
SaveCredit: My Turn for Us
We skip the board game and use a big whiteboard on an easel. The drawings get worse as the night goes on, and that is half the fun.
Print the word strips, cut them apart and fold them into a bowl. One person draws a word like party popper or countdown while their team guesses before the timer runs out. My Turn for Us plays boys against girls, and in our house that is the same rule.
15. New Year’s charades
SaveCredit: LoveToKnow
Charades works for every age, from the four year old to Grandpa. Nobody needs to be able to read if a grownup whispers the word.
Print the charade cards and put them in a bowl. Each player draws a card and acts out the word, like midnight kiss, hourglass, ball drop or sparklers, without talking. The person who guesses right gets a point.
16. Would you rather jar
SaveCredit: Kitchen Counter Chronicles
This one starts the best arguments at our table. Nobody is allowed to say both.
Print the questions on cardstock, cut them into slips and fold them into a jar. The person answering has one minute to choose and defend their answer, like whether you would rather turn the clock ahead 30 years or back 30 years. Kitchen Counter Chronicles suggests a prize for the funniest answer.
17. Sip if, with sparkling cider
SaveCredit: LoveToKnow
This is a grownup game in a lot of houses, but we play it with sparkling cider so everyone can join.
Sit around the table with a glass each. Take turns pulling a card and reading it out loud, like sip if you are wearing sequins or sip if you will not make it until midnight. Anyone it fits takes a sip. You learn a lot about your family this way.
18. Empty the tissue box
SaveCredit: 71 Toes
I have never heard my living room so loud. It is also the easiest game on the list.
Give one player from each team a full box of tissues. When you say go, they pull out every tissue as fast as they can, and the first empty box wins. 71 Toes played this with a big group of teens and grownups split into four teams.
19. Blindfolded cotton ball scoop
SaveCredit: 71 Toes
This is a good one to follow the tissue game, because you need a table covered in fluffy white stuff.
Dump a pile of cotton balls on the table. A player from each team puts on a blindfold and scoops as many as they can into a bowl in 15 seconds. Count them up at the end, and the team with the most cotton balls in the bowl wins.
20. Blow out the candles
SaveCredit: 71 Toes
You will want battery candles if you have little kids, but the real ones are more fun with the big kids.
Line up a row of votive candles on the table. A player gets their mouth level with the table and tries to blow out the whole row in one breath. When everyone can do it, move the candles farther away. The team with the most candles out in a row, starting at the front, wins.
How to plan games for a New Year’s Eve party
Play the loud games early. Minute to Win It and the team games are best between supper and about 9 o’clock, while everyone still has energy. Save the quiet card and word games for the last hour before midnight.
Set up stations before guests arrive. Put the cups, ping pong balls, cotton balls and timers in a basket for each game, so you can move from one to the next without hunting for supplies.
Split into teams. Mixing ages on each team keeps it fair and gets the grandparents playing with the grandkids. Keep score on a whiteboard so everyone can see it.
Have small prizes. A bag of candy, a dollar store trophy or first pick of the dessert tray is plenty. Bragging rights do the rest.
New Year’s Eve party games FAQ
What are good New Year’s Eve games for families? Minute to Win It games, a scavenger hunt, charades, Pictionary and a would you rather jar all work for mixed ages. They need almost no supplies and everyone can play.
What games can you play at a New Year’s Eve party for adults? Scattergories, the year in review conversation cards, the dice game and the sip if game are good for grownups. Team games like empty the tissue box and blow out the candles are a hit with a big group.
How do you keep kids busy until midnight? Mix active games with quiet ones, like a picture hunt or the I spy page, and plan a game every hour. If the little ones will not make it, celebrate an early countdown with them and keep playing after bedtime.
What supplies do I need for Minute to Win It games? Plastic cups, ping pong balls, cotton balls, tissue boxes, sandwich cookies, chopsticks and a timer will cover most of them. You can find all of it at the dollar store.
