Learn to Play Birthday Party Games
for Kids and Adults

“Skip the games and you might as well skip the ice cream, too!”

There is no shortage of birthday party games to choose from. Games create a fun and memorable birthday party for your loved one and guests.

Photo by stevendepolo. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).

So the question is: “What games do I pick?” Easy. Let’s narrow it down by these two factors:

• Season: In what season does the birthday take place? Weather is a big determiner in your choice of games. It will help you decide whether to choose indoor or outdoor games. And since weather can be so unpredictable, it is best to plan outdoor games that are easily adapted to indoors (or visa versa).

 

• Ages: What are the ages of the birthday celebrants? There are birthday party games for kids for all ages and energy levels.There are also lots of adult birthday party games. And as you would expect, they also run the gamut for all ages and energy levels.The birthday party games list is organized into age appropriate categories, making it easier for you to glance through the list and pick out 6 to 8 age appropriate games. For adults, you might narrow the scope to 1 or 2 games. Bunco, for example, can be an all-nighter!

If your birthday party is to be held at home and the weather is cold and/or wet, or let’s say your living space is cramped or limited, consider clearing out the garage (should you have one) for a spacious game or birthday party environment.

You’d be amazed at how you can, with a little imagination and a lot of decorations, transform a garage into a jungle or sports arena — whatever your theme. Warning: If you do have a birthday party in the garage, ensure that any dangerous equipment and fluids are out of reach of the little ones.

Instructions for Birthday Party Games

The following games were chosen for their ease of set up, flexibility, and adaptability to birthday party themes. It is my hope that this list will grow as you share your game ideas with me here on The Hub.

Birthday party games with brief instructions are shown on this page in alphabetical order by title. If games require more detailed instructions, follow the link to a dedicated page for that particular game.

Balloon Bust (E,O): With a long string, tie a balloon around each player’s ankle. Players try to pop each other’s balloons by stomping on them while at the same time trying to keep his balloon from being popped.

Bean Bag Toss (A): Have guests take turns tossing beanbags into a bucket, hula-hoop, or home-made box having large holes cut into it. It’s fun to use a box that that has been creatively painted, decorated and shaped into a creature or structure related to your birthday party theme.

There are many pre-made theme related bean-bag toss games as well. I have purchased many in my day. I simply turn around and sell them at garage sales or donate to churches or day-cares when they are no longer needed. Supply at least 4 bean-bags for 4 tries.

For the bean bag purest, you might want to consider a Cornhole game. Don’t know what that is? Learn more about the Cornhole game.

Blind Man’s Bluff (E,O): This game is much like tag, where one player is “It.” To play, “it” is blindfolded and must feel his way around attempting to tag other players.

The other players scatter and try to avoid the person who is “it,” and sometimes teasing “it” to make them change direction. Be sure the area is free of dangerous items to avoid injury.

Bubbles (P,E): Using bubble soap you buy or make yourself and a loop for each guest, see who can make the biggest bubble, whose bubble “lives” the longest or whose bubble goes the highest before popping.

No prize is necessary. The sheer fun of this birthday party game is a reward in itself.

Visit the recipe for bubbles page if you want to know how to make soap bubbles. You will also find links to ideas on how to make “loops” and wands, bubble games and more.

Charades (E,O): An acting game in which one player acts out a word or phrase. This is often done by miming similar-sounding words. The other players then try to guess the word or phrase.

Actors can tell guessers how many words are in the title, song or phrase by holding up that number of fingers. By the number of fingers they can tell the guessers which word she is going to act out and how many syllables are in the word.

Also, using specific motions the actor can show the guessers what the genre is, i,e,. movie, book, song. The guesser who guesses correctly is the next actor. Try to tie in the party theme if possible.

If you want to see this in action and gets some ideas on game variations, visit our page on How to Play Charades.

Chopstick Pass Along (E,O): Each player gets a set of chopsticks. Place an unshelled walnut, acorn, cranberry and pea, on a small plate in front of the birthday girl.

With chopsticks in hand she begins by passing each object — from largest to smallest — to the person on her right, who receives it with her chopsticks then passes it to the next player.

The object is to get all four objects back to the plate from whence they came. This may require some chopstick training beforehand, but the less adept they are, the more fun and funnier the game is.

Chubby Bunny (O): Divide guests into two or three teams. Give each team a bag of marshmallows. Instruct the teams to experiment and find out who on their team can get the most marshmallows in his mouth and still say the words, “chubby bunny.”

When each team has chosen the “gifted” one, give each contestant one marshmallow to put in his mouth, then ask him to say, “chubby bunny.” Contestants do not swallow the marshmallows.

Continue to give each contestant marshmallows, requiring them to say “chubby bunny” after each additional marshmallow. The winner is the contestant who can say “chubby bunny” with the most marshmallows in his mouth.

My thanks to BirthdayHub visitor, Jennifer E., from Oregon, for sending in this great birthday party game idea.

Doggie, Doggie, Where’s Your Bone? (P,E): With guests sitting in a circle, choose one child to be “it.” “It” sits in the middle of the circle with eyes closed.

Give one child in the circle a bone to hide behind his back. Once the bone is hidden, the children in the circle sing, “Doggie, doggie, where’s your bone? Somebody stole it from your home. Guess who, maybe you!”

The child who is “it” then opens his eyes and gets 3 guesses to find the bone. If “it” guesses correctly, he may choose the next “it.” If “it” doesn’t choose correctly, the player with the bone becomes “it.”

Variation: Change the chant and hidden object to suit the birthday theme. Example for a Pirates birthday party theme: “Pirate, Pirate, where’s your hook? Someone stole it, they’re a crook. Guess who, maybe you!” Have fun and get creative with this.

Duck, Duck, Goose (P,E): Seat children in a circle. Choose one child to be “it.”

“It” walks around the outside of the circle, tapping each guest on the head as he says “duck.” “It” picks a specific child to tap on the head and says, “goose!”

The “goose” gets up and chases “it” around the circle. If “it” makes it around the circle and into “goose’s” spot first, “goose” becomes “it.” If “it” doesn’t make it, “it” continues the game.

As you might imagine, this is a fun game for larger groups since the circle will be larger and the chases lasts a bit longer.

Follow the Leader (A): Have guests form a line. The first player begins to walk, run, skip, march or do anything generally fun and goofy. The other players must follow the movements exactly. Change leaders once every minute.

The Follow the Leader game is even more fun when you add music. It’s fun to sing, “We’re following the leader, the leader, the leader, we’re following the leader wherever they may go!”

Feely Bag (P,E): Place up to 5 easily recognizable objects such as an apple, spoon, ball, toy car in a pillow case. Tightly hold the pillow case at the opening allowing for only a little hand and arm to reach in. The guesser feels around in the bag and guesses what the objects are. It’s a simple but really fun game.

Freeze Parade (P,E): This is one of my favorite birthday party game since I love music. The basic idea is to let children pick the instrument of their choice and create your own musical parade.

Since there are so many fun ideas for this game, I created a special Freeze Parade birthday party game page with all the details. Just follow the link and have fun!

Guess the Sound (P,E): From another room or behind a curtain use an object, such as a whistle or rattle, to make a sound. The kids then have to guess what the object is. Get creative with the number of sounds you can make for this fun kids birthday party game.

Hide and Seek (A): One guest stands at home base and is the “counter.” With eyes closed the “counter” counts to 10 (or up to 50, depending on age and ability) while the others hide within a designated area.

When the counter arrives at the designated number he yells, “Ready or not, here I come!” The counter then seeks for hidden friends and tags them.

To keep every guest involved, have the found friends assist the counter in finding the other players. The last person found gets to be the next counter.

Hot Potato (A): Guests sit in a circle. The birthday person starts the game by handing the hot potato (which can either be a real potato, a tennis ball, water balloon, etc.) to the person on his right.

The hot potato keeps getting frantically passed around until a timer or music goes off. Varying the amount of time will keep them guessing. The person whose hot little hands are holding the hot potato at that moment is out.

Play continues until there is only one person left.

Birthday Party Games for the Hunter (not that type of hunting, silly) (A): As you know, hunting games involve hunting for things. Since there are so many “hunting” games for birthday partiers, I have created a separate page for several of the more popular options.

Hunting games work for all ages. Here are two of the most common, along with one not-so-common one. Just follow the link to more details:

• Treasure Hunt
• Scavenger Hunt
• Hunt the Thimble (a lesser-known game that also might be called “Needle in a Haystack”)

QUICK TIP: When hiding objects within a designated area, make sure at least part of the object is visible for the little ones.

“Honey if You Love me, Smile” (P*,E,O): This is a game where the person who is “it” goes around the circle and tries to make another laugh by saying the phrase, “Honey if You Love me, Smile,” by making faces, etc.

If “it” has not made the person laugh within 30 seconds, “it” must move to the next person until someone laughs. There are many variations of this games.

*VARIATION: “Poor Kitty” is a child’s version of this game wherein the child who is “it” is a poor kitty prowling on all fours in the middle of the circle of guests. Poor Kitty must go up to a guest and meow very sadly in an attempt to make the other child laugh.

Limbo Dance (E,O): Most people have heard of it, but many don’t quite know how to play Limbo. For clarification, I am referring to the Limbo dance where you try to dance under a horizontal stick. I am not referring to the XBox Live video game.

For fun tips and how-to info, visit the Limbo dance page. How low can YOU go?!

The Memory Game (A): Provide players or teams with paper and pencil. Place a group of 6 to 10 objects on a tray. Bring the tray into the room and allow guests 3 minutes to study it. Remove or cover the tray.

Each player or team must write down all objects remembered.

Then, bring the tray back. The winner is he who remembered the most objects.

For preschool and elementary kids, ask them to look at and remember the objects for a minute or two. Have them close their eyes (no peeking) and remove one object. Let them guess which object was removed.

Mr. Bear’s Footsteps (P,E): This action game is played just like “Red-Light, Green-Light,” only one child gets to be “Mr. Bear.”

Children start creeping as quietly as they can toward Mr. Bear. As soon he or she hears a sound he quickly turns around, at which point all creeping creatures must freeze. If caught moving, the creeping creatures are sent back to the start.

Whoever makes it so far as to touch Mr. Bear, that child gets to be Mr. Bear.

Mummy (E,O): Split the kids into pairs. One child is the “wrapper” and the other is the mummy.

Using rolls of toilet paper, the wrapper must wrap up the mummy the best he can in a set amount of time. Once the timer stops, the best wrapped mummy team wins. This game is perfect for an Egyptian birthday party theme!

Musical Chairs (A): Place several chairs back-to-back, one for each player, minus one. Have the players form a circle around the chairs.

While music plays, players walk around chairs. When the music stops, each player must sit down in a chair. The player without a chair is out.

Remove one chair. Repeat play until one player remains.

Musical Chairs Variations:

1. Chairs can be substituted with cushions, poster board dinosaur feet, pillows, anything that might better fit your birthday party theme.
2. Players who can’t find an empty chair sit on the laps of seated players. Play continues until all players are piled together on one chair. Be sure to use a sturdy, not highly valued chair.

Obstacle Course (E,O): Not all birthday party games have to involve high energy and action, but this one sure does. There are lots of obstacle course options. Visit theObstacle Course games page for lots of ideas.

Pictionary Game (E,O): Although it’s on the birthday party games page, Pictionary is always a crowd favorite no matter the reason for getting together. Here are a few tips:

Before the party, write on ten index cards several objects or actions pertaining to the party theme or things related to the birthday person.

Provide a dry erase board or large tablet of paper and pens.

Divide guests into two teams. The teams take turns sending a player to pick a card and draw a picture on the board or tablet that causes his team to say the word or words within 3 minutes. The drawer may not use letters or numbers and he or she may not say anything.

The winning team is the first to earn 10 points.

NOTE: This was an abbreviated set of Pictionary instructions. Visit our How to Play the Pictionary Game page for a more detailed look and fun options.

Pinata (A): Buy or make a theme related pinata. Fill it with candy, toys, or whatever strikes yours or the age groups fancy.

Hang the pinata from either the end of a broomstick or clothes-line, anywhere suitable and safe where nothing breakable can be broken by a stray strike.

Hand a blindfolded guest a sturdy stick such as a broom handle and let them try to find and strike the pinata in 3 swings. Move the innocent bystanders within a safe distance.

Each child gets a whack at the pinata until the it breaks and releases its coveted candy or other contents. The kids will rush to gather as much of the spilled goods as they can.

Beforehand, remind the kids to be careful and considerate of each other when it comes to rushing after the candy.

Visit the Pinata ideas page for more pinata tips, fun variations, and instructions on how to make a pinata.

Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey (A): This game as been around for ages, and the variations are practically unlimited. You can modify the “Pin-the-whatever-on-the-whatever” game to suit your birthday party theme.

Visit our Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey page for lots of ideas and fun variations.

Races (A): In its simplest form, this game involves lining all players up at a starting line and having them run to a finish line.The winner is the player who arrives first at the finish line.

This is also fun with relays and multiple players. Variations are endless. Visit ourbirthday party races page for lots of ideas.

Red Light, Green Light (P,E): This is a very popular action game that you might reserve for after cake and ice cream when the kids are wired up. Just wait a few minutes so you won’t be cleaning up recycled cake and ice cream during the game.

Select one player to be the “police officer” (or “Mr. Bear” if playing the Mr. Bear version of this game — see above) and have her stand several feet away from the rest of the players. You can use lines to distinguish where the “police officer” stands and where the other players.

The police officer turns her back to the other players and yells, “Green light,” then counts to 5 as quickly as she can. The other players walk quickly toward the police officer while she counts.

When the police officer has counted to five, she turns around and yells, “Red light!” All players must immediately freeze. If a player is caught moving by the police officer, that player has to go back to start.

Play continues until a player crosses the police officer’s line. That player then becomes the police officer.

Variation: Have the police officer hold either a colored ping-pong paddle (preferably red and green) or some such two colored two-sided object. The police officer simply holds up the green side of the paddle for “go,” and, without counting, turns around at will, changing the paddle to red for “stop.”

Red Rover (E,O): Divide players into two teams and line them up across parallel lines several feet apart. Players tightly hold the hand of the teammate on either side.

One team calls out, “Red Rover, Red Rover, send (a child’s name from opposing team) right over.” That child runs over to the team and tries to break through their line. If the opponent successfully breaks through, she “captures” a player from the calling team, and both players return to her team who then gets to call, “Red Rover, Red Rover.”

If the child who gets “sent over” cannot break through the opposing team’s line, she joins the opposing line as a new team member and that team gets to call for another player.

Sardines (E,O): This game is a variation of hide-and-seek. One person (the kiddo) hides while the other guests all count to a specified number (10, 50, 100, etc.).

The seekers spread out in search of the person who has hidden.

Here’s where Sardines is different and so much fun: As each seeker finds the hider, he or she joins the hider in the hiding place. Eventually the hiding place is likely to become obvious because of the number of hiding giggling players.

The last person to discover the hiding place is the hider in the next round.

For older kids, add to the excitement by playing the game at night, without the use of lighting.

Simon Says (P,E,O): “Simon Says” has been around for something close to forever. Even though it is most common at kids parties, it should be on your short list of adult birthday party games. It’s a 50th birthday party? Maybe it’s time your 50 year old friends loosened up and had some fun. Here are the details:

Have players line up, except for the birthday child who gets to be “Simon.”

Simon stands opposite the other players and gives a command.

If Simon begins the command with, “Simon says,” the players must follow the command. If Simon doesn’t say, “Simon says,” the players must stand still.

Anyone who follows a command without a “Simon says” is out. Play until 5 to 10 commands have been called or when there is only one child left who will be the winner. You can set the number of commands based on the age of kids (or adults) playing.

Sleeping Lions (P): Pick one or two players to be the “hunters.” The rest are the “lions” who are to lie down on the floor, eyes closed, pretending to be asleep.

The “hunters” move amongst the “lions” trying to get them to move.

The hunters aren’t allowed to touch the lions, but may move close to them, telling them jokes or making funny noises.

Any “lion” who moves must stand up and join the hunters.

Spoons (O): The spoons card game is very popular for kids and adult birthday party games. All you need is a standard deck of playing cards and one less spoon than the number of players. Please visit the spoons card game page for all the details on how to play spoons.

Tag (E,O): Set boundaries for the tag agame. Assign a “safe” place where players cannot be tagged for up to 5 seconds. This is often called “home base.”

Choose a player, or the birthday person, to be “it.”

“It” chases the other players and tries to tag (touch) them. The other players must try to keep from being tagged.

When a player is tagged by “it,” that player becomes the new “it.”

Variation: Instead of becoming “it” the tagged player joins hands with “it” and they both try to tag other players. This continues until only one player has not been tagged. That player then becomes “it.”

Tail Tag (P,O): Set boundaries for the game. Assign a “safe” place where players cannot be tagged for up to 5 seconds. This is often called “home base.”

Divide the players into two teams and give each member of one of the teams a cloth “tail” to tuck into the waistband of their pants.

The opposing team must try to capture the tail of every player on the “tail team.”

Once a tail is captured, that player must go to the sidelines (pound, zoo, jail – in keeping with a theme) until the round is over.

After a team captures all the tails, that team then wears the tails, and the other team must capture them.

Water Balloon Toss (P,O): Divide guests into pairs. Fill enough water balloons for each pair to have one. NOTE: Have extra water balloons on hand to accommodate an all out water balloon fight ensuing.

Have each pair stand about four feet away from each other and toss their water balloon back and forth between each other.

Each pair with an intact water balloon then takes one giant step backward (monitor to make sure pairs are equal distance apart) and tosses again.

When a water balloon breaks, that pair is out. Keep tossing and stepping backward until only one pair has an intact water balloon.

PARTY TIP: This should be on your summer birthday party games list (unless you live in Southern California, Florida or anywhere that enjoys a warm climate year ’round). Otherwise, you might have some chilly party-goers at the end of the game.

Wink Game (O): Last but not least is Wink. If you have never heard of this game, you may have heard one or more variations, including Lonely Ghost, Wink Wink Murder,Murder Wink and more. Visit the Wink Game page for all the details on how to play Wink.