Parlour Games

[UnLunDun]

Can anyone recommend (and even explain the rules of?) any parlour games to play over the festive period, or any reliable books about them? Thanks.

[Stompythedinosaur]

Charades is a classic, it is easy to google the rules. You can play reverse charades where the whole team acts for a single person guessing.

We play a game we call The Hat Game. Everyone gets five slips of paper and puts five names into the hat. Can be celebrities, book/film characters or people you know in real life, but they have to be names the people playing are likely to know.

You have two teams who have alternating 30 second periods to get their team mates to guess the names. In the first round you can say anything as long as you don't say the name. Then you out the same names back in the hat and play the second round where you can only say three words. Then put them back in and in the final round you can only mime. By the final round you sort of know the names in the hat, so it becomes a case of trying to work out if someone is miming Gandalf the wizard or the kids' class teacher. It always gets us laughing.

Another game (possibly not for the fainthearted) is Whose Pants Are These? Everyone donates a pair of clean pants and a volunteer model leaves the room, puts on a pair, and models them to the room. Everyone guesses.

It isn't exactly a parlour game, but rude word bananagrams can be quite funny in groups.

Again not a parlour game, but Secret Hitler is a good group game to play together.

[RAFHercules]

"Are you there Moriaty" is reputedly the queen's favourite game (to watch) it involves 2 blindfolded contestants knocking the hell our of each other with rolled up newspapers.
We play it every year and no one's died yet (probably come close though). Its hilarious.

[elQuintoConyo]

Are You There Moriaty! Sounds a hoot!

DS is 10yo and we always play Hot and Cold Baby Jesus: everyone leaves the room, one person hides the Nativity figure Jesus, if you're near the hidden figure you're hot, far away you're cold.

There can be prizes

[ArblemarchTFruitbat]

Consequences - you have a piece of paper, everyone takes it in turns to write one line of a story and folds the paper with one word on the next line for the next person to continue.

Memory - bring in a tray with random objects, people have a minute to memorise them, the tray is taken away and everyone has to list as many items as they remember.

What's my line - played like charades but you have to guess the person's made-up occupation, using yes and no questions only. You can play in teams or individually.

Who am I - another along similar lines. Everyone gets the name of a famous person stuck to their forehead (so they can't see it) and have to ask the others yes/no questions to establish their own identity. Winners guesses first.

Name that tune - you have to guess the tune by someone humming the first five notes - another that can be teams or individuals.

[Tomasinabombadil]

Who am I - another along similar lines. Everyone gets the name of a famous person stuck to their forehead (so they can't see it) and have to ask the others yes/no questions to establish their own identity. Winners guesses first.

We used to play that too, a name was stuck to guests foreheads as they arrived for Christmas Day, the game could last as long as it took to guess all the names, sometimes all day whilst eating & drinking & other activities.😂
Must remember to cover all the mirrors in the house too, so that no one can cheat😂.
My friend’s elderly frail grandmother was HRH The Queen every year.🥰

[ArblemarchTFruitbat]

My friend’s elderly frail grandmother was HRH The Queen every year.




Not one for a family Christmas, but a good drinking game - as a prurient late teen I sometimes used to play a lewd version of 'What's My Line' called 'What's My Fetish' - the fun was in inventing totally bizarre and random sexual fetishes to be guessed.

[ImitationofBeing]

Flappy fish.

Need a long hallway/room.
Cut big fish shapes out of greaseproof paper.
Roll up newspaper.
Put fish on floor, competitors sit behind fish.
2/3/4/5 peoplw depending on how wide the hallway/room is then waft the newspaper to move the fish down the hall to the finish line.
Turn it into a knock out competition and winner gets a prize.

Also the memory game on the tray. I loved that as a child.

[UnLunDun]

Ahh great ideas, thanks everyone.

[FollowYourOwnNorthStar]

These all sound great!