Games for the dinner table. Not the type you buy.

[NaturalBlondeYeahRight]

Whole heap of adults/older teens for Christmas this year. I’ve bought a few trivia type games in the past but I wondered if anyone had any fun games I can prepare that don’t involve getting up or cleaning tables? Should all have had a glass or two by the time we play anything. Google hasn’t come up with much.

The Name Game. It sounds complicated written down but isn't really.
Write down three (or five) names - celebs, fictional, people you know - on scraps of paper. Put them in a hat/ bowl. Two teams (either side of table?). Team one player one starts taking names out, describing them without using the name, and trying to get other members of team one to guess who they are for a previously agreed amount of time. Then team two has a go. Then player two of team one. then player two of team two, until all bits of paper are gone. make a note of the scores.
Then put names back in hat and do it again, except this time you have to mime the name. Then put names back in hat and do it again, except this time you only have one word to get your team to guess the name. If they were paying attention in the last two rounds this should be OK.
It's up to you whether you can pass and pick another name or not but it's better if you can't IMO, even if you don't know who the person is, you have to be creative. Our kids tend to chuck a whole load of Pokemon in which makes it interesting. Also you will always get two or three the same, weirdly, out of all the names in the universe.

Killer was always popular when most of us were getting merry. Best with at least 8 I should think.

Deal one card from an ordinary pack to each person. (without anyone seeing what anyone else has got) but there must be only one king.

Whoever gets the king is the killer, and has to 'kill' others by winking at them so discreetly that nobody else sees.
The 'murdered' then play dead.
Object is to detect the killer - often harder than it sounds!

The Present Game. Assemble a collection of small items that you know will appeal to various members of the group - favourite chocolate bar, nail varnish, a notebook, spirit miniature (you need to think carefully about what appeals!)Two packs of cards, deal out one. One person then turns over the other pack one at a time, the person with the matching card chooses a present. The next matched card can choose a present off the pile or take one from a fellow player. Gets very competitive and strategic but good fun, particularly if there’s a hotly contested item!

Give everyone a piece of paper and a category - e.g. movies, figures of speech, etc. Each person writes the name of a movie at the top of their piece of paper and hands it to the person on their left. That person attempts to draw whatever has been written, and then folds the piece of paper so that the writing is hidden but the picture is still visible. Everyone passes to the left again, writes down what the picture is of and then folds the picture out of sight. Repeat as many times as you like - then open the papers to see just how far you've ended up from what you started with! Basically Pictionary crossed with Chinese Whispers

I love the name game. We play a final round where you have to hide behind the sofa and Act our each person with just your head and one hand, no talking

Also the Rizla game- everyone writes the name of a famous person on a rizla and sticks it to someone else’s head, then each person has to work out who they are by asking yes/no questions (move onto the next player when they get a no). Can use post its if no rizlas!

We do a game with an empty cereal box. Cut it initially so it is only half as tall. Person stands with their hands behind their back and has to bend over forwards and bite the top of the box to lift it up. Everyone has a turn. Reduce height by 3cm and repeat. When you get to last 10cm height take it down in 2cm steps then 1cm steps. Ends up about an inch high. It is surprising who ends up being in the final few. Small cousins/teenage cousins combined with a granny and aunt who do yoga.

Have some post it notes, write a famouse person on each, play who am I.
Get a muder mystery kit. These are fun, Need a bit of prep but can be done over a dinner table.
Wink murder.
DEvise your own quiz.

Last year for a family gathering we ended up with a couple of sets of the racing santas game crackers from Morrisons and had sooooo much fun - from ages 9 through to 85, including a bunch of kids around 9-15, a bunch of young adults from 20-30, a handful of late 40's/early 50's and a smattering of (young at heart, active) 75-85 yr olds. We had a couple of sharpies to hand so people could customise their santas and held tournaments with 4 people in a race at a time. My uncle then decided he wanted to get the record for longest distance along the table - and much more hilarity ensued.

My mum and her friend have been giving each other 'guess what' presents every year for at least 40 years if not more. They both now have a bag full of weird and wonderful gadgets that get brought out most years as there are new added and people forget what things are. Some bits and bobs that were most odd many years ago are now quite common place but there are others that still stand the test of time - cubed boiled egg maker and corn on the cob stripper anyone? if you had a look on ebay or amazon you'd probably be able to come up with 5-10 for a couple of pounds each on average and could have some pens and paper for people to note down the answer if you give each a number (or get people to bring an odd gadget with them). It's fun because people like to handle them and try them and still can't work out what things are! Also check out things like silicon man pot lid holder, meatball spoon, kiwi skinner and slicer, banana peeler, banana cutter, and follow tempting links off their pages!

Name that tune on the kazoo. Buy a packet of plastic kazoos from amazon, everyone round the table gets one. 1st person plays song on the kazoo, person that guesses the song has to do the next tune.

S and P game.
It's word association but you can't use any words beginning with S or P. Sounds a walk in the park eh?? It's not.

For example.. condiments - first condiments that come to mind? Salt and pepper!

Last year when i hosted i did christmas bingo, pass the parcel (i wrapped sprouts and fixed it so my cousin who hates them won) and a festive quiz. Prizes were daft things from poundland. Was great fun x

We play the name game. We all write loads and loads of names and put them in the hat. In 2 teams describing against the clock - we throw the names away though.

Also town, country, boys names, girls name, food, animal. Pick a letter at random from a book - have 2 minutes to fill in all the categories. 2 points for answers no one else got, one point for one that others got,

Consequences: male Met female, at the ......., he was wearing, she was wearing, he said to her, she said to him, the consequence was and the world said.

The quotation game - you need a dictionary of quotations for this. Someone picks a famous person and writes the real quotation on a piece of paper. Everyone else makes up a fake quotation and puts it in the hat. The first person reads them all out and everyone votes as to which one is correct. You score points for writing a fake quote which others vote to be correct. The picker gets the points for those who rightly identify the colorectal one. It's more fun if you pick obscure quotes.

And Cards against humanity obviously. If you don't mind obscenity!

We do a game like @herocomplex and do a present game, except you have to roll a 6 to choose a present or steal one from someone else - a bit easier for younger children to follow. Everyone buys up to 5 presents for £1 or less so most of the presents are a surprise, rather than one person buying all of them. Also we try and wrap them up so people cant guess what's inside e.g. putting sweets inside a loo roll tube and wrapping it

I second Killer! If you have a pack of cards then you can play games all night. My favourite is cheat.

We play the "ministers cat".

So you all tap the table in rhythm as one person says the ministers cat is an ....(word starting with a)...cat.

Then the next person uses an adjective starting with b.

Next, starting with c

And it just goes round and round.

It's quite funny, especially when you've had a drink, can include all ages and needs no equipment, preparation etc

We play the flour game.

You take bowl and fill it with flour turn it out on a baking tray like a sand castle, you then gently balance a wedding ring onto the top of it.

Each person takes a knife and cuts the sandcastle without making the ring drop. If you are the person who makes the ring drop you have to pick it up with your mouth your then out and the castle is rebuilt. You can't imagine the competitiveness and surprisingly little mess if your baking try is big enough

Oh yes Beanbag we sometimes have two mystery envelopes, which makes it quite exciting. It’s a different proposition with younger children as you need to have enough competition but not too much that people get upset. Good fun and very much a feature of our Christmas!

Those crackers with hand bells in went down well last year. Everyone gets a bell and the conductor gets them to play a tune. Very funny after alcohol.
Dip sticks from John Lewis are great, we like the version which gives a famous lyric and teams have to guess/sing the next line.
Bad Santa is a classic, buy a selection of cheap gifts, box of maltesers, soap, bubble bath etc and wrap them up. Put gifts in middle of table. Take turns to roll a dice, if you get a six, choose a gift and unwrap it, put it in front of you. If you roll a one, you get to steal someone else's unwrapped present. It causes war in our house.

We played “don’t show Kieth your teeth” one year. I’ve never laughed so much in my life!

@ImportantWater
I love the sound of the name game. So obviously the name isn’t said out loud, how is it confirmed that people have it?

It is said out loud - it goes something like:
Round one: Me - pulls out Pikachu. Sighs, because all the kids are on the other team. “It’s like a Pokemon? That yellow one? If you think of Pokemon this is the one you think of. Oh you know, it’s yellow, and there’s a film about it, detective this name.” Meanwhile the others are going “Ash, Jigglypuff, Thomas” until someone says “Pikachu” and I say “yes, yes, Pikachu” and pick out the next name.
Round two, someone else, perhaps one of the kids picks out Pikachu (although could be me). They mime throwing a Pokeball or something. Because they were paying attention their team remembers Pikachu was one of the four Pokemon our lovely children contaminated the hat with and work their way through them all. Alternatively everyone has forgotten Pikachus name and spend a minute going “Oh, it’s a Pokemon, Oh what was it called again?”
Round three, someone says “Pokemon”. And everyone hopefully shouts Pikachu!
You have to hear the names in the first round because otherwise you have no chance at all in the last round, when someone says “president” or “arrows” or “cooking”. Really the last round is a memory round. And the mime round, you would think knowing what came before makes it easier but it really doesn’t. Some people have a highly idiosyncratic approach to mime. And there are always names you have never heard of so you need to have heard the mass guessing in the first round, then you learn that Admiral Ackbar is some squid off Star Wars.