Suggestions please, for OAPs Christmas party

[Lambchops]

This has absolutely nothing to do with mums/children etc but I thought I could get away with a tenuous link as it is for DS's and DD's Granny.
My mother and father run a friendship club for youngish retired people...60/70 age. They are looking for suggestions for games to play at their Christmas party. Nothing risque or too boisterous. I said to my mum that 'mumsnet' is the fount of all knowledge and I would post this question and see if we could come up with something. Thank you.

Anybody....? please....? any ideas considered.

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It is for a group of about 50. Most are fairly active and I think some sort of quiz in teams is an excellent idea. My mum and I are just struggling to think of some original way of presenting a quiz. Some sort of 'forfiet' game would be successful too but again we are trying to think of something original.

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Also if you have a bargain bookshop nearby (or even a motorway service station) a lot of them seem to have pub quiz books at this time of year - very reasonably priced.

A good sort of get together type game we played at a church party last year (all ages) was a list of about 25 subjects - you then have to match each person in the room to a subject by moving round the room & chatting (good for getting shyer people out of their seats) - the ideas can be:

Someone who has never been on a plane
Who has seen the new James Bond film
Someone who lives over 100 miles from where they were born
Someone who can ski
Who has over 10 grandchildren

The first person to get all 25 is the winner

What about that old favourite, names pinned on your back & find your partner - eg: Tom & Jerry/Anthony & Cleopatra etc etc

Picture quizzes are always fun - famous faces/local places of interest/matching cities to their famous sites etc

How about a Christmas pass the parcel with fun forfeits?

Or Christmas Kim's game?

Hope this might give you some ideas, good luck with your party.

Thank you for the suggestions. We are thinking on a quiz/pass the parcel.
Lindy, could you give me bit more detail about the pairs/partners game? It sounds just what we are looking for but not sure how to play it.
The other game about matching facts with the person sounds good too and my mum is going to keep this one for their next party.
I'm afraid we don't know what 'kim's' game is. Could you describe it for me?
Thank you for the suggestions everyone, brilliant help!

One word - bingo.

You could ask them to bring in a baby photo of themselves and get people to match the baby to the person.

Soupdragon, done that! It was hilarious. My dad's picture looked like Shirley Temple and no-one got it!

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Lambchops, Kim's Game is where you have a tray full of objects, everyone looks at it for a couple of minutes, then it's covered up and you have to write down as many items as you can remember.
I love the idea of Lindy's Find the Facts game, I'll remember that (oh dear...not so long ago my idea of a party was to get completely drunk and dance to Duran Duran...).

Yes, the ad game is also great fun.

Just thought of another one, get a few copies of the same newspaper (not the Sun!!) & make up a quiz with all the answers in the paper- that can be fun! Or set a challenge & they have to write a 'story' using words cut out of the paper - need a time limit on that one.

The pairs game - you need to think of a number of pairs (enough for half a pair for each person); write them on small pieces of paper & pin them on people's backs - then everyone has to go round the room, asking other people questions to find out who they are and then finding their 'partner' - can't think of many pairs but things like fish & chips/mickey & minnie etc etc

With the Kim's game - to make it special for the party use all christmas things eg: mince pie, cracker, present, candle etc

Whilst on the subject of games, there is a great new board game out called 'Cranium' I thoroughly recommend it, a bit like Trivial Pursuit/Pictionary etc etc rolled into one. We played it in the States but now the UK version is out - have bought it for my own christmas present!

This is great. thanks for your help. My mum will be kept going with games for ages now.

How about guess the famous person with 20 q's.Or a countdown type quiz like they have on tv.All oAP's like that.

Name that tune? With loads of old songs from the war years. We used to play that when I worked in an old person's home in London.

Wine tasting?

What about that game where someone pins the name of a famous person on your back and you then have to guess who you are by asking someone else with questions such as am I male? British? etc.

Or the one where you draw a head, fold the paper over, someone else draws the body and someone again the feet - bit childish but good for a laugh.

Passing a balloon between knees/necks or is this too intimate?

Still handy with a paper and pencil? My Gran's favourite is Up And Down. Everyone has a paper and pencil and writes BLACKPOOL down the left of the page then LOOPKCALB down the right of the page. You then have to think of words to fill the gaps. ie BL, L_O etc. Scoring is 3 points for an original word, 2 points of someone else has it and 1 point if 3 or more of you have it.

Repeat with new word of the winner's choice.

Endless fun

We often play a game called " I can go over the garden gate because..." You sit in a circle, say the sentence, then add a characteristic of someone to your left, in turn. Obviously only you & maybe 1 other will know the rule to start with- so everyone has to guess:
" I can go over the garden gate because...I am wearing a black jumper" (ie the person to my left is) You'd then say yes/ no. It's great because as people catch on, you can make the characteristics more/ less obvious. Very frustrating for those who don't get it though!?

If they're quite active OAPs, passing oranges under chins in teams is always rather hilarious- as is passing a key on a bit of string up & down inside clothes !!?