Most birthday parties have a theme. When kids have a birthday coming up, they enjoy picking a party theme based on something they love and are interested in at the time. Popular themes are sometimes Unicorn, Princess, and Mermaid for girls and Pirate, Superhero, and Video Games for boys! But there are many more themes to choose from. Just like themes, there are so many birthday party game ideas out there that fit specific party themes. But what about those games that work no matter the theme? Of course, we absolutely love party themes — it’s the basis of what we do — but we know that sometimes people can morph games to fit a certain theme and they may not be as fun as a party game that would work for any party! Sometimes we want games that we can use over and over again for different types of parties — a party game classic if you will! So this post is going to give you birthday party game ideas that work for every party theme!
Let’s get started…
1. Defy Gravity
This game is so simple yet so much fun! Before you commit to adding this game to your party, you need to make sure you have plenty of space as the players will need a lot of room for movement! Using only one hand, players must keep two balloons from touching the ground for a total of one minute. If you want to make the game a little more challenging, then increase the number of balloons to three per player. Of course, there will be lots of balloons flying everywhere, so color code the balloons so each player knows his/her color in the midst of the chaos this game will cause. One rule is that you cannot hang onto balloons — you can only hit them to keep them up in the air. If you have minimal space, try doing each round of the game with only two players per round. The person to keep all the balloons from hitting the ground the longest is the winner!
To check out discounted balloons for this game, visit the Discount Party Supplies website for a wide selection of party balloons!
2. Puzzle Competition
At a long table, have three to five guests line up in front of a puzzle. Each puzzle has to have the same amount of pieces and the same level of complexity to keep the game fair. Each player gets assigned to one puzzle. The puzzles don’t have to be theme related at all. The purpose of the game is to just see how fast participants can put the puzzles together. The fastest one wins! You can do an entire tournament if you have lots of guests who want to be involved! Make the top winners play against each other in a puzzle championship! The winner can take home a puzzle of his/her choice!
If you need puzzles, check out our easy-to-put-together puzzles from Discount Party Supplies! We have dinosaur and wild animal ones that come in packs of 12!
3. Saran Wrap Prize Ball
Supplies:
Saran Wrap
2 Dice
Candy
Lip Balm
Gum
Crayons
Hand Sanitizers
Money
You can choose what “prizes” you include. The objects in this game will vary based on the age and interests of the party guests. But the steps to getting everything ready for this game is to wrap all the prizes in the saran wrap for the group of people to unwrap. You want to start with the biggest/best prize first, and put it in the center of the “ball.” You will put a lot of saran wrap around this center prize. You want this game to last long enough to be fun and get everyone excited! Once the center is wrapped well, you’ll want to add prizes and continue to wrap in saran wrap as you go. If you want to make it more difficult, you can stop at different points and wrap in the opposite direction! Once your ball is wrapped with all the prizes inside, it’s time to start playing the game!
Gather everyone together in a circle sitting down somewhere. This can be at a table or even on the floor! What’s great about this game is there is no limit to the number of players. You need more than two, but the number off participants is limitless! As many people who want to play can play! Once everyone is ready in a circle, one person is picked to go first. This is usually the guest of honor. Going clockwise, the person starting the game will begin unwrapping the ball while the person on their left takes two dice and rolls until they get doubles of any kind. Once they hit doubles, the person with the ball will hand the wrapped ball to the person with the dice and the person with the dice will hand off to the person on the left. Whatever prizes get unwrapped during a turn, the person gets to keep — which means there is more than one winner! Continue this cycle until the ball is completely unwrapped! You will have a lot of happy guests because there is opportunities for many to receive prizes from this game!
4. Suck It Up
This game can be done with any number of players as long as you have the space for each player to stand in front of two party plates. The way to play this game is to have players place a straw in their mouths and use suction to transfer a pile of 25 M&M’s from one plate to another in under one minute. They suck up the M&M long enough to move it to the other plate which will be counted at the end to see how many M&M’s successfully made it onto the plate. The trick is that only one hand may be used to hold the straw and the player cannot touch the M&Ms themselves in anyway! In the end, players can eat their M&M’s but not before a winner is chosen!
Check out our discount party plates to use for this Minute-to-Win-it themed game! Your guests will love the light-hearted competition! Since it’s only a minute-long game, several rounds can be enjoyed back-to-back!
5. Fork It Over
Grab a fork and some quarters to begin playing this game– test to make sure that the prongs of the fork will allow a quarter to fit between them.
At a table, place an upside-down fork on the end. Stand at the opposite end of the table and roll a quarter at the fork with the objective of successfully getting the quarter in between the prongs of the fork. Award points to players who can successfully complete the task in under a minute. The person with the best time at the end is the winner!
6. Marshmallow Catch
Grab some of Discount Party Supplies small paper cups and a bag of marshmallows, and that’s all you need for this fun and active game your party guests will love!
Those playing this game need to pair up into partners. The objective of the game is for players to try and catch marshmallows in a paper cup that are thrown to them by their teammate. Give one player from each team a small paper cup and the other a cup of marshmallows. Be sure everyone is standing the same distance apart! The average distance for this game is about five feet away from each other. The one with the marshmallows will try to toss them into their partner’s cups. The team at the end with the most marshmallows in their cup after one-minute WINS!
7. Pair Up Game
For this game all you’ll need is music to start and stop quickly and a few “judges” to determine the “losers” of each round. Make sure the music chosen for the game is fun, upbeat, and entertaining for guests! Kids and adults alike will love this game! Guests will need to partner up. Once everyone is in a pair, they will form a circle. The partners need to be placed across from one another in the circle. Once everyone is in place and their proximity from each other is approved by the judge, then explain the directions of the game. Players will walk around in a circle while the music is playing. When the music stops, players have to run and find their partner and do whatever the judges command. The last pair of partners who do the command is out that round. Keep doing this cycle until the group is down to one pair. The winner who performs the command the fastest, in the end, is the winner!
Sample commands:
Hand to hand – players must hold hands
Foot to foot – players must place one of their feet together
Elbow to elbow – players must put one elbow together
Head to head – players touch heads
High five – players must high five each other
Dosey Doe – players link arms and spin in a circle
Leapfrog – players must leapfrog over each other
8. What’s In The Balloon?
Use leftover balloons from the Defy Gravity Game and fill them up (without inflating) with random fillers that guests will have to guess without seeing. A few ideas for fillers can be coffee grounds, water, shaving cream, popcorn kernels, sugar, and oil! Use a funnel to fill each balloon. It’s important the fillers feel somewhat similar so that it’s more of a challenge!
Have these balloons laid out on a table numbered 1-6 (or however many you choose to do). If you don’t want to number the balloons, then color-code them so that each balloon is a different color. Then have pieces of paper and pencils for guests to fill out on a sheet what they guess is in each balloon. Give them plenty of time to feel and think through their answers, and then at some point in the party, announce what was in each balloon! See which guest(s) gets the most right! And they are the winner!
Tip #1: Double the balloons that hold liquids. This will keep the area clean in case a balloon decides to burst in the process!
Tip #2: If the guests at your party are really young, have the ingredients that fill each balloon on display and then have them match the ingredient to the balloon. This will make it easier for the younger ones who may not be familiar with the ingredients used.
9. Musical Chairs
This one is a classic, but it’s fun for all ages! Grab enough chairs for everyone participating and then take a chair out. Line up the chairs and have everyone gather in a circle around the line of chairs. Play music and while the music plays, the circle of players walk around the chairs. One person needs to be in charge of music (can’t play the game if running the music) and then when the music stops, all the players run to sit in a chair. The person without a chair is out. Then another chair is removed. The game always requires one less chair than the number of participants. The cycle continues until there is one player left at the end!
10. Post And Shake It
The set-up for this game is as easy as ever! All you need are post-it notes and a timer! First, you need the guests at the party to split up into groups of two or three. One participant will stand still while their teammates cover them with as many post-its as they can. After the timer goes off, the teams will count how many post-its are on each player. Any post-it notes that have fallen off do not count! The team that has the most post-it notes still sticking wins! If you want to start another game to follow, have each team try and shake off all their post-its. You can play music so they have something going on while they shake. Then, when the music stops, the team that shakes off the most post-its without using hands first wins!
You now have ten new go-to games that will work for any and every party. Focus on theme-related party supplies and decorations and don’t stress out about making up theme-related games. Each of the ten games listed above will be so much fun for your guests!
For high-quality discounted party supplies your guests will love seeing at your party, visit our shop here.
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