New Year's Eve Games for Family and Friends at Home

The best New Year's Eve games for family parties are the ones that kids and grandparents can play at the same table: bingo that runs all night, trivia in mixed-age teams, a bag to open every hour until midnight. Pick one game that runs in the background and a few short ones for the evening. For kids who won't make it to twelve, hold a countdown earlier.

Each idea below says who it suits and how long it takes. Most need nothing more than paper, pens and a few bags or balloons.

1Party bingo

• Good foreveryone, any group size
• Timeall evening

Hand out bingo cards when people arrive. Instead of numbers, the squares are things that happen at the party: someone starts the countdown too early, confetti lands in someone's hair, someone yawns before 11 PM, a group photo is taken. Guests mark a square when they see it happen, and the first full line wins a small prize.

Bingo suits New Year's Eve because the night is long and people drift between rooms. Nobody has to stop what they're doing to play. Give every player a different card, or half the room will finish at the same moment.

2Countdown bags, one every hour

• Good forkids from about 3 to 10
• Timea few minutes each hour

Fill small paper bags with something to do and tag each one with a time. Our set runs from 5:00 PM to midnight: pajamas and party hats, a snack, a craft, a game, a dance party, glow sticks, noisemakers and finally the Happy New Year bag. Kids check the clock all evening, and the bags break a long night into small pieces.

If you have balloons instead of bags, put a slip with the activity inside each one and pop one on the hour.

3New Year trivia in teams

• Good formixed ages, 6 people or more
• Time20 to 30 minutes

Split into teams that mix adults and kids, and give each team one answer sheet. Questions about New Year traditions work for every age because nobody knows all of them: how many grapes people eat at midnight in Spain (12), what Scotland calls New Year's Eve (Hogmanay), which Roman god January is named after (Janus). Multiple-choice answers let younger players take a good guess.

Keep one tiebreaker ready, like how many days 2027 will have.

4Year in review

• Good forfamilies, teens and adults
• Time15 to 20 minutes

Give everyone a sheet with prompts about the year that's ending: favorite memory, proudest moment, funniest moment, the best thing you ate, the year in one word. Fill them in after dinner and read a few answers aloud. Kids often pick very different highlights from their parents. Keep the sheets afterward; they're a nice thing to find in a drawer five years later.

5Predictions to open next year

• Good foreveryone who can write, or dictate
• Time15 minutes

Each person writes guesses about the new year: a place they'll visit, something they'll learn, the song everyone will play on repeat, where the family will be next New Year's Eve. Seal all the sheets in one envelope, write the date on it and put it somewhere safe. Open it together the following December 31 and read them out.

This one gives the family a small tradition, since next year's party starts with last year's envelope.

6Guess the resolution

• Good foradults and teens
• Time10 to 15 minutes

Everyone writes one resolution on a slip without a name and drops it in a bowl. The host reads them out one at a time, and the room guesses who wrote each. Ask people to be specific ("cook dinner on Sundays" rather than "eat better"), or the guessing gets hard.

7Who's most likely to

• Good foradults and older kids who know each other
• Time10 to 20 minutes

Read out prompts such as who's most likely to fall asleep before midnight, still be up at 3 a.m., or sleep until noon tomorrow. Everyone points at a person on the count of three. Keep the prompts kind; the game works when everyone gets picked for something.

8Would you rather

• Good forall ages, including kids who can't read yet
• Timeas long as you like

Read a choice aloud and everyone picks a side and says why: party till sunrise or asleep by 12:05, fireworks or sparklers, big party or cozy night in. There's no score, so it's a good warm-up while food is still coming out. Younger kids enjoy it most when the choices are silly, and our Would You Rather cards for kids have 120 of those in five decks.

9One-minute challenges

• Good forkids, teens, and adults who don't mind looking silly
• Time20 to 30 minutes

Set a phone timer for 60 seconds and give players one task each round: stack 10 plastic cups into a pyramid, move 10 candies from one bowl to another with a straw, keep a balloon in the air using only your head. Run it as a relay between two teams. The props are things most homes already have.

10Question cards at the table

• Good forlong dinners, quiet groups, mixed ages
• Timeall through the meal

Put a few question cards at each plate. Guests read one out when the conversation stalls, like "What's the best thing that happened to you this year?" or "What do you want to learn next?" There are no rules to explain, so it works with guests who don't like games.

Our family conversation cards have 144 questions in 12 color-coded piles, and the lighter ones (This or That, Just Silly) suit a party table.

11Word puzzles for the quiet corner

• Good forkids who need a break, early arrivals
• Time10 to 15 minutes each

A word scramble or word search with New Year words (confetti, countdown, sparkler, resolution) gives a tired kid something to do on the couch while the adults talk. Put a few copies and pencils on a side table and let people pick them up when they want.

12The midnight toast round

• Good foreveryone
• Time10 minutes before midnight

About ten minutes before twelve, go around the room and have each person say one thing they're glad about from the year and one wish for the next. Kids can raise sparkling cider or juice. It gets everyone in the same room for the countdown, which is harder than it sounds at a house party.

How to plan New Year's Eve games for family night

A long evening needs a rough shape, or the games run out by nine. Here is a plan that works at home with kids:

1. 5:00 PM. Open the first countdown bag and hand out bingo cards.
2. Dinner. Question cards on the table, Would You Rather while the food comes out.
3. After dinner. Trivia in teams, then year in review and predictions.
4. 9:00 PM. One-minute challenges or a dance party to wake everyone up.
5. Late evening. Word puzzles for the kids, guess the resolution and who's most likely to for the adults.
6. 11:50 PM. The toast round, then the countdown.

You won't need all twelve games. Four or five spread across the night is plenty. For the table, signs and wish cards in a matching style, see our art deco New Year's Eve party kit.

New Year's Eve games for kids and little kids

For young kids, the best games involve moving, opening things and very little reading: countdown bags, balloon pops, one-minute challenges and Would You Rather read aloud by an adult. Many families hold an early countdown for kids who can't stay up, at 7:00 or 8:00 PM or even at noon, with the same cheering and noisemakers as the real one.

Keep puzzles and coloring for the quiet hour before bed. Our guide to Christmas party games has more ideas that need no reading, and most of them work just as well a week later.

New Year's Eve games for adults and large groups

Adults tend to enjoy games that reveal something about the people in the room: guess the resolution, who's most likely to and predictions. With 15 or more guests, choose games that everyone plays at once, such as bingo, trivia in teams and a toast round. Games where each person takes a turn get slow at that size, so split the room into smaller groups for those.

Our New Year's Eve games bundle has 12 games on 33 pages, including trivia, 16 different bingo cards, predictions and 24 toast talk cards. For more than 16 bingo players, print a second set. See how to print printables for card stock and sizing tips.