Has your New Year’s Eve routine become as dry as the winter air?
Do you wear the same swanky clothes each December 31, drink the same medium-priced champagne and gather with the same friends to cheer on the Earth as it completes another lap around the sun?
This year, make an early resolution to spice up the last night of the calendar with an interesting theme or exciting game to get your guests mingling.
Top four party themes
Era-themed: This idea is simple, but the possibilities are endless: pick a time frame, and demand your guests dress up in the style of that era. The easiest way to do it is to pick a decade like the 1920s, but why not mix it up? Make everyone dress up from the year of their address number to see a range from year 1 to far, far into the future. Or get people to dress up like a movie star or musician who was at the top of the charts on the day they were born.
ABC Party: This one doesn’t require any dressy effort, which might suit your crowd. Throw an “Anything But Cups” party where guests come equipped with some sort of non-traditional beverage container. A pot, a kettle, a pylon, a clog – you’d be surprised what can become a vessel in a pinch.
And for a more extravagant theme tailored to the sartorialists in the crowd, get everyone to fashion their outfits out of only non-clothing items in an “Anything But Clothes” party.
Shot-luck: You know what a potluck is, but you might not know how to cook. Luckily you know how to buy a bottle of liquor, which is all you need for a shot-luck party. Instead of bringing your own mix or settling for simple wine or beer, get everyone at the party to show up with a different type of liquor or mix to create a fully stocked, communal bar. No more committing to the same rum-and-coke for the entire night -- now you have access to every cocktail under the sun.
Summer in December: Already longing for the summer sun? Don’t mind your heating bill taking a hit? Crank up the temperature in your house or apartment until things really start to swelter and pretend it’s the middle of July for a night. Complement the unnatural warmth of your party with ice-cold coolers of beer, frozen drink mixes and popsicles. Take it a step further with beach umbrellas, sand boxes and whatever else it takes to convince yourself you’ve taken a quick reprieve from the inhabitable cold of this frozen country.
Top four party games
Apples to Apples is a fun and simple game for any number of people. The judge flips over an adjective card, and players have to pick the best person, place or thing from their hand and convince the judge why their choice is the best.
But for a more saucy (and free to download) experience, try the R-rated Cards Against Humanity, a game where every answer is some level of inappropriateness. And for an even more interesting time, try playing charades using the unspeakable suggestions found in Cards Against Humanity.
Custom Jenga is played like the regular, block-stacking game, but requires some pre-party prep. Before guests show up, write an action or “rule” on every block that players have to follow when they draw that block from the tower. This one requires some creativity, but try rules like “pick someone to play with their wrong hand.”
If players happen to enjoying a beverage as they play, feel free to tailor the games activities around imbibing. Make one block the “bartender block” where that player has to fetch everyone their next drinks, and make the unlucky loser who topples over the blocks finish whatever they’re drinking.
Telestrations is Pictionary meets broken telephone for up to eight people. The game requires players to draw out scenes based on the cards they get, but no artistic skill is required -- in fact, the game will probably get funnier the worse your guests are at drawing.
Each round, players begin by drawing the phrase that appears on their card and passing their dry-erase booklet along to the person beside them. Without seeing the original phrase, the next player must guess what was drawn, then pass it along to the next person in the circle, starting the cycle again.
After drawings are returned to their respective original artists, the result is almost always complete nonsense as everyone attempts to interpret several iterations of not-so-beautiful artwork. Awards for the worst drawings or funniest guesses are encouraged.
Mafia is a game for a larger group of people who are in the mood for a bit of bold-faced lying. All you need to play is a deck of cards or some other way to divide up people into two groups – though possessing a flair for the dramatic might help as well.
One-third of the people you’re playing with will be randomly assigned the role of secret mafia members before the game begins, while the rest are the innocent villagers whose goal is to rid their town of the violent mobsters. One person sits out as the moderator, and instructs everyone to close their eyes before telling only mafia members to open their eyes and learn who is on their side.
From there, the game is played in alternating phases. Each “night,” the mafia silently selects one villager to be killed off. And each “day,” the moderator announces who is dead before the entire village, including the disguised mafia members, as everyone takes a vote on which member of the village should be kicked out of town. The villagers’ goal is to weed out the bad guys, while mafia members try to argue their innocence, and pin the vote on a villager. For full rules and variations to the game, check this out.
