Holiday games for grown-ups

Holiday games are not just for the children, if you are looking for a new game to play with your grown up children or friends thenThe Hat Game might be just what you are looking for.

The Hat Game

This is one of my favourite after dinner games where teams race to describe a long list of
famous names using words, mime and clues.

How to play

• Get everyone to split into two teams and get each player to write ten famous people’s names (fictional or real) on individual slips of paper piece. Fold these in half and put into a hat.
• The first team to start chooses a player who has one minute to describe as many of the people as possible without mentioning their name. They can do anything but say the name on the paper. Impressions and ‘sounds like’ clues are allowed.
• The number of correct guesses is counted up at the end of the minute and this is the score for that team. Pieces of paper that have been correctly guessed are put in a separate hat.
• It’s then someone on the next team’s turn and the game plays on, swapping between teams until all the names have been used up.
• The game then goes into round two, and the same process is gone through again, using the same names as before, but this time team members are only allowed to say one word to enable others to try and guess what it is. In the final round players have to mime each character, hoping that their teammates remember each one from the two previous rounds.
• The team with the highest score wins.

Phrase Book Balderdash

This is the classic game of Balderdash with a holiday twist. Instead of using a
dictionary you play with a foreign phrase book.

How to play

• Players take it in turns to lead each round and choose an obscure word from
  the phrase book with the other players having to write a plausible meaning for
  the word. The objective of the game is to confuse other players into selecting
  yours as the correct one.
• When done, everyone discretely submits them to the round leader who has also
  written out the actual meaning on a matching slip of paper.
• Each slip is then read out and players must guess which is the right one.
  Scoring as follows:
• All players choosing the correct meaning of the word get two points.
• Players get a point every time another player chooses the slip they wrote
• If no one identifies the correct meaning then the leader of that round gets a point.
• If someone has written a meaning that is close to the real one, that person
  gets two points.
• The game then moves on with different people leading each round.
  Once everyone has had a go, the player with the highest score wins.

You can read more games and ideas for holiday fun courtesy of Western & Oriental