Jaxbar

I am planning a Boxing Day party and thinking of having party games. I was asking some US family if they liked Pass the Parcel and they had never heard of it. Is it a purely British thing and would you think it weird to play it as adults? was thinking of putting nice little gifts in.

Karrie72

If they're good friends and you can get them a bit merry before hand then why not? Should be fun. Maybe add a little 'Blinds man buff' to the agenda also!

kimilseung

I do not know if it is just Brits or not, but I think most adults would enjoy it, especially after a few.

Another game my American family introduced me to is....will have to explain, as I do not know a name.
Everyone brings a small gift ($5~10) or the host could provide them.
Everyone takes a turn picking a gift. If they like it, they keep it, if they do not want it, they swop it (one swop per person only). It can be fun as people get things they want to keep, but you never know till the end if you get to keep it, as the last person might get something useless and trade you. Best done with people who know each other, as it is the forced trading that makes it fun.

Karrie72

Oh yes! My in-laws call it a Yankee gift swap and it is great fun. We do cheesy gifts picked up from Goodwill and people of all ages love it from tots to grannies.

Jaxbar

Is that Chinese Gift Exchange? we played it at my last job and there was someone who was really offended as no one wanted her gift!

lisa67

I like the game, sorry, don't know what it's called, where everyone has the name of a famous person stuck to their forehead so the person can't see who they are and everyone else has to treat them and talk to them like they were that person and then you, the person, have to guess who you are.

Jaxbar

I was just thinking of that myself a great ice breaker

GeoffM

We used to have Secret Santa at work until the boss banned it . Everybody who wanted to participate would draw a name out of a hat and would then have to buy that person a small, appropriate gift. Often the gifts were jokes, like the girl that prominently wore G-strings got a pair of huge granny knickers one year, or the person who hated trains (we work at a railway engineering company) got a Thomas the Tank Engine apron.

Another circle of friends would each buy one gift for £10 suitable for anybody - one year we got a spice rack. All the gifts would be wrapped so you had no idea what was what (except the gift you brought) and names would be drawn out of a hat to come forward and get given a random gift.

Anyway, neither of those are party games as such but the second one could be good as an ice breaker. I actually find pass-the-parcel quite boring, and you have to wrap the sodding thing in the first place which takes some time.

Charades (give us a clue)?

Orangepants

We played this game at a hen party - it was the funniest thing ever - I dont think I had ever laughed as much in my life. We played - person or object. I was a toaster!

Jaxbar

I like that, never thought of choosing an object

Anian

The only party games that Americans seem to know are charades and musical chairs.

Moonshadow_Girl

We're hosting a Boxing Day gathering and we've asked our friends to bring a gift they received at Christmas for a gift exchange game. Do you usually play games at Boxing Day parties? This is my first hosting (I'm the USC).

lisa67

Yes, that's a great idea

moneypenny20

Can never remember what it's called but the cutting up the huge bar of chocolate with knife and fork and wearing hat, scarf, gloves etc. Works best after a great deal of alcohol.

lisa67

Oh yes, love that one. I don't know what it's called either. We played it by throwing a dice. If you got a 6 you could put on the garments and start hacking the chocolate until someone else got a 6 and ripped the garment off you.