New Year's Party Games to Celebrate 2024

Step aside, Pictionary.

Between the holidays and the start of the year, there isn’t much time to plan a party for New Year’s Eve. Whether you’re hosting friends or family, you’ll need a way to pass the time until midnight. Pick a few of these fun and easy New Year’s party games to celebrate the new beginnings of 2024.

New Year's Olympics

Create a slate of fun, minute-to-win-it type games, and give prizes to the winners in each round of play. Some New Year's games to include in the mix:

• The Blowhard Longest blow on a New Year's horn

• Ball Drop See who can toss the most balls into a New Year's hat within a minute

• Shhhh-ampagne Who can pop a champagne cork the quietest (Use small splits!)

• Midnight Muncher See who can fit 12 grapes in their mouth (a Spanish New Year's tradition) or use Hershey's Kisses in homage to those good luck New Year's smooches

• Syne Off Give guests a minute to write down as many words to "Auld Lang Syne" as possible. (Most accurate person wins!)

New Year's Game of Phones

Try a New Year's twist on the popular Game of Phones. Ask guests to find photos of them breaking one of last year's New Year's resolutions, their wildest moment of 2023, their favorite food photo, or the funniest text you got last year. One person judges who has the best photo (and the best story) for each prompt.

Name That Tune

This one’s for the music aficionados. Find a playlist with 2023’s top hits (or create your own). Play a snippet of one song at a time, and have partygoers guess what song it is. Bonus points for getting the artist correct. Divide into teams, or play free for all.

Resolution Roulette

Tired of coming up with your own resolutions? Have guests write potential resolutions on paper (encourage creativity), then put them in a hat and have everyone draw something daring to try for the New Year. (You can have guests vote on whether that person will really take up ballroom dancing in 2024.)

Ugly New Year's Hat Contest

Try this tweak on the classic ugly sweater party. Have guests bring their wildest hats to ring in the new year, or set up a table with where they can adorn tiaras and hats for judging.

Resolution White Elephant Exchange

White Elephant doesn’t have to be a Christmas game. Ask everyone to bring a resolution-related gift. It could be anything—some face masks or body scrubs to practice self-care, a vegetarian cookbook to eat less meat, or decaf coffee to drink less caffeine. Challenge your guests to try out their new resolution in 2024.

Related: 30 Fantastic Party Games to Make Your Next Gathering a Blast

Charades

Enjoy this classic party game with a festive twist. Write down all of the landmark events from 2023 on slips of paper. It can be anything: pop culture, politics, personal milestones, or inside jokes. Take turns drawing from a hat and acting out the situation.

2023 Pictionary

Not into acting or wordplay? Take those same 2023 events or milestones from Charades, and have everyone draw them out for people to guess.

Guess Who

Write the names of newsmakers and pop-culture characters from 2023 on cards. (A few to get you started: Greta Gerwig, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Beyonce, Matthew Perry, Pedro Pascal, Michelle Yeoh, Barbie.) Each person grabs a card and holds it to their head without looking at it, then guests ask and answer each other's questions to see who can solve who they are first.

2024 Predictions Bingo

When your guests arrive, give them a blank bingo sheet. Ask them to fill out the squares with their predictions for 2024. Answers can be as creative or practical as they want. Maybe they’re aiming for a promotion or have predictions about which celebrity relationships will fall apart. Have them bring their cards back when you ring in 2025 together (or hold onto them yourself!) to see whose predictions were the most accurate.

Best of 2023

Every year has highs and lows, but reflecting on the positives makes it all worth it. These Best Of cards from Classy Cutter are the perfect way to prompt conversation. Place them in a bowl and draw one card, then ask everyone to share their answer.

Two Resolutions and a Lie

How well do you know your friends? Put your friendships to the test by playing this variation of Two Truths and a Lie. Share two of your New Year’s resolutions (plus one you’ve made up) without saying which is which. See which of the guests can guess the imposter.

Related: Champagne Cocktails to Upgrade Your New Year's

Retro Fortune Tellers

Remember those old-school paper-fold fortune tellers we used to make? Bring them back for your bash. Ask guests to make a wish, then pick numbers and images to see if their dreams will come true this year. Download the template to print them out. (Or go ahead and make your own—we know you remember how to make them!)

New Year's Trivia

How much do you remember from 2023? Design your own trivia questions to test your guests’ knowledge on 2023 happenings. Ask about pop culture, sports, music, and events, and award points for the right answer. Play in teams or individually, and tally up the winners. 

Pro Tip: Don’t have time to write questions? This trivia game on Etsy has prepared questions about New Year’s traditions.

Don’t have time to write questions? This trivia game on Etsy has prepared questions about New Year’s traditions.

New Year’s Mad Libs

If your guests love to laugh, try this New Year’s Resolution Mad Libs from The Idea Room. Let your guests pair off to dictate their resolutions. Once everyone is done, have them share out loud. You can even give a prize to the most laughable.

For more Real Simple news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Real Simple.