What Games to Play at Your Next Dinner Party

[fa icon="calendar"] Mar 16, 2016 11:30:00 AM / by Melanie Sazegar


Fun dinner party games depend on what type of games you and your group of friends are into - some people prefer traditional card games like Texas Hold ‘Em poker or Bridge, others like the simple strategy behind a game of dominoes, and others still enjoy laugh out loud, animated games such as Pictionary and Charades. Show your guests a great time with these new dinner party game ideas!

Celebrity Hunt (aka The Name Game)

For smaller, quieter groups of friends, “Celebrity Hunt” is a great lead-in to other games or fun all on its own. In this adult dinner party game, the first player speaks a famous celebrity’s name like “Flava Flav” or “Leonardo DiCaprio”, then everyone else shouts “HUNT!”. The next player must say another celebrity’s name that begins with the last letter of the previous celebrity’s name. Using our “Leonardo DiCaprio” example above, the next player could yell “Oprah” or “Orlando Bloom”. Here’s how this game dinner party game may look like in real life:

PLAYER 1: “Leonardo DiCaprio!”


PLAYER 2: “Orlando Bloom!”


PLAYER 3: “Michael Jackson!”


If anyone takes too long to answer (5 seconds, 7 seconds - you set the rules!), has no answer, repeats a name or speaks out of turn, they must face the consequences. It’s your choice whether that consequence is to take a drink, pose for a hilariously outlandish picture, or anything else you can come up with. One of my friends starts “Celebrity Hunt” with a set of 20 playing cards, and each time someone loses, they must pull one card. The person at the end of the game with the least amount of cards wins. Put your imagination to work!

What’s great about this game is that it’s very customizable to the friend group you’re with - you can make it as quiet or active as you like. A quieter version may include everyone sitting where they are and taking turns saying celebrity names, moving clockwise around the room. A louder version of this game may involve all guests standing up and tossing around a drink of your choice beer can when it’s their turn to name the celebrity. 


Pin A Friend

For larger, animated groups of friends, this is a super fun dinner party game that you can actually play all night throughout other ongoing festivities. In “Pin A Friend”, Player 1 takes a plastic clothes pin and tries to secretly pin it on someone else’s shirt, pants, in their hair, etc. Player 1 quietly walks a good distance away from the pinned friend and begins loudly counting down from 10. Everyone else joins in on the countdown while checking themselves for the pin, but no cheating - you can’t tell anyone else that it’s stuck to them!


If the pinned friend finds and unhooks the pin before Player 1 reaches the count of 0, Player 1 must face the consequences. Just like “Celebrity Hunt” mentioned above, the consequence could be making a funny face and setting it as their default picture on Facebook, trying to balance a ball on their head, or drawing one card from a deck of 20 playing cards with the person who has the least amount of cards at the end of the game declared the winner. But if the pinned friend doesn’t find and/or unlock the pin in time, they must face the consequence and they are the next in line to pin the next friend.


How’s Yours?

For mid-sized groups of friends who like to take turns moving through a game instead of free-for-alls, “How’s Yours?” is a funny adult dinner party game. In “How’s Yours?”, everyone at the party votes to send one player - we’ll call them Player 1 - to a different room while everyone else decides on an item or trait they all share. This can be a physical possession like a laptop or TV, body part such as chin or toes, or something abstract like an embarrassing memory or laugh.

Once everyone’s decided on the item or trait they all have in common, one player from the group - we’ll call them Player 2 - retrieves Player 1 from the other room. Player 1 begins asking each person one by one, “how’s yours?”. Players may only reply with one or two words to describe the shared item or trait.

It’s most fun to begin with difficult, vague adjectives that give nothing away and slowly move towards more descriptive adjectives that make it easier for Player 1 to guess the item or trait. Once Player 1 has finished asking everyone in the group one-by-one “how’s yours?”, s/he must guess the item or trait. If s/he gets it wrong, they have to take a drink!

Here’s what this dinner party game may look like in real life:

GROUP: “We vote for Player 1 to leave the room!”

PLAYER 1: *leaves room*

GROUP: “Now that Player 1 is gone, let’s use “an iPhone” as the “thing”! Player 2, bring Player 1 back in.”

PLAYER 2: *retrieves PLAYER 1*

GROUP: “OK PLAYER 1, start!”

PLAYER 1: “Player 3, how’s yours?”

PLAYER 3: “Silver”

PLAYER 1: “Player 4, how’s yours?”

PLAYER 4: “Broken”

PLAYER 1: “Player 5, how’s yours?”

PLAYER 5: “5S”

PLAYER 2: “OK, Player 1, what’s your guess?”

PLAYER 1: “An iPhone?”

PLAYER 2: “Ooh, good work! OK, Player 3, it’s your turn to leave the room…”

You can see how some “things” may be easier to guess than others. Because of all the different options, this dinner party game is great for groups of 5-8 people.


Share Your Favorite Dinner Party Games!

What are your favorite dinner party games? Have you ever played any of these dinner party games before? Tell us in the comments!

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Topics: Fun, Dinner, Dinner Party Games

Melanie Sazegar

Written by Melanie Sazegar

A guest blogger for Home Bistro, Melanie is a 20something Los Angeleno who loves cheese and tofu - though not usually together.