Are you in charge of the games and activities for New Year’s? Then you’ve come to the right place. In this article I have gathered a pick-and-mix with something for everybody. Starting with table-placing games, to challenges throughout the night and lastly some tips for the traditional femkamp (“pentathlon”). Enjoy and get inspired!
Starting right off with the table-placing games. If you’re not one for arranging people’s seats, that’s alright – but if you are, make something fun of it! There are plenty of ways to do this. Here are some examples with the idea that you pair people up. So not deciding every seat around the table, but a dinner partner for the evening.
Songbirds – Give out notes with a singer/band written on it and duplicate every note (everyone should get a note). Make the guests sing their way to their dinner partner.
Artists – For example: write all the ladies names on notes and make the men pick one each. Then let the men paint a portrait of the one they’ve picked and then place it on the seat next to them. Now it’s time for the ladies to find themselves.
Word pairs – Make a note with a word that we often connect to another word. For example “ketchup” and “mustard”. Find your partner by connecting the word pairs.
Padlocks/deck of cards – An easy version. Give half of the people padlocks and the other half the belonging keys – make them find each other. Same theory works for a deck of cards. Cut some cards in half and give them out. Then find your missing half.
SECRET CHALLENGES
This next activity is perfect for that dinner party. Basically you give each of your guests a mission they shall complete during the evening. Write down the challenges on notes and place them under the plates. Customize the missions to what you think fits your party. Below are some examples you could use:
– Make several speeches throughout the night/Make a sentimental speech – Initiate at least 5 toasts throughout dinner
– Give each and everyone at least one compliment
– Taste a bit of food from everyone
– Start lambos – If you want you could give another guest “everytime someone starts a lambo act like it’s always addressed to you too” (Drink of your choice) – Come up with a New Year’s resolution and get at least five people convinced to join in on it
– Initiate a dance battle against the host/hostess
– Wipe the napkin on someone else’s mouth time to time
– Take a selfie with everyone attending dinner (nice memory afterwards as well) – Use an expression like “holy guacamole” or “shit pommesfrites” several times throughout the evening.
To spice it up – hand out the challenges secretly and make the guests think they’re the chosen one. This will make the appearance of a challenge less obvious and more fun.
FEMKAMP
A classic. You could make it more or less complicated. The “Äggrace”, “säckhoppning” and “Irländsk Julafton” might be the most traditional Swedish games. Although here are some alternatives if you want to mix it up. Inspired by Lundaekonomerna.
The sausage flip – This sausage-flipping game fits perfectly into a Femkamp. (Thank you Social committee for this lovely idea) It works this way: You wrap a thread around the waist and place a sausage on the other end that hangs about half a meter down in front of you. The mission is then to flip the sausage in a way so that you can catch it with your mouth. It can be tricky, but very fun to watch.
Fruit transportation – Straight from the Novice week HT22. Your team stands in a line and the first person is given some kind of fruit. The goal is then to transport this fruit through all members of the team to the last person who puts it in a basket. Without using any hands of course.
Quiz – Lastly, I would like to recommend the quiz. It’s a safe bet. You could make it part of a femkamp or you can play it separately. The quiz could be about whatever. In lack of inspiration you could do a New Year’s quiz about the year that has passed. Either about worldwide events or about you and your friends. Make a recap of the year and see how much everyone remembers.
Hope you got inspiration, Happy New Year!
