Pick a favorite game, and use it as the inspiration for your game night décor. If you love Twister, make your pad Twister-ific by decorating with red, blue, green and yellow balloons and polka-dotted streamers. Or if Parcheesi is more your speed, you could decorate with colorful saris for an Indian theme (Parcheesi, or Parchisi, is the national game of India).
To get in the mood for this kid-friendly party theme, deck out your party room like a teenage bedroom or college dorm room with rock posters, cut-out pictures of celebrity crushes and club flyers. Spread blankets, quilts and pillows on the floor to create a casual atmosphere where guests can spread out and get comfortable.
Board game suggestions for your game night party:
| • Monopoly • Trivial Pursuit • Taboo • Pictionary • Clue • Cranium | • Life • Scrabble • Outburst • Scattergories • Murder mystery game • Apples to Apples |
Keep in mind that you're not limited to store-bought games. For games like charades and the name game, all you need are strips of paper and a good imagination.
To create your own word-definition guessing game, find obscure words in a dictionary and ask everybody to come up with inventive possible definitions for them, while one person writes down the correct answer.
There are various ways to run your game night, and you can make it as casual or as formal as you'd like. Here are some tips for getting your game on:
• If your group is too large or unruly to all play the same game, set up stations for different games or team people up for group play.
• To make games more challenging and help to get people interacting, separate couples and really close friends. If guests seem shy, start with a team competition to get people comfortable.
• Playing with a shy group? Start off with a team competition, where people can get more comfortable with one another and with playing games. Also, be sure to choose games with different topics—not just pop culture trivia or word games.
• If your games require score-keeping, drawing or sculpting, buy lots of pens, extra modeling clay and pads of paper.
Playing Candyland? Then you know exactly what kind of food to set out for your party.
If you're thinking more along savory lines for your game night party, you can't go wrong with pizza. Make your own from scratch, and have your friends add fun toppings (goat cheese, marinated artichoke hearts, fresh basil, etc.) Ordering plain cheese pizzas and adding toppings at home will achieve similar results, with less time away from gaming.
Eating and playing games don't have to be mutually exclusive — it is possible to drink creamy tomato soup from a mug as you roll the dice and move your mice. Bite-size, non-greasy finger foods also work better than those requiring a knife, fork, plate and a table, since you'll want to save the valuable table space for the games you're playing.
Featured Game Night Recipes from Epicurious.com | Shandy
• 1 part lager
• 1 part ginger ale, ginger beer or carbonated lemonade
Combine ingredients and serve cold. |  |
| 1. | Let's Twist / Chubby Checker
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| 2. | Luck Be a Lady Tonight / Frank Sinatra
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| 3. | All Star / Smash Mouth
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| 4. | Start Me Up / The Rolling Stones |
| 5. | Let's Get It Started / The Black Eyed Peas
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| 6. | Tubthumping / Chumbawamba
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| 7. | Baba O'Riley / The Who
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| 8. | Surrender / Cheap Trick
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| 9. | We Are the Champions / Queen |
| 10. | Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye / Steam
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