Finding suitable games for a teenage birthday party can be tricky, but we have some great party games that even your teenager will enjoy.
There’s a fine line between organising some fun games for your teenager’s party, and embarrassing the heck out of them. The problem is – you’ll have no idea where that line is drawn! For the most part, it’s a good idea to let your teenager organise the party on their own, or with teen friends, (with strict guidelines of course), and when it comes to the games, your teenager will definitely want to be the host. The last thing a 13 or 14 year old wants is Mum or Dad clapping their hands and getting everybody into a circle.
With that in mind, here are some great indoor party games that you may want to suggest to your teen. They’ll be able to adapt them to suit their friends, and maybe even change the name so it sounds like their idea. Here goes…
7 Party games for teenagers – Tried and true
1. Balloon Dare
Write out a dare for every guest at the party, and slip each one into a balloon before blowing it up and tying the knot. One at a time, the guests choose a balloon and pop it to find the dare. Your guests then have to do the dare, or suffer the consequences.
Dares don’t have to be embarrassing, instead they could be more of a challenge (think Fear Factor or Treasure Island). Maybe they have to eat something out-of-the-ordinary like baby squid, or perhaps they need to complete a physical task. Check out our Fear Factor article for more ideas.
Consequences shouldn’t be embarrassing either, but rather something grossly fun. Maybe they have to eat a plate of custard with no hands, or agree to have the birthday child paint their face. Remember consequences shouldn’t be threatening or humiliating.
When preparing this game, you may want to talk to your teen about what dares are appropriate, and have the final say as to what goes in the balloon. You will also need to agree on a consequence that is safe and appropriate in your home. Good luck!
2. Truth, Truth, Lie
When your guests arrive, give them each a card to write down three facts about themselves. Two of the things must be true, and one of them must be a lie. When everyone has arrived, have each guest read out their facts, and everybody else must try to work out the lie. The person who guesses the most ‘lies’ correctly – wins!
3. Name that Song
Get a selection of CDs, an iPod playlist, or even a Youtube playlist together. Get your guests to try to guess each song, by only playing a few seconds of music. You could play the first few beats, or to make it even harder, record a small snippet from the middle of each song.
This is a great game to play in teams of 2-3 people. And you can really ramp it up by including a prize at the end, and spot prizes of chocolates or lollies to dish out during the game!
4. Winks
This is a great game for a party with both boys and girls, and works best with lots of guests. If your teen is still in the early stages of ‘liking boys’ (or girls), then this game can be lots of fun.
Set up a circle of chairs, and have all the girls take a seat. The boys then take their place standing behind a girl of their choice, with one boy standing behind an empty chair. The boy with an empty chair winks at a girl, who then jumps up to take the empty spot. If the boy behind her tags her shoulders before she gets away, she must stay seated. If she makes it out of the chair, the game continues with a new winker.
How you play this game will depend on the number of girls vs. boys at the party. If the numbers aren’t even, make sure you jumble it up so there is more than one same-sex pair to begin with. Having a mixture of pairs will stop any teasing that may occur.
5. Wink Murder
Have all the guests close their eyes, and choose one guest to be the murderer by tapping them on the shoulder. All the other guests are detectives. When everyone opens their eyes, the murderer must start ‘killing’ off the detectives by winking at them one by one. If a guest is winked at, they need to die – very dramatically – so everyone knows they have been killed.
If a guest thinks s/he can solve the mystery (i.e. who the murderer is), s/he can shout out their name. If they are right, they win the game, but if they are wrong, they have to die. If the murderer manages to kill everybody without being found out, the murderer wins.
6. Nail Polish Spin the Bottle
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, this is a game for girls.
Have your guests sit in a circle, and place several different nail polishes around the inside. The birthday girl starts by spinning a soft drink bottle in the middle of the circle, and then painting one fingernail with whichever polish it ends up pointing at. The guests then take turns spinning the bottle, and painting one finger nail in the chosen colour. The game continues until everybody has all 10 nails painted in different polish.
7. T-Shirt Keepsake
Teenagers like the idea of having a keepsake, especially one they can show off. Purchase a plain coloured T-Shirt, and a few tubes of fabric paint. As each guest arrives get them to sign their name, write a message, or draw a picture for the birthday teen. They can even go all out and do hand or even footprints just for fun!
If your child doesn’t want a T-shirt, you could use a pillowcase or cushion cover instead.
Fabric paints are available from good craft stores for approximately $4 per tube. Look for brands that do not need specialist setting, but instead simply dry by themselves or can be heat-set using an iron or hair dryer.
Last thoughts
If you’re a parent and just wading into the minefield of teenagers birthday parties, you’ll definitely want to read our article Negotiating teen birthday parties.
Remember your teenager may not want any sort of games at their party, and instead choose to just ‘hang out’. This’s fine if there are only 2 or 3 friends invited, but if there’s more than that, cliques can start to form without planned entertainment. Girls can be particularly vicious, and the party can literally end in tears.
Finally, if your teens are really anti-games, why not take them out for an activity instead? We’d love to hear your best game ideas in the comments below too!
