Best New Year's Eve Games For Adults To Play At Home

New Year's Eve at home has one dangerous hour: about half ten, when the food's gone, the playlist has stopped surprising anyone and midnight still feels a long way off.

The fix is a run of short games rather than one long one. Here's what to play, roughly in the order it works.

Early: get people talking

• Hitster - you hear a song, then guess roughly what year it came out and slot it into your timeline. It's a music game that runs off a phone and a speaker, and it gets everyone singing along within a round.
• A year-in-review quiz: ten news questions everybody will argue about.
• Guess the number one from the year each guest was born.
• Two truths and a lie, restricted to things that happened this year.
• Herd Mentality - write the answer you think everyone else wrote.

Mid-evening: the loud bit

• Articulate or Taboo in teams, which suits a mixed group of friends and partners.
• The Chameleon - one player is bluffing and everyone else is hunting.
• Name That Tune off a phone: ten seconds each, first to shout wins.
• Wavelength, which is really just an excuse for a friendly argument.
• Karaoke, which will happen at some point whether you plan it or not.

Late: short rounds only

• Wink murder round the sofa.
• Spyfall - eight minutes, and nobody needs to stand up.
• A blind tasting of whatever fizzy wine is left, scored out of ten.
• Mr and Mrs, played about whichever couple has been together longest.

The countdown

• Poppers handed out at three minutes to, not before.
• Everyone says one thing they're leaving in the old year, out loud.
• Auld Lang Syne properly, arms crossed at the last verse.
• Something hot at half eleven - sausage rolls, chips, a bacon sandwich. Always the right call.
• A photo at 12.01 in the same spot every year.

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How to write it so it lands

• Plan the night in hour blocks. The gaps are what sink New Year's Eve at home.
• Keep every game under half an hour so people can drift in and out.
• Have one game in reserve for half ten. There's always a half ten.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the best New Year's Eve games for adults?

A music game like Hitster to start, then a quiz of the year, a team game such as Articulate or Taboo, and short bluffing rounds late on. Short games in sequence beat one long one.

How do you keep guests entertained until midnight?

Run something every hour and feed people again at half eleven. The dead spot is always around half ten, so save a loud game for then.

What's a good music game for a party?

Hitster - play a track, guess the year, build a timeline. It needs a phone and a speaker, teaches in a minute and works with a room of different ages.

What can you do at midnight instead of just watching the telly?

Hand out poppers three minutes before, go round the room with one hope each for the year, sing Auld Lang Syne and take a group photo at 12.01.

Do you sell board games?

No. We make greeting cards, art prints, pin badges and party bits in the UK, so the games here are simply what we'd recommend to a friend. Some links go to other shops and may earn us a small commission, at no extra cost to you.