5 Family-Friendly Games You Can Play On New Year’s Eve

There are many fun ways to teach young children and family friends alike about the importance of living an eco-friendly life. Playing games is a wonderful way to engage family and friends in a lighthearted manner and bond at the same time.

If you are planning a fun New Year's bash this year, there are many fun ways to ring in the year with lots of laughs. Keep reading to learn about five fun games that you can play with your family on New Year's Eve or any occasion.

For a family-friendly and fun take on the tradition of watching the New Year's Eve ball drop on television, Southern Living recommends passing a balloon around between family members in a circle. However, unlike the actual ball-dropping tradition, the aim of this game is to not drop the balloon, lest you be considered out of the game.

What makes this game so much fun and increasingly difficult and engaging is that participants cannot use their hands to pass the balloon to the next person in the circle. Thankfully, because you are using a balloon instead of a breakable glass ball, participants are less likely to become injured if they drop the balloon.

Balloons are notoriously not eco-friendly, so we'd recommend trying this with a reusable water balloon instead.

For this musical challenge suggested by Southern Living, you will grab your favorite CD, vinyl record, or musical medium and form teams to see who can be the first to guess the song playing.

You can model your version of the challenge after the television show Name That Tune, or you can come up with your own rules to engage participants of all ages.

Make sure to give your participants enough time to guess each song, and be sure to play a wide variety of genres to give family members of all ages an equitable chance. At the end of the game, whomever guessed the most songs correctly wins.

If you have cotton balls and New Year's hats (or leftover hats from past birthday celebrations), you have all the necessary accessories to play Don't Look Back. This symbolic game is about not looking behind you, only forward into the new year.

According to Play Party Plan, one player stands with their back to the player tossing the cotton balls behind them. Using a party hat, the first player must try to catch the cotton ball lobbed to them. The first team to catch five cotton balls wins the game.

In this fun game from Play Party Plan, family members are symbolically taught about the effort to keep up their resolutions. To start, players write three resolutions across three different balloons. During gameplay, teams of two must work together to keep all three balloons afloat in the air without dropping their resolution.

Teams must keep their balloons in the air for one minute to win. We similarly suggest trying this game with something more eco-friendly, like a soft ball.

In this fun, classic game suggested by PureWow, guests are given a list of New Year's-themed items to search for on a scavenger hunt as they compete to see which team can find all of the items first.

With kids playing, be sure that all items are accessible within a reasonable height and that the items do not pose a safety threat.