These games are for a night at home when the players run from about 5 years old to grandparents. Several need nothing at all, and the rest use things already in the house, such as paper or a deck of cards. Each game has its rules in a few steps, plus a tip.
The list starts with the games most families already know.
1. 20 questions
Players: 2 or moreAges: 5 and upYou need: Nothing
- One player thinks of something everyone at the table knows, such as an animal or a thing in the house.
- The others take turns asking questions that can be answered yes or no.
- Count the questions out loud. The group has 20 to work out the answer.
- Whoever guesses right thinks of the next one. If nobody gets it in 20, the thinker says the answer and picks who goes next.
With small children, stick to animals. Have them whisper their choice to an adult first, so the answer does not change halfway through.
2. Draw and guess
Players: 4 or more, in two teamsAges: 6 and upYou need: Paper, pencils, a bowl and a one-minute timer
- Everyone writes a few things to draw on slips of paper and folds them into the bowl.
- Split into two teams. One player takes a slip and draws it for their own team without speaking, and without writing letters or numbers.
- The team has one minute to shout guesses. A correct guess scores a point.
- Teams take turns, with a new person drawing each time. Play to 10 points.
Give children under 7 their own bowl of easy words, like cat and house.
3. Who am I?
Players: 3 or moreAges: 6 and upYou need: Sticky notes and a pen
- Each player writes an animal or a storybook character on a sticky note and sticks it on the forehead of the player to their left, who must not see it.
- On your turn, ask the group one yes or no question about yourself, such as "Do I have four legs?"
- A yes earns you another question. A no passes the turn to the next player.
- Keep going until everyone has worked out who they are.
A child who cannot read yet can team up with an adult, who reads the other players' notes to them in a whisper.
4. Telephone
Players: 5 or moreAges: 5 and upYou need: Nothing
- Sit in a line or a circle. The first player thinks of a sentence and whispers it once to the next player.
- Each player whispers what they heard to the next person. Nobody may ask for a repeat.
- The last player says the sentence out loud, then the first player says what it was at the start.
Long, silly sentences get mangled the most. Try something like "Grandpa's purple socks ran away with the neighbor's cat."
5. Two truths and a lie
Players: 3 or moreAges: 7 and upYou need: Nothing
- One player says three things about themselves. Two are true and one is made up.
- Everyone else may ask a few questions, then votes on which one is the lie.
- The player reveals the lie. Each person who guessed right scores a point, and the turn moves on.
Grandparents are hard to beat at this, because they have true stories nobody at the table has heard. Ask for the full story after each reveal.
6. Categories
Players: 3 or moreAges: 8 and up, younger in teamsYou need: Paper and pencils
- Agree on five or six categories, such as animals and foods, and write them down the side of your page.
- Someone picks a letter. Everyone writes one answer per category that starts with it.
- The round ends when the first player has filled every category and shouts "stop".
- Read the answers out. An answer nobody else wrote scores 2 points, and a shared answer scores 1.
- Play five letters and add up the scores.
Pair each young child with an adult who does the writing, and skip the letters Q, X and Z.
7. Spoons
Players: 3 to 8Ages: 6 and upYou need: A deck of cards and one spoon fewer than there are players
- Put the spoons in the middle of the table and deal four cards to each player. The dealer keeps the rest of the deck.
- The dealer picks up a card from the deck, then passes one card face down to the left. Every player does the same with the cards that arrive, always keeping four in hand. The last player starts a discard pile.
- The first player to hold four of a kind takes a spoon. As soon as one spoon goes, everyone else grabs for the rest.
- The player left without a spoon is out. Remove a spoon and deal again until one player is left.
When you get four of a kind, take your spoon slowly and keep passing cards. It can be a while before anyone notices.
8. Go fish
Players: 2 to 6Ages: 5 and upYou need: A deck of cards
- Deal five cards each, or seven with two or three players. Spread the rest face down as the pond.
- On your turn, ask one player for a rank you already hold: "Do you have any sevens?" They must hand over every card of that rank.
- If they have none, they say "Go fish" and you take a card from the pond.
- If you get the rank you asked for, from the player or the pond, you take another turn.
- Lay down each set of four as you complete it. When the cards run out, the player with the most sets wins.
Small hands struggle to hold a fan of cards. Young players can lay theirs face up behind a propped book.
9. Wink murder
Players: 6 or moreAges: 7 and upYou need: A folded slip of paper for each player, one marked with an X
- Everyone draws a slip and looks at it in secret. Whoever gets the X is the murderer.
- Sit in a circle and look around at each other. The murderer winks at one player at a time, trying not to be seen by anyone else.
- A player who is winked at counts to three in their head, then dies as dramatically as they like and is out.
- Any player still in may accuse someone. A right guess ends the round, and a wrong guess puts the accuser out.
Kids who cannot wink yet can stick out their tongue for a split second.
10. Sardines
Players: 4 or moreAges: 5 and upYou need: A house with a few good hiding places
- One player hides while everyone else counts to 50 together with their eyes shut.
- The seekers split up and search alone. A seeker who finds the hider squeezes into the hiding place too and keeps silent.
- The round ends when the last seeker finds the whole group. The first one who found the hider hides next.
Before you start, say which rooms are out of bounds. Rule out anywhere a child could get shut in, like a chest or a tumble dryer.
11. Hot and cold
Players: 2 or moreAges: 4 and upYou need: A small object to hide
- One player leaves the room while the others hide the object somewhere it can be reached without climbing.
- The seeker comes back and starts looking. The others call "warmer" as the seeker gets closer and "colder" as the seeker moves away.
- "Boiling" means it is within arm's reach. When the seeker finds it, they choose who goes out next.
For a harder round, drop the words and clap: slow claps when the seeker is far away, fast claps up close.
12. Consequences
Players: 3 or moreAges: 8 and upYou need: A sheet of paper and a pen for each player
- Everyone writes the name of someone all the players know at the top of their sheet, folds the paper over to hide it and passes it to the left.
- On the sheet you receive, write "met" and a second name. Fold and pass again.
- Do the same for three more lines: where they met, what one said to the other, and what happened in the end.
- Pass one last time, then unfold the sheets and take turns reading the stories out loud.
Use the people in the room and the family pets as characters. The stories are funnier when everyone knows who they are about.
13. Pig
Players: 2 or moreAges: 7 and upYou need: One die, plus paper to keep score
- On your turn, roll the die as many times as you like and add up the numbers as you go.
- Stop whenever you want and bank the total on the score sheet.
- If you roll a 1 before stopping, you lose everything from that turn and the die moves on.
- The first player to reach 100 wins.
Play to 50 with younger children, and have an adult keep their running total.
14. Kim's game
Players: 2 or moreAges: 5 and upYou need: A tray, about 12 small household objects and a dish towel
- Lay the objects on the tray and let everyone study them while you count slowly to 30.
- Cover the tray with the towel. One player takes away a single object while the others shut their eyes.
- Uncover the tray. The first person to name the missing object wins the round and removes the next one.
Start with 8 objects for young children, and go up to 20 when the adults get cocky.
Open one, pick who's playing, and pass the phone around.
Updated November 2026.