How to host party games

A good games host is not the funniest person in the room. A good host is the one who has thought about the next ten minutes. Most party games go wrong for dull reasons: the rules took too long to explain, the materials were in another room, or one game ran on until everyone was bored. All of that is avoidable. Here is what experienced hosts do.

Before the party

• Plan one game for every fifteen minutes of games time, and one spare. For a two-hour children's party with food, that means five or six games.
• Put each game's materials in its own bag or tray, labelled, in the order you will use them. This single habit does more for a party than anything else.
• Try anything fiddly once yourself. Does the flour cake hold? Does the string reach?
• Walk the space. Decide where each game will happen and what must be moved.
• Recruit one helper who knows the plan: to hand out materials, keep score and run the music.
• Sort the prizes. Small, equal, wrapped. Have a few extra for the child who never wins.

Explaining a game

1. Get silence first. A whistle, a bell or a raised hand that everyone copies.
2. Say the aim in one sentence: "Get all the beans into the bowl using only the straw."
3. Show it. Play one slow round with two volunteers.
4. Give the one or two rules that matter. Leave the rest until they come up.
5. Ask "Any questions?" and then start at once.

If your explanation takes longer than a minute, the game is too complicated for a party, or you are explaining too much.

Making teams fairly

• Never let captains pick. Somebody is always chosen last.
• Count off "one, two, one, two" round the room, or draw coloured chits.
• Balance ages by putting the youngest and the oldest into teams first.
• Our chit maker can split a list of names into random teams; so can the team maker on our neighbour site.

Pace and order

• Start easy, with a game everyone can join while late guests arrive.
• Alternate loud with quiet, running with sitting.
• Stop each game at its peak. "One more round!" from the players is the sign to end it. Never play a game until it dies.
• Food resets everything. Put a calm game straight after eating.
• Finish with the best, the game most likely to leave everyone laughing.

When things go wrong

• A game is not working. Drop it within two minutes, cheerfully: "Right, next one!" Nobody will mind.
• Someone cheats. Do not make a trial of it. Replay the round, or award the point to both sides, and move on.
• A child cries at losing. Give them a job: scorer, music-stopper, prize-giver. Jobs heal faster than sympathy.
• One person dominates. Make them your assistant.
• Someone will not join in. Let them watch. Invite once, lightly, and never in front of the group a second time.
• An argument about the rules. The host's decision is final. Say so at the start, with a smile.

Safety and kindness

• Ask about food allergies before any eating game.
• Clear the floor before any running or blindfold game, and stay next to a blindfolded player.
• No forfeits that humiliate; no games that single out bodies, marks, money or marriage.
• Ask before photographing and before posting.
• Keep burst balloons, coins and beads away from babies.

Ending well

Announce the last game as the last. Give the prizes quickly, thank your helper by name, and take the group photograph while everyone is still flushed and laughing. Then stop. A party that ends ten minutes too early is remembered far more fondly than one that ends ten minutes too late.

Ready-made running orders for different occasions are on the party plans page.