Are you looking for a game for adults to play at your New Year’s Eve Party. How about one with a variety of prizes, including ones that turn out to be “booby prizes” or ones with little or no value. Well here is an idea of a game that will be a lot of fun. It takes a little bit of planning to set up, but in the end will result in quite a bit of interaction among your guests by the end of the night. As the host you can determine the true value of your prizes, but this article includes a guideline for a medium cost event.
The Set-up
You will want to have three “gift cards” for each adult attending your New Year’s Eve party. Each adult will receive one that has a green letter, one that has a red letter, and two with a yellow letter. Tell them that the colors and the letters will all have an effect on what type of prizes they receive at the end of the night. Let them know that every colored letter corresponds to a prize chart that will be revealed as the night goes on. Some of the prizes will be revealed during the night, but most will be revealed at the end of the night.
The Prize Chart
Have a large poster board chart with each letter that has been given out for green, red and yellow in different rows. Write under each letter what the prize associated with it is. Put the the biggest prizes in the green row. Put some of the middle value prizes in the red row, and the cheapest prizes in the red row.
The green row- have only 20% of these letters have real prizes, for the others have them revealed as “sorry, play again”, or “Wrong choice”. Make these the big prizes. Suggestions would be $50 gift cards to local restaurants, tickets to a play, tickets to a sporting event, a nice bottle of champagne or wine, etc.
The red row- have 40% of these letters have real prizes. The rest will have the same “sorry, play again” message as below. Examples of prizes for the red letter redemptions at your New Year’s Eve Party could be $10 gift cards to local restaurants, movie gift certificates, gas cards, moderately priced bottles of wine, champagne, or beer, etc.
The yellow row- have 80% of these letters have real prizes. The prizes for these letters would be rather small, including $5 gift cards to local establishments, small trinket prizes like candles, holiday decorations, holiday CD’s, and other small gifts.
Tell your guests that during the evening they can trade their letters with other guests however they wish. Let them know that the prizes on the green level will be the biggest prizes, but that there is also a greater risk that those letters will include no prize at all. Let them know that prizes will be awarded just after midnight at the New Year’s Eve party but they can trade all night. The only ground rules are that to get a red letter two yellow letters must be traded (or another red letter). To get a green letter you must trade either two red letters (or another green letter). They can also trade down, in other words trade a green for two red letters, or a red for two yellow letters.
Tell your guests hints will be given every 5-10 minutes during the night. These can include things like “two of the letter A’s have no prizes”, or something like “the red letter A is a guarenteed prize”. It can also reveal something like “the green letter A has a bigger prize value than the green letter B and C combined”. Something to add a little intrigue to the game.
As you get closer to midnight, start revealing some of the letters at each level. At 11:00 reveal 6 of the yellow letter prizes. At 11:20 reveal 3 of the red letter prizes. Finally, at 11:40 reveal 1 of the green letter prizes. When you reveal these prizes this does not mean you give them out at this point. This just gives people some idea of what prizes are in play, and if their letters are worthless or will receive a prize. Obviously there will still be a lot of unknown letters as far as if they receive prizes, but these “hints”.
This New Year’s Eve party game can be adjusted if you wish to have larger prizes or smaller ones depending on the budget for your party. It can also use numbers on the card and prize board if you have more people than the alphabet will allow. One final adjustment you can make for your New Year’s Eve Party is to either add another color to the cards you hand out or reduce the amount of colors. Regardless of how you adjust the rules, your guests will all get to socialize and “compete” in a friendly manner for prizes. Some might want to collect as many yellow (low level) cards as possible, others might want to go for the big ones and get as many green cards as possible.
