Fun games for an extended family party?

[gatorsmom]

I'm hosting a New Years Eve party like I do every other year. It's a fun time to see my niece and nephew who are 14 and 17yo. We usually have a game night. But the last time I hosted I realized my niece and nephew are getting a little old for the games I have. I want some fun, easy to catch on to, games that they will enjoy but that my kids (ages 9, 7, and 5yo) can play. Heck, even the adults join in if the game is a fun one. Suggestions?

[truly scrumptious]

These games have been huge hits at (adult) parties, so I think you could enjoy them at any age:

- Pictionary
- Charades
- Guesstures (similar to charades but simpler words and has time limits)
- Balderdash (might be too advanced for your 5yo, so it might need to be a team game)
- Dominoes

[endlessheather]

How many people do you have coming? If you have a good group a fun game is Left, Right, Center. You can look it up online and it's just 3 dice to roll but the catch is to have everyone bring $3 with them or you can play with 3 quarters each. There's a chance that you'll go home with $3 x how many people you have in the game. We play every Christmas with my family and somehow my sister always wins the pot (around $45-60) My kids (4 & 6) play and my cousins kids have played too. The kids like to roll the dice and have a chance at winning :) It's one of those games that gets kind of fun and rowdy where you think you might be out until someone has to pass their $ to the left and you are back in! There are videos on youtube showing people play it and the dice are only like $5 around here.

Of course this depends if you are comfortable with involving some $$.

We like Apples to Apples too but that's a bit harder sometimes with younger kids. Mexican Train dominos is another fun one for all ages that we play a lot too.

[rin]

Apples to Apples (there's a Junior version with more kid-oriented cards, and then an adult version that I think is more fun for teens and up)

Charades

Pictionary

Don't know if this has a name, but you take a bunch of cards/slips of paper and everyone takes a few slips of paper & writes down the name of a famous person on each piece. Put them all in a hat/bowl, then you go around the circle and in turns, one person draws a slip out, licks it, and sticks it to their forehead facing out, so everyone else can see the writing but the person "wearing" it can't. Then the person wearing the paper asks yes/no questions to figure out who they've got. You can also do this with broader categories (animals/sports/foods/etc) depending on people's interests.

[infocrazy]

We had a great time with Cranium a few years ago. The fun part is you divide into teams, so the younger kids have a helper so to speak but can still play.

[baymom]

Taboo
Apples to Apples

[mackmama]

I've heard good things about Apples to Apples (although it seemed pretty boring for adults when I played it)