You’ve finally made it! After decades of long hours, performance reviews, and angry clients, you can finally kick back and relax. If there’s even been a reason for a party – this is it! Whether planning a retirement party for yourself or someone close to you, it’s essential to prepare well.
Planning the food, the venue, and the drinks are only one part of it. Next, you want to make sure your guests are entertained and engaged. The easiest way to do this? Party games! Don’t worry about thinking if it sounds childish or if you think guests won’t be into it – you’ll be surprised at the rate that adults turn into giggling teenagers when they start playing.
It’s best to pick easy and straightforward games without complex rules. You also want to choose games that can fit a group of any size so that if there are more or fewer people attending the party than initially planned for, your planned games can continue as is.
It’s also important to consider the venue where you will be having the party. For example, is the space big enough to play musical chairs, or can you bring your own wine for the games that require it?
Make a list of all the props you will need upfront and have a couple of games up your sleeve. For example, maybe a game you thought would be a guaranteed blast turns out to be less successful than you hoped for. However, if you planned an extra game or 2 for the night, you can quickly pivot to a different game.
1. Two truths and one lie
In this game, players come up with three anecdotes or short stories about the retiree. However, only two of the three stories are, in fact, true. A variation of this game is that guests tell two truths and a lie about themselves, and other people have to guess.
You can keep score by tallying who is able to outsmart the other people. You outsmart someone by no one being able to guess the lie. The person that ‘wins’ in this way can get a small prize, or you can not even bother to keep score and let the game just play out. This is usually such a fun game that gets people laughing that winning isn’t really the sole purpose.
2. Who am I
This is a beautiful game to play at a retirement party because it allows the retiree and guests to revisit the special or funny moments they shared. All party guests are asked to write down a memory of themselves and the retiree on a card.
Someone else at the party then reads these stories out loud (so that the retiree won’t recognize someone’s handwriting), and the retiree has to guess who the person is. It’s hilarious to see the retiree scratching their head when they can’t figure it out and then to see them laugh once they realize who it is.
Don’t throw the cards away at the end of the game, but add the names of the guests and keep it for the retiree to hold on to as a special keepsake.
3. Who knows me the best?
This is the moment where the guests need to guess something about the retiree in an easy game called, “Who knows me the best.” This game is very simple to set up. Before the party, you ask the retiree to fill out answers to a set of questions.
These can be silly questions like whether the retiree prefers coffee or tea to more in-depth questions like what they think the retiree will miss most about working life.
Guests can then be divided into different teams, and then they compete to see who gets the most questions right. This is a sweet game that puts the retiree and the center of the party to really make them feel this celebration is about them.
4. Build a bucket list
As each attendee arrives, they receive a slip of paper on which to write bucket list ideas for the retiree. The ideas are then folded up and placed into a glass jar. Encourage the guests to write down funny and attainable bucket list ideas.
When the guests are eating or after any speeches took place, the retiree can then read some of these out loud and pick their favorite one. The person who wrote the ‘winning’ bucket list item receives a small prize.
The beauty of this game is that the retiree has a beautiful souvenir from the party. If they ever feel bored or out of inspiration, they can pull one of the ideas from their bucket list jar again.
5. Never have I ever
This is a very straightforward game where everyone holds up 10 fingers. Each person then takes turns to say something like, “Never have I ever lied to my boss.” If someone has done it, they put down one finger. You are out once you’ve had to put down all of your fingers.
This game works especially well with groups that know each other quite well. When the group is closer, everyone will be more willing to share juicy personal stories.
6. Musical chairs
This is a really old but classic game. You might think this is for kids only, but once you start playing, all the adults are transformed right back to their childhood. If you aren’t familiar with the game, it only requires chairs and music.
Let’s say you have 10 people playing, so you will put out 9 chairs to start with. You start playing music while the players walk around the chairs in a circle. As soon as someone stops the music, the players need to quickly sit down, and the person that didn’t get a chair is out of the game. Every round, you remove a chair until the end when there are only 2 people left trying to sit on the final chair.
If you want to play this game, make sure ahead of time that there are enough chairs and the space is big enough to play it. For example, if the party is being held at a restaurant, this game would obviously not be a great pick.
7. Guess the drink
This game requires a little preparation ahead of time, but it can be a lot of fun. The premise of the game is that people are blind-tasting wine or beer or, if they don’t drink alcohol, different kinds of sodas. You then need to guess what you are drinking.
You want to strike a balance between relatively easy and obvious drinks and ones that are harder to guess. You can hand out index cards at the start of the game, and then everyone needs to write down their answers on them as the tasting progresses.
You can let people wear blindfolds, pour the liquid in different containers to the label isn’t visible, or put the bottles in brown bags, so the labels are covered up.
The person that got the most guesses right can then win a special prize such as a nice bottle of wine.
8. Bingo with a twist
Bingo is another classic party game, but for this special retirement party, you can try out a different variation. Start off with bingo cards with the normal traditional spacing, but in the blocks, you will have text.
At the top of each bingo card, you write, “Never have I ever,” and then in the different blocks, funny and strange lines such as “gambled” or “been arrested.” You can also include things like “owned a pet” or “had a crush on a co-worker.”
Each person will have one of these cards with the funny text, and then they need to walk around to find people that have actually done the things on the card. The person that’s able to cross off a row of 5 in any direction wins a small prize.
9. Mini Golf, Bowling or Laser Tag
Instead of coming up with your own games, you can also opt for renting out a venue or booking a spot where you go to play games. Mini golf and bowling are great options as most people are familiar with the games, and they should be relatively easy to find depending on where you live.
This is ideal if the person retiring enjoys a bit of healthy competition. However, you don’t need to stick to just these options. How about something even more adventurous such as laser tag or even paintball? These games might not be everyone’s cup of tea, so first, think a little bit about the retiree and the type of people that will attend the party.
10. The Ol’ Switch-a-Roo
This game is ideal if the attendants know each other very well, for example, if it’s a close group of friends or colleagues that worked closely together.
The game works as follows: you write down the names of all the guests on cards. As soon as a guest arrives, they pick one of the cards, but they are not allowed to have their own name. This person then needs to keep acting as the person whose name they got.
As they interact with the other guests, people need to try and guess who they are impersonating. If someone guesses correctly, they get the card. The person with the most cards in the end wins.
11. Cocktail Competition
This option is ideal if you can hire an expert to come and teach about the building blocks of a good cocktail. After a demonstration, guests can be divided into teams, and they need to come up with their own cocktail and use the liquor that’s present.
The final cocktails are then presented to the retiree to pick their favorite from. This is an easy warm-up type of game to get everyone in a mood before a bit more of an active game is played.
Hire the barman to stay an extra hour or two to whip up fancy drinks for everyone. This will be an amazing memory from the party. Just make sure you have mocktail options for those that don’t drink alcohol.
12. Picture this
This game takes a little bit of upfront planning, but it’s absolutely worth it. When you send out the invitation for the party, ask all of the guests to provide or email you a picture of themselves as a baby or toddler before the party.
Once you’ve received all the pictures and printed them out, stick all the photos to a poster board and number them. All the party guests then receive a piece of paper and a pen, and they need to guess who the baby photos are. The person that is able to guess most names correctly gets a small prize.
This game will not only guarantee laughs, but symbolically it’s also a beautiful way to celebrate this new milestone in life – from baby to retirement.
13. Would You Rather
This is an easy-to-play game that can work well for any type of group. If you have a group of attendees that don’t know each other so well, it’s always best to start off with more general games such as ‘would you rather.
The premise of the game is simple, everyone gets a chance to either a question that asks whether the person would do X or Y. For example, you can ask questions such as: Would you rather be able to talk with the animals or speak all foreign languages? Or would you rather meet your ancestors or your great-great-grandchildren?
The game will lead to silly answers that make the group laugh, but it can also get into some serious, thought-provoking topics. However, it can be hard to come up with great questions on the spot, so as a backup plan, do a little bit of research before online and print out a couple of good questions. You don’t want there to be too many lulls in the games if people can’t think of a question