The Best Easy and Fun Grandparent Birthday Games
Last week, I shared how we used our standing Friday night dinner tradition to celebrate each adult’s birthday. We are not much into elaborate birthday events.
However, recently, to make grandpa’s birthday a little more special, I introduced a grandparent birthday game: a quiz as a way for the grandkids to learn about grandpa’s life.
There were no prizes but lots of fun and it generated interest in grandpa’s youth.
This quiz reminded me of when my sister and I had a 70th birthday party for mom 35 years ago. We had blown our entire budget on the lovely restaurant and travel to Hawaii to host the event.
So, we created our own inexpensive grandparent birthday games to entertain our guests. We had a birthday quiz which consisted of open-ended questions about mom’s life.
The quiz sheet was simply done, with a photo of her glued at the top and the rest, a blank page for answers. We used a photocopier to make duplicates.
Create a Birthday Quiz
In the one for Steve, I used Canva, an online design platform, to create a more polished quiz sheet. (I have a subscription but there is a free version.) Because the grandkids wouldn’t know the answers, I made the quiz multiple choice.
What was really lovely about this grandparent birthday game is that the grandkids got involved in grandpa’s life because the quiz is interactive–and everyone wanted to win! When grandpa gave the answers, he had a chance to elaborate and tell his stories.
Guest Bingo Birthday Game
In a party where not everyone knows each other, bingo can be a great icebreaker. At my mom”s party, we made bingo cards with blank squares. Since we didn’t have as many guests as squares, we pre-filled some squares with mom’s interests, and for FREE, we used a photo of mom.
Guests were given pens and these bingo cards and they approached other guests to fill their names in one of the blank squares. Meanwhile, we wrote the name of each guest on individual slips of paper to use for the bingo drawing.
As we drew the names instead of numbers, guests x’d out the blocks as each name was called out, until we had bingo winners.
Grandparent Pictionary Game
To do this for mom’s party, we gathered a flip chart and markers, and borrowed an easel. We wrote phrases that had to do with mom, such as “Kona,” where she was born.
The guest “artist” was given one of the phrases and had to draw picture clues until the audience guessed the phrase. If the phrase was guessed before a preset timer expired, the artist won a prize.
Sing-a-Long
Corny, but it worked for this party. Take a popular song from the past that everyone would know, and rewrite the lyrics for the birthday honoree. We did this to the Davy Crockett song and everyone sang lustily.
Make a Keepsake Album
This one is harder to do today. We had a Polaroid camera to take photos of guests. As the photos were processed we glued them to an album and guests wrote a birthday message next to their photo. By the end of the evening, mom had a memorable photo record of each guest and their good wishes.
You could do this if you have a portable photo printer, where you could print photos from your smartphone on the spot. My Canon Selphy would work.
Alternatively, you could determine how much space photos will take in an album and set that part aside with a ruled margin, having guest write on the remaining area. Then, after the party, you could print the photos and glue them next to each guest’s message.
Make a Video
Hiring a videographer is expensive. For mom’s party, one of my cousins volunteered to record the party on his video camera. Today with smartphones, everyone has a video camera. Ask several guests to video the party for you, and you can take photos and videos yourself, as well. Edit them together in a keepsake movie for the birthday honoree and post to YouTube under a private setting for private viewing. Share the link with party attendees.
With our birthday games, guests said they enjoyed the evening and expressed that they loved the novelty of it. And while she is no longer with us, we have the best memories of that party and an album to remember mom by.
You might be able to incorporate some of our birthday ideas at your next grandparent birthday party.
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