12 Best Games and Ideas to Entertain at a Dinner Party - The Event Book (2023)

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Hosting a dinner party is a great way to spend time with friends and family, but how do you keep your guests entertained?

We’ve got together a list of the best games and ideas to help you entertain at your dinner party and make sure the night is a success!

If you really want to make your dinner night perfect, take a look at our guide to hosting a hassle free dinner party. It’s full of great tips for organising, food and drink ideas, a planning timeline and checklist, plus loads more advice!

Best Dinner Party Ice Breaker Game

If you want to make sure you keep your guests entertained all night, you’ll need a good ice breaker game to get started with. Celebrity who am I, is a perfect dinner party game because it’s really quick, easy to setup and is a good way to get everyone chatting.

What you’ll need:

• Post-it note for each guest
• A Pen

How long does it last? Around 5-10 minutes

How to Play:

• Write the name of a celebrity on a post-it note and ask each guest to put it on their forehead.
• They must then ask yes or no answer style questions to try and figure out which celebrity’s name they’ve been given.
• The first to guest to guess correctly wins!

Funny Dinner Party Game

If you’re hosting a more casual dinner party, then it’s great to introduce some fun games into the mix to keep everyone entertained. Cards against Humanity works really well and is a hilarious game to play with close friends.

What You’ll Need:

• Cards Against Humanity Pack

How Long Does it Last?Usually around 20 minutes works well

How to Play Cards Against Humanity:

• Put all the cards in the middle and draw 10 white cards each. Don’t look at any other cards apart from your own.
• Someone reads the first black card out.
• The other players must answer the question using one of their cards.
• The person who selected the black card must read all the answers and pick their favourite.
• The person with the most points at the end wins!

Hassle-Free Dinner Party Idea

Having some quiet music in the background at your dinner party is another great way to create the perfect ambience.

You’ll need to play something relaxing and chilled, now is not the time for dancey beats, even if they’re your favourite! And don’t turn up the volume loud either. Check out our ultimate party playlist tipsfor some more ideas.

Apple Musicis the perfect way to create a dinner party playlist. It’s only $9.99/ £9.99 per month and you can get a free 3 month trial to check it out. And don’t worry, you can use it on Android devices too! Join over 50 million subscribers and sign up for your3 month free trialtoday!

Easy Dinner Party Game

If you’re looking for an easy dinner party game, then you can’t get much better than charades. You don’t need any equipment and most people already know the rules, making it a great game to play after the food or in between courses.

Modern Dinner Party Game

Joking Hazard is a great game to play at more casual dinner parties with close groups of friends.

It’s similar to Cards Against Humanity, but is a bit more unique and less-well known, which makes it perfect if you want to entertain your guests with something a bit different.

What You’ll Need:

• Joking Hazard Card set

How Long Does it Last? Around 15-30 minutes

How to Play Joking Hazard:

• Each player should be given 7 cards
• The starting player must pick a card from the pile remaining and lay it down on the table.
• If it has a black border, they can add the card before or after the card on the table.
• The other players must then add a card to finish the set. Whoever adds the card which makes the funniest set (chosen by the original player) wins a point!
• If the card picked has a red border, the other players must add two cards to make the set of three. Whoever makes the funniest set wins the point.

Classic Dinner Party Game

Pictionary is the perfect game to play if you’re hosting a dinner party with couples. It’s super easy to play, and most people will know the rules already so you can get it set up in no time.

What You’ll Need:

• Paper
• Pen
• Timer

How Long Does it Last?Around 20 minutes

How to Play Pictionary:

• Get into pairs and choose who is the artist and who is guessing.
• The artist starts drawing a picture from a pre-selected secret list and their partner must guess what they are drawing.
• If they guess in under a minute, the pair earns a point.

Best Dinner Entertainment Idea

Karaoke is the ultimate entertainment idea for a dinner party. It’s a classic party activity that you can throw into your dinner party after the meal to keep your guests entertained!

We’ve created a guide on exactly how to host karaoke which is full of great tips and advice.

It’s great if you already have a karaoke machine, but if you don’t then there’s no need to skip ahead just yet. You can pick up some great karaoke machines for as little as $20/£20! Take a look at our list of the 20 best karaoke machines for the best picks. Plus you can set it up on YouTube really easily too.

Have a look at our complete guide to playing karaoke using YouTube for everything you need to know.

It’s even possible to set up karaoke at home without a machine too. Head over to our ultimate guide to setting up karaoke without a machine!

Have a look at our list of the best 250+ karaoke songs too!

Best Outdoor Dinner Party Game

Twister doesn’t just have to be an indoor game. Lawn twister is a great game to play at a BBQ party and is fun for both kids and adults. It’s perfect for smaller groups and can be set up for guests to play when they fancy!

What you’ll need:

• Sheet of paper
• Small plate
• Marker pen
• Scissors
• Yellow, red, blue and green spray paint

Number of players: 2 players

How long does it last? Around 10 minutes

How to play:

• Draw around the plate on a piece of paper with the marker pen and cut out the shape to make a circular template.
• Spray paint circles on a lawn to create an outdoor twister game.
• Play twister the classic way!

Head over to our list of the best 10 outdoor party games for some more inspiration!

Best Dinner Party Drinking Game

Drinking games don’t just have to be for nights out! Picolo is the perfect dinner party drinking game for small groups and it’s really easy to set up.

It’s great because it takes all the thinking out of drinking games, you can just let the app do the work. And it’s a good one to play either at home or in a bar as you don’t need anything other than your phone!

What You’ll Need:

• Just your drinks and a phone!

How Long Does it Last?Around 20 minutes

Number of players: Minimum 2 people

How to Play

• Download the Picolo app
• Choose a free version or upgrade to the premium version
• Enter each players name, bonus points for creative nicknames!
• Then just answer the questions and follow the instructions

Head over to our list of the 10 best drinking games for some more ideas!

Unique Dinner Party Game

Everyone loves a good meme, and that’s why this card game is perfect for your game night! It’s really quick to set up and will give everyone a good laugh! It’s the perfect way to entertain guests at an informal dinner party after the meal.

What You’ll Need:

• What do you meme? card set

How Long Does it Last? 15-20 minutes

How to Play What do you Meme?

• Simply take it in turns to pick a photo card.
• The other couples must then choose a caption to match it.
• The funniest combination wins a point!

Simple Dinner Party Game

If you’re looking to turn your dinner party into a game night style, then Jenga is a great option. It’s a really fun game to play that doesn’t last very long. It is super easy to play and is always a favourite at game nights!

You can also play a drinking game version of it to if you want to try something a bit different. Head over to our list of the 10 best drinking games for instructions on how to play and for some more great ideas!

What You’ll Need:

• Jenga blocks

How Long Does it Last? Approximately 10 minutes

How to Play Jenga:

• Set up the tower by placing three blocks next to each other and then stack three blocks on top facing the other direction.
• Each couple must take it in turns to remove a block, but not one on the top row!
• Place the block on the top of the tower.
• Keep going until the tower topples over.
• The couple that knocks it over loses a point from their tally!

Creative Dinner Party Game

The dinner party version of pass the parcel is great for large groups. It’s exactly the same as the kid’s party version, but each layer of wrapping paper has a truth or dare task that the player has to do.

You can be as harsh as you’d like with the truths and dares, but it’s best to start with nice and easy ones! If the player decides they don’t want to do the truth or dare, you can have a forfeit of downing your drink. You can choose any prize for your pass the parcel drinking game.

What You’ll Need:

• A small prize
• Wrapping paper
• Some music

How Long Does it Last?Around 10 minutes

How to Play the Dinner Party Version of Pass the Parcel:

• First you’ll need to wrap the prize in a layer of wrapping paper. Wrap the present again but underneath the layer, have a truth or dare written on a small piece of paper. Repeat this so there are around 6-10 layers.
• Get all the players in a circle and pass the parcel around until the DJ stops the music.
• Whichever player the music stops on, must unwrap a layer and do the truth or dare written on the paper.
• Keep going until someone unwraps the prize!

We hope you found this list of the 10 best dinner party games and entertainment ideas!

Don’t forget to take a look at our guide to hosting a hassle free dinner party. It’s full of great tips for organising, food and drink ideas, a planning timeline and checklist, plus loads more advice!

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