Throwing a Party on New Years Without a Lot of Drinking?

Why not invest in some of the newer DVD games? Like Scene-It. A speciality, like the Disney edition is most certainly LDS friendly. Music, charades, (corny? depends upon point of view, but better than drinking) Trivial Pursuit... there are so many editions out there, why not rent a series of movies.. like the entire star wars or harry potter, and do all of the above? What about Shout out (Like Scene it, but no board) Also, asking your boyfriend (in a roundabout way) what he likes at parties... Or if you are brave enough, talk to the Bishop of the church (like a pastor, or priest. He may help you with ideas. or even better, talk with his mother and/or father) Nothing expensive, and ask friends to bring pot luck, one main dish and one either side dish or dessert. Keep a list of that, so you don't have one or two main dishes and umteen dozen desserts and side dishes.

Make punch. You can offer one with alcohol and one without, but you may need to label them. (This can be served in a pitcher if you dont have a punch bowl..) Buy a How to Host a Murder game or another board type game... or play charades or Scattergories. Check online for good deals... Try to have more than one activity because it can be a long night... You can even have several games for small groups of people ...

Lynne

November 23, 20051 found this helpful

About the drinking issue, the easiest way is to minimize the amount of drinking is to not serve alcohol! Bring out the champagne for toasting at midnight, but otherwise just don't have any alcoholic drinks available. We have alcohol-free parties frequently, and no one ever seems to mind the lack, especially when there are fun activities to participate in and interesting people to talk with.

The activities you choose will be dependent on what types of people you have coming. Some folks are the flamboyant karaoke types, while others are the more quiet chess types. Try to have a mix of both kinds of activities.

An inexpensive game that our family likes is Dictionary (not Pictionary, Dictionary). All you need is a big dictionary and some pens and paper scraps. The person who is "it" finds a word in the dictionary that he/she hopes no one else knows, and reads the word aloud (not the definition, just the word itself). Then on the scraps of paper, each of the other players writes down a definition for the word, either a real definition if he/she knows it, or a made-up defintion. The person who is "It" also copies out the correct definition. "It" then collects all of the definitions and reads them out loud. The not-"it" players vote for which one they think is the right one (and no fair voting for your own definition!). Player A wins a point when player B chooses player A's definition as the correct one.

Oh, and a good ice breaker game that I like to use is to (ahead of time) come up with a theme (say, birthdays, or New Year's, or the year in review) and then think up a bunch of key words related to that theme. Write one key word on each label, and when guests come in, stick one on each person's back. The object of the game is to have them ask yes-no questions of the other guests to figure out what it is. The catch is that each person may only ask 3 questions of any other person. No fair asking 25 questions to just one other guest. The point is to get folks circulating and talking with people that they might not otherwise interact with at all. And the game gives them a conversation opener.

Good luck!

Holly
Silver Post Medal for All Time! 364 Posts

November 23, 20051 found this helpful

Make sure someone doesn't spike the punch!!!!!!

If you have a punch bowl, serve immediately directly from it if there is a special beverage you are making. Otherwise, if you let it sit out on a table, something might easily be poured into it.