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  • Checked October 2026

60th Birthday Party Games

Games for a 60th birthday, with sets for a 50th, a 40th and a 21st.

60th Birthday Party Games

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  1. Six Decades in Six Rounds1. Before the party, the host collects three questions about each decade of the birthday person's life, from the people who knew them then.2. Teams answer on paper. Round one covers the years up to ten, round two the teens, and so on to round six.3. After each round, the birthday person gives the answers and one story.4. The team with the most right after six rounds wins. For a 70th, add a seventh round.Players: 6 to 40. You need: eighteen questions, paper and pens.
  2. Six Questions From the Youngest Guests1. Before the party, the six youngest guests each think of one question they have always wanted to ask the birthday person.2. One at a time, a child stands and asks.3. Before the answer, every adult writes down what they think the birthday person will say.4. The birthday person answers the child. Adults score a point for each answer they predicted.Players: 8 to 40. You need: paper and pens.
  3. Advice to Myself at Ten, Twenty, Thirty1. Before the party, the birthday person writes one line of advice to themselves at each of six ages: ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty and sixty.2. The host reads the six lines in a mixed-up order.3. Guests write down which age each line was meant for.4. The birthday person reads them in the right order. The most right wins, and the line for sixty is read last.Players: 5 to 50. You need: six lines of advice, paper and pens.

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60th birthday party games 25

  • A Medal for Every Decade 1. Give each of six tables one decade of the birthday person's life, a paper circle, ribbon and pens. 2. Each table invents a medal for that decade and writes it on the circle, such as "Best Den Builder, Ages Up to Ten". Kind ones only. 3. Tables present their medals in order, from the first decade to the sixth. 4. The birthday person wears all six for the group photo. Players: 12 to 60. You need: six paper circles, ribbon and pens.
  • A Paper Chain of Sixty Links 1. Cut sixty strips of paper and leave them by the door with pens and a stapler. 2. Each guest writes a memory of the birthday person on a strip and adds it to the chain as a link. Guests who have more to say may add more. 3. The room's job is to reach sixty links before the cake is cut. 4. Hang the chain behind the cake. The birthday person takes it home to read link by link. Players: 10 to 60. You need: sixty paper strips, pens and a stapler.
  • A Toast in Exactly Sixty Words 1. Each table gets a card and ten minutes during the meal. 2. Together, the table writes a toast to the birthday person that is exactly sixty words long. Not fifty-nine, not sixty-one. 3. One guest from each table stands and reads it, while a neighbor counts the words on their fingers. 4. The birthday person keeps the cards. A toast that jokes about age is sent back to be written again. Players: 8 to 60. You need: a card and a pen for each table.
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60th birthday party games, continued

  • A Walk of Sixty Steps 1. Mark a path of sixty steps across the yard or down a hall, with a guest standing at every tenth step. 2. The birthday person walks the path slowly while everyone counts the steps aloud. 3. At steps ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty and sixty, the guest standing there says one sentence about that decade and joins the walk. 4. At step sixty, the cake is waiting. Players: 10 to 60. You need: chalk or tape to mark every tenth step.
  • Advice to Myself at Ten, Twenty, Thirty 1. Before the party, the birthday person writes one line of advice to themselves at each of six ages: ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty and sixty. 2. The host reads the six lines in a mixed-up order. 3. Guests write down which age each line was meant for. 4. The birthday person reads them in the right order. The most right wins, and the line for sixty is read last. Players: 5 to 50. You need: six lines of advice, paper and pens.
  • An Hour Around the Clock 1. Set twelve seats or spots around the room like the numbers on a clock, and spread the guests among them. 2. The birthday person starts at twelve and spends five minutes at each spot. 3. A helper rings a bell every five minutes, and the birthday person moves one place clockwise. 4. Twelve stops of five minutes make sixty, so in one hour they have sat with everyone. Players: 12 to 60. You need: twelve seats, a bell and a timer.
  • Count the Decades Around the Circle 1. Sit in a circle. The first guest says "ten" and one thing they know about the birthday person at about that age. 2. The next says "twenty" and one thing, and so on up to sixty. 3. A guest who was not around for a decade may ask the birthday person a question about it instead. 4. After sixty, the count starts again at ten, and nothing may be said twice. Players: 5 to 20. You need: nothing.
  • Decade Witnesses 1. For each of the six decades, find one guest who knew the birthday person then. 2. In turn, each witness tells the room one thing about the birthday person from that decade that they believe nobody else in the room knows. 3. Anyone who did know it raises a hand. 4. A witness with no hands up scores a point. The birthday person decides whether each story may be told in full. Players: 8 to 50. You need: nothing.
  • First Thirty or Second Thirty? 1. The host has a list of twelve things the birthday person has done, such as "learned to swim", "moved house twice in one year" and "first grew tomatoes". 2. For each one, guests walk to the left wall if they think it happened in the first thirty years and to the right wall for the second thirty. 3. The birthday person gives the answer. 4. Guests on the wrong wall sit down. The last ones standing win. Players: 8 to 60. You need: a list of twelve things from their life.
  • One Guest From Each Decade Makes a Team 1. At the door, each guest takes a sticker with a number from one to six for the decade in which they met the birthday person. 2. On go, guests form teams that hold as many different numbers as possible. A full team has all six. 3. Each team tells the room one thing about the birthday person that every member agrees is still true. 4. Keep these teams for any quiz that follows. Players: 12 to 60. You need: stickers numbered one to six.
  • Order the Signatures 1. Find six samples of the birthday person's handwriting, one from each decade if you can: a school book, a postcard, a form, a recipe, a letter. Cover the dates and number them. 2. Guests study the six and write the order they think they were written in. 3. The birthday person reveals the dates, oldest first. 4. A point for each sample in the right place. Players: 4 to 30. You need: six samples of handwriting, paper and pens.
  • Pitch the Decade 1. Six guests each speak for one decade of the birthday person's life. Each has twenty seconds to argue that theirs was the best one so far. 2. The room listens to all six. 3. Everyone votes by dropping one button into one of six cups. 4. Count the cups. The birthday person gets the last word on whether the room is right, and names what they hope the seventh decade holds. Players: 8 to 60. You need: six cups and a button for each guest.
  • Roll to Sixty, Stop at Every Ten 1. Each team has two dice and a score sheet. 2. Teams take turns rolling both dice and adding the total to their score. 3. Each time a team passes a ten, it stops and names one thing the birthday person did in the decade that ends there. The birthday person says yes or no, and a no costs the roll. 4. The first team to reach sixty or more wins. Players: 4 to 24. You need: two dice for each team, paper and pens.
  • Six Chairs, Six Decades 1. Stand six chairs in a circle, facing out, and tape a decade to each: the first ten years, the teens, and so on. 2. Six guests walk around the chairs while music plays. 3. When the music stops, they sit. Each tells one short thing about the birthday person from the decade on their chair, or passes it to someone in the room who was there. 4. Six new guests take the next round. Players: 8 to 40. You need: six chairs, six labels and music.
  • Six Decades in Six Rounds 1. Before the party, the host collects three questions about each decade of the birthday person's life, from the people who knew them then. 2. Teams answer on paper. Round one covers the years up to ten, round two the teens, and so on to round six. 3. After each round, the birthday person gives the answers and one story. 4. The team with the most right after six rounds wins. For a 70th, add a seventh round. Players: 6 to 40. You need: eighteen questions, paper and pens.
  • Six Decades, Six Dance Moves 1. The birthday person, or someone who danced with them, shows one dance move for each decade of their life, starting with whatever a small child does to music. 2. Everyone copies each move as it is shown. 3. Put on a song and call the decades in order: one, two, three, four, five, six. 4. Then call them out of order, faster and faster. Anyone may dance sitting down. Players: 5 to 50. You need: music.
  • Six Kitchens 1. The birthday person describes six kitchens, one they knew in each decade, in two sentences each and in a mixed-up order. They say what was on the table and who sat at it, but not when. 2. After each description, guests hold up one to six fingers for the decade they think it was. 3. The birthday person gives the answer. 4. Guests keep their own score out of six. Anyone who sat in one of those kitchens may add a detail. Players: 5 to 40. You need: nothing.
  • Six Questions From the Youngest Guests 1. Before the party, the six youngest guests each think of one question they have always wanted to ask the birthday person. 2. One at a time, a child stands and asks. 3. Before the answer, every adult writes down what they think the birthday person will say. 4. The birthday person answers the child. Adults score a point for each answer they predicted. Players: 8 to 40. You need: paper and pens.
  • Six Tables, Six Decades 1. Name each table for one decade of the birthday person's life and put the same card on all six. The card asks five things: where they lived, who their best friend was, how they got around, what they did all day and what they wanted next. 2. Each table fills in its guesses for its own decade. 3. The birthday person goes from table to table and corrects each card aloud. 4. The table with the most right keeps its card for the album. Players: 12 to 60. You need: six cards with the same five questions, pens.
  • Sixty Numbered Tags 1. Write the numbers 1 to 60 on small tags and hide them around the room before guests arrive. 2. Guests look for tags during the party and pocket what they find. 3. At any time, a guest may bring a tag to the birthday person and ask, "What happened when you were this age?" 4. Near the end, count the tags. The guest with the most reads out the best answer they were given. Players: 8 to 60. You need: sixty numbered tags.
  • Sixty Seconds, No Clock 1. Cover the clocks and ask everyone to put their phones away. All the guests stand. 2. On go, each guest silently counts sixty seconds in their head. 3. Sit down at the moment you think the minute is up. The host watches a stopwatch and notes who sits closest to sixty. 4. Play again with the birthday person as the only one standing, while the room keeps quiet and watches. Players: 5 to 80. You need: a stopwatch.
  • Sixty Things They Love 1. Split into teams and give each a sheet numbered from 1 to 60. 2. Teams write things the birthday person loves, one to a line: foods, places, people, habits, songs. 3. The first team to reach sixty calls out, and reads the list aloud. 4. The birthday person strikes out anything that is wrong, and the team has to fill the gaps before another team finishes. Players: 6 to 40. You need: sheets numbered 1 to 60, pens.
  • Sixty Wishes in Five Egg Cartons 1. Sixty is five dozen. Set out five empty egg cartons and a pile of small slips. 2. Guests write short wishes, one to a slip, sign them, fold them and drop one into each cup until all sixty are full. 3. At the party, the birthday person opens six slips with the names covered and guesses who wrote each. 4. The other fifty-four go home in their cartons, to be opened one a day. Players: 10 to 60. You need: five egg cartons, sixty slips and pens.
  • Which Jar Holds Exactly Sixty? 1. Fill five jars with small things of different sizes, such as buttons, pasta shells, paper clips, dried beans and bottle caps. One jar, and only one, holds exactly sixty. 2. Guests look, without touching, and write down which jar it is. 3. For a tiebreak, they guess the count in the fullest jar. 4. Tip out the jar of sixty and count it aloud together. Players: 4 to 60. You need: five jars of small things, slips and pens.
  • Who Else Is in the Photo? 1. Pin up six group photos, one from each decade, with the birthday person somewhere in each. Number them. 2. Guests walk around and write down the name of every other person they recognize in each photo. 3. The birthday person goes through the photos one at a time and names everyone. 4. A point for each right name. The guest who knows the most faces across sixty years wins. Players: 6 to 40. You need: six printed group photos, paper and pens.

50th birthday party games 25

  • A Life in Five Sentences 1. Each team writes the shortest biography it can of the birthday person: five sentences, one for each decade. 2. Every sentence has to hold one fact that can be checked. 3. Teams read their five sentences aloud. The birthday person rings a bell for each fact that is wrong. 4. The biography with the fewest rings wins and goes inside the card. Players: 6 to 40. You need: paper, pens and a bell.
  • Bring Back Exactly Fifty 1. Send teams out into the house and the yard. 2. Each team must come back with exactly fifty of one thing: fifty leaves, fifty paper clips, fifty clothespins, fifty dried beans. 3. Teams lay their fifty out in rows of ten to be counted. 4. The birthday person gives one prize for the first exact fifty and one for the fifty nobody else thought of. Everything goes back where it came from. Players: 6 to 30. You need: nothing.
  • Count to Fifty, Their Name on the Fives 1. Sit or stand in a circle. Count around from one to fifty, one number each. 2. In place of every number that ends in five or zero, say the birthday person's name. 3. A mistake or a pause of more than three seconds sends the count back to one, starting with the next guest. 4. When the circle reaches fifty, everyone says the name together. Players: 5 to 30. You need: nothing.
  • Done It Fifty Times 1. Each guest writes on a slip one small thing the birthday person has surely done fifty times or more: checked the door is locked, hummed while cooking, parked in the same spot. 2. Slips go in a bowl. 3. Players draw one and act it out without words for their team. 4. A point for each one guessed. The birthday person may deny any slip, but only if the room agrees. Players: 6 to 30. You need: slips, pens and a bowl.
  • Exactly Fifty, Bust Back to Twenty-Five 1. Chalk three rings on the patio, one inside the other, worth five, ten and fifteen points. 2. Teams take turns throwing one beanbag from a line and adding what it scores. 3. A team wins by reaching exactly fifty. 4. A team that goes over fifty drops back to twenty-five, half of fifty, and carries on from there. Players: 4 to 24. You need: chalk and beanbags.
  • Fifty High-Fives 1. Twenty-five guests stand in two lines facing each other and hold out both hands, which makes fifty hands. With fewer guests, the birthday person goes down the lines twice. 2. The birthday person walks between the lines and slaps every hand. 3. As a hand is slapped, its owner calls out one word for the birthday person. 4. Everyone counts the high-fives aloud up to fifty. Players: 13 to 50. You need: nothing.
  • Fifty Photos Shape the Number 1. Ask guests to bring a printed photo of themselves with the birthday person, fifty in all. 2. Tape them to a wall in the shape of a five and a zero. 3. Each guest guesses which of the fifty photos is the oldest and sticks a dot beside it. 4. The birthday person names the oldest and tells where it was taken. The photos go home in an album, in order. Players: 12 to 60. You need: fifty printed photos, tape and sticker dots.
  • Fifty Quick Questions, Count the Yeses 1. The host writes fifty questions with a yes or no answer, such as "Have you ever slept in a car?" and "Have you ever won a raffle?" 2. Before the first one, each guest writes down how many times they think the birthday person will say yes. 3. The host fires all fifty and a helper keeps a tally. 4. The closest guess wins. The birthday person may tell the story behind any three. Players: 5 to 60. You need: fifty yes-or-no questions, slips and pens.
  • Fifty Taps, Fifty Memories 1. The guests stand in a loose circle around one beach ball. 2. Tap the ball up and keep it in the air. Each player who taps it calls out one word that belongs to a memory of the birthday person, such as "tent", "pancakes" or "roundabout". 3. Everyone counts the taps aloud. 4. The aim is fifty taps with no word said twice. If the ball lands, start again from one. Players: 6 to 25. You need: a beach ball.
  • Fifty Words: Five Friends, Ten Words Each 1. Before the party, five friends from different parts of the birthday person's life each write a description of them in exactly ten words. 2. The host reads the five aloud, unsigned. 3. Guests match each description to its writer. 4. The five stand up in turn and claim their words. Five times ten makes a portrait in fifty words, and the birthday person keeps the card. Players: 8 to 50. You need: five ten-word descriptions, paper and pens.
  • The Fifty-Line Scroll 1. Start a long strip of paper with one line of a poem about the birthday person, and number it 1. 2. The scroll passes from guest to guest through the party. Each adds one numbered line that follows on from the line before, then folds the paper so that only their own line shows. 3. The scroll has to reach line fifty before the cake. 4. Unroll it and read all fifty lines aloud. Players: 10 to 50. You need: a long strip of paper and a pen.
  • The First Half Quizzes the Second Half 1. Split the room in two: guests who met the birthday person in their first twenty-five years, and guests who met them in the second twenty-five. 2. Each half writes five questions about its own years. 3. The halves take turns asking. Only the other half may answer. 4. The birthday person judges. The half that knows more about the years it missed wins. Players: 8 to 60. You need: paper and pens.
  • Five Decades on the Dinner Plates 1. Before the party, the birthday person names the dinner they asked for most often in each of their five decades. 2. Write the five dinners on paper plates and lay them on a table in a mixed-up order. 3. Each guest writes the order they think is right, from the first decade to the fifth. 4. The birthday person moves the plates into place, one at a time, with a word about who cooked each. Players: 5 to 50. You need: five paper plates, a marker, slips and pens.
  • Five Decades, Top Five Each 1. Give each of five tables one decade of the birthday person's life. 2. Each table agrees on its top five moments from that decade, by asking around the room if it needs to, and writes them on a sheet from fifth to first. 3. Tables read their lists in order, like a chart countdown. 4. The birthday person picks the list that got its number one right. Players: 10 to 60. You need: paper and pens.
  • Five Envelopes, Five Decades: The Trail to the Cake 1. Hide five envelopes. The first is handed to the room. Each one holds a question about one decade of the birthday person's life, and its answer names the place where the next envelope is hidden. 2. Only someone who knew them in that decade can answer, so the room has to find that person. 3. Guests follow the trail together. 4. The fifth answer names where the cake is. Players: 8 to 40. You need: five envelopes with questions.
  • Five Frames, Five Decades 1. Stand ten plastic bottles in a triangle at the end of a hall or a path. 2. Each bowler gets five frames, one roll a frame, with a soft ball. 3. After each frame, the bowler says something about the birthday person in that decade of their life, in exactly as many words as bottles fell. Three bottles means three words. 4. A frame with no bottles down means saying nothing at all. Players: 4 to 20. You need: ten plastic bottles and a soft ball.
  • Five Judges, Ten Points Each 1. Seat five judges in a row, the birthday person in the middle. Each judge has ten fingers. 2. Each table has two minutes to prepare a ten-second advertisement for the birthday person: why anyone would want them on their team. 3. Tables perform. After each one, the judges hold up from one to ten fingers. 4. Add the five scores. A perfect score is fifty. Players: 10 to 60. You need: nothing.
  • Five Senses, Five Decades 1. Before the party, the birthday person chooses one memory for each decade, each tied to a different sense: a smell, a taste, a sound, something they touched and something they saw. 2. The host reads the five in a mixed-up order. 3. Guests write which decade each one belongs to. 4. The birthday person tells the story behind each sense. Most right wins. Players: 5 to 50. You need: five memories, paper and pens.
  • Fives and Zeros 1. Mark a grid of three by three on the floor with tape. Make two teams: the fives and the zeros. 2. The host asks a question about the birthday person, and the first team with a hand up answers. 3. A right answer lets that team lay a paper 5 or a paper 0 in any empty square. 4. Three in a row wins. The birthday person breaks any tie over who was first. Players: 6 to 30. You need: tape, five paper fives, five paper zeros and a list of questions.
  • Half a Story Each 1. Fifty is two halves. Pick a guest who was there for a good story about the birthday person. They tell the first half and stop. 2. A second guest, who was not there, has to finish the story as they imagine it went. 3. The birthday person says how close that was, and the first guest tells the real ending. 4. Play five stories, one from each decade if you can. Players: 6 to 50. You need: nothing.
  • L Is for Fifty 1. In Roman numerals, fifty is written L. Give every table a sheet and three minutes. 2. Tables list words that begin with L and are true of the birthday person: loyal, late, a lover of lists. 3. Tables read their lists aloud. A word no other table wrote scores a point. 4. Kind words only. The birthday person chooses the L word they like best, and it goes on the card. Players: 6 to 40. You need: paper and pens.
  • Over or Under Fifty? 1. Before the party, the host counts ten things with the birthday person's help: books on their shelf, houseplants, pairs of shoes, photos on the fridge, mugs in the cupboard. 2. For each one, guests hold a hand high for over fifty or low for under. 3. The birthday person reads the real count. 4. Guests who were wrong sit down. For a 40th, move the line to forty. Players: 6 to 60. You need: a list of ten counts.
  • Ring a Decade, Answer From It 1. Stand five plastic bottles in a row on the lawn and label them with the five decades of the birthday person's life. 2. Each player throws three rope rings from a line a few steps away. 3. When a ring lands on a bottle, the birthday person asks the thrower a question from that decade. 4. A ring scores one point and a right answer scores two more. Players: 4 to 30. You need: five plastic bottles with labels and three rope rings.
  • Their Top Five, Guessed by the Room 1. Before the party, the birthday person writes three lists of five: five foods they would never give up, five places they would go back to and five sounds they love. 2. Teams get two minutes a list to write their own five guesses. 3. The birthday person reads each list from fifth to first. 4. A point for every match. A team that matches all five on one list scores double. Players: 6 to 40. You need: three lists of five, paper and pens.
  • Who Was Really There? 1. The host names an event from one of the five decades, such as a camping trip or a first day at a job. 2. Three guests stand and each claims to have been there. Only one was. 3. The room may ask them five questions in all. 4. Everyone points at the one they believe. The birthday person says who is telling the truth. Play one event from each decade. Players: 8 to 50. You need: nothing.

Games to play at a 40th birthday party 25

  • A Forty-Domino Run 1. Give the guests forty dominoes between them. 2. One at a time, each guest stands a domino on its end in a winding line across a table, and says one word for the birthday person as they let go. 3. A domino knocked over early means that guest sets the fallen ones up again. 4. When all forty are standing, the birthday person tips the first. Players: 8 to 40. You need: forty dominoes and a steady table.
  • A Name for Every Year 1. Write the numbers 1 to 40 down a long sheet. 2. The birthday person has to name one person who mattered to them in each year of their life, starting from year one. 3. The room may help with hints, but may not say a name outright. 4. A helper writes the names in. The finished list of forty names is read out, and anyone on it who is in the room stands up. Players: 5 to 50. You need: a long sheet numbered 1 to 40 and a pen.
  • An XL Portrait in Forty Strokes 1. Forty in Roman numerals is XL, so this portrait is extra large. Tape paper to a door, as tall as the birthday person. 2. Guests line up with a thick marker. Each adds one stroke to a portrait of the birthday person and passes the marker on: one line, one curve or one dot. 3. A helper counts the strokes aloud. 4. The portrait stops at forty strokes, whatever state it is in, and everyone signs the edge. Players: 8 to 40. You need: paper as big as a door, tape and a thick marker.
  • Build a 4 and a 0 From Forty Cups 1. Two teams get twenty paper cups each. One team builds a 4 and the other a 0. 2. The digits must stand up on a table as walls of stacked cups, tall enough to be read from across the room. 3. The first team to finish helps the other. 4. When both digits stand, the birthday person stands between them for the photo. A helper holds the table steady. Players: 6 to 20. You need: forty paper cups and a table.
  • The Film of Their Life in Four Acts 1. Each team plans a film of the birthday person's life in four acts, one for each decade. 2. The team gives the film a title, casts an animal in the lead and names the big scene of each act. 3. One guest from each team pitches the film in one minute. 4. The birthday person chooses the film they would sit through, and names the act that got it most wrong. Players: 6 to 40. You need: paper and pens.
  • Forty Bricks, One Scene 1. Give each team exactly forty toy bricks. 2. In five minutes, each team builds one scene from the birthday person's life, using every brick. 3. Teams show their scenes one at a time. The other teams guess what it shows, and then the birthday person guesses. 4. The birthday person picks the scene that is closest to how it really looked. Players: 6 to 30. You need: forty toy bricks for each team.
  • Forty Cards, Forty Ages 1. Take the jacks, queens and kings out of a deck. Forty cards are left: ace to ten in four suits. 2. Agree an order for the suits. The first suit is ages one to ten, the second is eleven to twenty, and so on, so every card names one age from one to forty. 3. Guests take turns drawing a card and working out the age. 4. Anyone who knew the birthday person at that age tells one thing about it. If nobody did, the birthday person does. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a deck of cards.
  • Forty Laps Between Us 1. Mark a short lap around the yard. Put up a board with forty boxes to tick. 2. Guests take turns walking or running one lap with a wooden spoon as the baton. Anyone may do a lap, at any speed, as many times as they like. 3. At the end of each lap, the walker ticks a box and hands the spoon on. 4. The party's job is to fill all forty boxes before the cake. Players: 8 to 50. You need: a board with forty boxes, a pen and a wooden spoon.
  • Forty Seconds of Thank-Yous 1. Start a timer for forty seconds. 2. The birthday person points at guests one after another and thanks each by name for one thing, as fast as they can: "Sam, for the lift to the airport." 3. The room counts the thank-yous aloud. 4. When the forty seconds are up, the guests who were not reached each get a slow one. Players: 6 to 60. You need: a timer.
  • Forty Shoes in a Line 1. Collect forty shoes from the guests and the hall, and put them in a heap at one end of the room or the path. 2. Each guest puts a marker on the floor where they think a line of the forty shoes, laid heel to toe, will end. 3. Lay the shoes down one by one while everyone counts to forty. 4. The marker closest to the last toe wins. The owners then race to find their own. Players: 10 to 40. You need: forty shoes and a marker for each guest.
  • Forty Winks Around the Table 1. Everyone sits where they can see each other. One guest starts by winking at someone. 2. That guest winks at someone new, and so on. The whole table counts the winks aloud. 3. Nobody may wink back at the person who just winked at them, and nobody may laugh. 4. A laugh sends the count back to one. The table wins when it reaches forty winks. Players: 5 to 20. You need: nothing.
  • Forty-Love 1. Tie a string between two chairs as a net. Players use paper plates as rackets and a beach ball. 2. The birthday person plays a short game against each challenger, scored the way tennis is: fifteen, thirty, forty, game. 3. Every game starts at forty-love in the birthday person's favor, so they need one point and the challenger has to win three rallies in a row just to draw level. 4. Count how many challengers get through. Players: 4 to 20. You need: a string, two chairs, paper plates and a beach ball.
  • Four Books, Four Decades 1. The birthday person brings four books they loved, one from each decade of their life, with the covers wrapped in plain paper. 2. They read the first lines of each aloud. 3. Guests write down the age at which they think the birthday person first read it. 4. The closest guess for each book wins a point. The birthday person says who gave them each book, if anyone did. Players: 4 to 30. You need: four books in plain wrappers, paper and pens.
  • Four Decades, Four Corners 1. Name the four corners of the room for the four decades of the birthday person's life. 2. The host reads a clue, such as "the decade they lived on toast" or "the decade of the red bicycle". 3. Guests walk to the corner they think it belongs to. 4. The birthday person calls the right corner, and everyone standing in it scores a point. Play ten clues. Players: 8 to 60. You need: four labels and a list of ten clues.
  • Four Decades, One Fib 1. The birthday person tells four short stories about themselves, one from each decade. Three are true and one is made up. 2. Guests may ask one question about each story. 3. Everyone holds up one, two, three or four fingers for the decade they think holds the fib. 4. The birthday person owns up. Then a guest who knows them well takes a turn at telling four about them. Players: 5 to 50. You need: nothing.
  • Four Dots Each 1. Write ten kind statements about the birthday person on a wall chart, such as "still laughs at the same joke", "always has a spare pen" and "sings in the car". 2. Give every guest four sticker dots. 3. Guests stick their dots beside the four statements they think are most true after forty years. 4. Count the dots. The birthday person reads the top four aloud and confirms or denies each. Players: 8 to 60. You need: a wall chart, a marker and four sticker dots for each guest.
  • Four Duels Against the Champion 1. Before the party, the birthday person names four small things they are good at: a card game, a word game, throwing paper into a bin, peeling an orange in one piece. 2. Four challengers step up, one for each. 3. Each duel is one quick round. 4. The room keeps the score out of four. A challenger who beats the champion chooses the next song. Players: 6 to 40. You need: whatever the four duels need.
  • Four Layers, Four Decades 1. Each team has a pile of four things, one for each decade of a life, such as a school bag, a scarf, a lanyard and a party hat. 2. The first runner goes to the pile, puts on the first thing, runs back and hands it to the next runner. 3. That runner puts it on, fetches the second thing and puts that on too. 4. The first team whose last runner is wearing all four layers wins. Players: 8 to 24. You need: four things to wear for each team.
  • Four of a Kind: Collect a Decade 1. Each guest writes one memory of the birthday person on a card, with the decade of their life it comes from in the corner. 2. Everyone walks around trading cards, one for one, after telling each other the memory on the card. 3. The aim is to hold four cards from the same decade. 4. The first guest with four of a kind reads all four aloud. Players: 12 to 60. You need: a card and a pen for each guest.
  • Four Stand-Ins Answer as You 1. Four friends, one from each decade of the birthday person's life, sit in a row at the front. 2. The room asks questions, such as "What do you order when you cannot decide?" 3. The four take turns answering as if they were the birthday person. 4. The birthday person, sitting behind them, rings a bell for every answer they would never have given. The stand-in with the fewest bells wins. Players: 8 to 50. You need: four chairs and a bell.
  • Pack a Suitcase for Each Decade 1. Give each of four teams one decade of the birthday person's life and a sheet with a suitcase drawn on it. 2. Each team packs the suitcase by drawing or writing four things that sum up that decade. 3. Teams unpack their cases aloud, one thing at a time, and say why it is in there. 4. The birthday person names one thing each team forgot. Players: 8 to 40. You need: four sheets with a suitcase drawn on each, pens.
  • Ten in Forty Seconds 1. The host has a stack of cards, each asking for ten of something about the birthday person: ten friends from school, ten foods they will not eat, ten places they have lived or stayed. 2. A team draws a card and has forty seconds to call out ten answers. 3. The birthday person counts the right ones on their fingers. 4. A full ten scores a point. Then the next team draws. Players: 6 to 40. You need: a stack of list cards and a timer.
  • Three Pictures for a Decade 1. Each team secretly draws a slip for one of the four decades of the birthday person's life. 2. In two minutes, the team draws three small pictures that stand for that decade. No words and no numbers. 3. Teams hold up their pictures. The others guess the decade and what each picture means. 4. The birthday person explains the one that nobody understood. Players: 6 to 30. You need: paper, pens and four slips.
  • Top Four Answers About Them 1. A week ahead, the host asks every guest five questions about the birthday person, such as "Name something they are always looking for." 2. For each question, the host counts the answers and keeps the four most common. 3. At the party, two teams take turns guessing what the guests said. A point for each of the top four they find. 4. The birthday person reveals the answer nobody else gave. Players: 8 to 40. You need: the counted answers to five questions.
  • Whose Decade Is This Bag? 1. Before the party, the birthday person lists three things that were always in their bag in each of four decades: the school bag, the backpack, the work bag and the bag they carry now. 2. The host reads the four lists in a mixed-up order. 3. Guests write which bag each list came from. 4. The birthday person empties today's real bag onto the table to settle the last one. Players: 5 to 50. You need: four lists of three things, paper and pens.

21st birthday party games 25

  • A Comic Strip in Twenty-One Panels 1. Number twenty-one sheets of paper from 1 to 21, one for each year of the birthday person's life. 2. Hand them out. Each guest draws one panel that shows the birthday person at that age, asking around the room for a true detail to put in. 3. Panels are signed on the back. 4. Hang all twenty-one in a row along a wall. The birthday person walks the strip and guesses who drew each. Players: 8 to 30. You need: twenty-one numbered sheets, pens and tape.
  • A Lock Whose Code Adds Up to Twenty-One 1. Put a small present in a box and close it with a three-digit combination lock. Choose a code whose three digits add up to twenty-one. 2. Hide three clue cards around the room. Each asks a question about the birthday person with a one-digit answer, such as how many schools they went to. 3. Guests find the cards and work out the three digits and their order. 4. The lock opens only if the answers are right, and the sum is the check. Players: 4 to 20. You need: a box, a three-digit combination lock and three clue cards.
  • All Twenty-One Props in One Photo 1. Fill a box with twenty-one props: hats, a rolling pin, a toy guitar, a mop, sunglasses. 2. Each team has two minutes to set up one photo that uses every one of the twenty-one. Nothing may be left in the box or on the floor. 3. A helper takes the picture. 4. The birthday person, who is in every team's photo, picks the winner. Players: 6 to 30. You need: a box of twenty-one props and a camera.
  • At Twelve, at Twenty-One, or Both? 1. Twenty-one is twelve with its digits swapped. The host reads statements about the birthday person, such as "afraid of the cellar", "could beat anyone at cards" and "slept with the window open". 2. Guests hold up a card for each: 12, 21 or both. 3. The birthday person gives the answer, and a parent or an old friend may object. 4. Guests keep their own score over ten statements. Players: 5 to 40. You need: three cards for each guest and a list of ten statements.
  • Carry Twenty-One Things in One Trip 1. Give each team a pile of twenty-one awkward things: pillows, a broom, a colander, a stack of books, a watering can. Nothing that breaks. 2. The team has to get the whole pile across the yard in a single trip. No bags, no boxes and no going back. 3. Anything dropped is picked up by the player who dropped it. 4. The first team across with all twenty-one wins. Players: 6 to 24. You need: twenty-one unbreakable things for each team.
  • Count to Twenty-One, the Loser Adds a Rule 1. Sit in a circle. Going around, each player says the next one, two or three numbers, starting from one. 2. Whoever is forced to say twenty-one loses the round. 3. The loser adds a rule that lasts for the rest of the game, such as "clap in place of seven" or "say twelve in a whisper". 4. Anyone who breaks a rule restarts the count at one. Stop when nobody can remember all the rules. Players: 4 to 15. You need: nothing.
  • First to Twenty-One: A Bag Toss Bracket 1. Set up two bag toss boards facing each other across the lawn. 2. Pairs play each other in a bracket. As in the lawn game, a bag on the board scores one and a bag through the hole scores three, and each pair plays until it reaches or passes twenty-one. 3. Winners move on. 4. The birthday person and a partner of their choice play the final against whoever is left. Players: 4 to 16. You need: two bag toss boards and eight bags.
  • Parents Against Friends: Twenty-One Questions 1. The birthday person writes twenty-one questions about themselves: seven that the family should know, seven that the friends should know and seven that nobody should. 2. The family is one team and the friends are the other. 3. The host mixes the questions. Each team writes an answer to every one. 4. The birthday person reads the answers. The team with more right has known them better, at least for tonight. Players: 6 to 40. You need: twenty-one questions, paper and pens.
  • Recreate the Photo in Twenty-One Seconds 1. Print five old photos of the birthday person with other people in them. 2. Show a team one photo. It has twenty-one seconds to get into the same poses, with the birthday person playing themselves. 3. A helper takes the new picture when the time is up, ready or not. 4. Put each pair of pictures side by side. The birthday person chooses the closest copy. Players: 6 to 30. You need: five printed photos, a timer and a camera.
  • Their Perfect Week in Twenty-One Slots 1. Draw a week on a big sheet: seven days, each split into morning, afternoon and evening. That makes twenty-one slots. 2. Each guest fills one slot with something they think the birthday person would love to do then, and signs it. 3. The birthday person reads the week through. 4. They choose the best single day, and the three guests who planned it have to make one of their slots happen. Players: 8 to 30. You need: a big sheet with twenty-one slots and pens.
  • Three Events, Seven Points Each 1. Set up three quick events, such as a paper plane throw for distance, a walk with a ball on a spoon and a cup stack. 2. Teams take on each event in turn. 3. The birthday person judges every event and gives each team from one to seven points for it. 4. Add up the three scores. A perfect total is twenty-one. Players: 6 to 30. You need: paper, a spoon and a ball, and paper cups.
  • Three Rounds of Seven, Written by Three Eras 1. Three groups each write seven questions about the birthday person: the family for the first seven years, old school friends for the next seven and newer friends for the last seven. 2. Mix the guests into teams that hold someone from every group. 3. Play the three rounds in order. No writer answers their own round. 4. Seven and seven and seven make twenty-one, and the team with the most right wins. Players: 8 to 40. You need: twenty-one questions, paper and pens.
  • Three Weeks of Favors 1. Draw a calendar of three weeks on a big sheet: twenty-one empty days. 2. Each guest claims a day and writes in one small favor they will do for the birthday person on it, such as "bring you lunch" or "wash your bike". Nothing is bought. 3. Guests sign their day. 4. The birthday person reads the three weeks aloud and takes the calendar home. No guest may back out. Players: 8 to 30. You need: a big sheet with twenty-one boxes and pens.
  • Trash Can Twenty-One 1. This borrows its scoring from twenty-one, the every-player-for-themselves basketball game. Stand a bin against a wall and mark two lines, a near one and a far one. 2. Players take turns throwing a ball of paper from the far line. A basket scores two. 3. After a basket, the thrower takes up to three more throws from the near line, worth one each, and stops at the first miss. 4. The winner is the first to reach exactly twenty-one. Go over, and your score drops to eleven. Players: 3 to 12. You need: a bin, paper and tape for two lines.
  • The Twenty-One Card Trick 1. Teach every guest this trick, then let them try it on the birthday person. Count out twenty-one cards. A friend picks one, remembers it and puts it back. 2. Deal the cards face up into three columns of seven, one card to each column in turn. The friend points to the column that holds their card. 3. Pick up the three columns with that one in the middle. Deal and ask twice more. 4. After the third pick-up, count down to the eleventh card. It is theirs. Players: 2 to 20. You need: a deck of cards.
  • Twenty-One Dots: Roll Every Face 1. The six faces of a die hold twenty-one dots between them. Each player has a card with the numbers one to six and takes turns rolling one die. 2. Cross off the face you roll, if it is still open. 3. Each time you cross one off, say one true thing about the birthday person that has not been said yet. 4. The first player to cross off all six faces, and so all twenty-one dots, wins. Players: 3 to 12. You need: a die, cards and pens.
  • Twenty-One Envelopes on a String 1. Before the party, friends fill twenty-one envelopes, each with one small thing for the whole room to do: "everyone change seats", "a group photo on the stairs", "three people tell how they met you". 2. Clip the envelopes to a string in number order. 3. Every so often through the party, the birthday person opens the next one and reads it out. 4. The room does it. Number twenty-one says to bring in the cake. Players: 8 to 40. You need: twenty-one envelopes, a string and clothespins.
  • Twenty-One Photos Before the Cake 1. Give each team the same list of twenty-one photos to take, such as "the whole team in the air", "something older than the birthday person" and "a stranger's dog, with permission". 2. Teams go out with one phone each. 3. Everyone is back before an agreed time, and nobody goes off alone. 4. Teams show their photos in order. The birthday person awards one point a photo, and two for the one they want printed. Players: 6 to 30. You need: a list of twenty-one photos and one phone for each team.
  • Twenty-One Signatures, One Word Each 1. The birthday person wears a plain paper sash or carries a board. 2. During the party, they collect twenty-one signatures on it. Each signer adds one word that sums up a memory with the birthday person. 3. The signer has to explain the word before the pen moves on. 4. At the cake, the birthday person reads all twenty-one words aloud, and the room shouts the names that go with them. Players: 8 to 40. You need: a paper sash or a board and a marker.
  • Twenty-One Things That Start With Their Initial 1. Take the first letter of the birthday person's name. 2. Teams have five minutes to find twenty-one things in the house or the yard that start with that letter, and lay them out in a row. 3. Each thing has to be carried, so "sky" does not count. 4. The first team with twenty-one that the birthday person accepts wins. Everything goes back where it was. Players: 4 to 24. You need: nothing.
  • Twenty-One Words for Them, No Repeats 1. Stand in a circle with the birthday person in the middle. 2. Going around, each guest says one word that describes the birthday person. 3. A repeated word, or a pause of more than three seconds, sends the count back to zero. 4. The circle wins when it reaches twenty-one different words in a row. The birthday person chooses the one that goes on the card. Players: 5 to 25. You need: nothing.
  • The Twenty-One-Cup Pyramid 1. A pyramid with six cups on the bottom row, then five, four, three, two and one, uses exactly twenty-one cups. Give each team twenty-one paper cups. 2. On go, teams build the pyramid, one cup a player in turn. 3. A pyramid that falls is started again. 4. The first one standing wins. Then everyone throws rolled socks from a line to knock the others down. Players: 4 to 24. You need: twenty-one paper cups for each team and rolled socks.
  • The Twenty-One-Second Story 1. One guest at a time stands and tells the story of how they met the birthday person. 2. A timer runs for twenty-one seconds. When it rings, the story stops, even in the middle of a word. 3. The birthday person may finish the sentence for them, or not. 4. After everyone has had a turn, the room votes for the story that was cut off at the worst moment. Players: 5 to 30. You need: a timer.
  • Two Friends, One Answer 1. Two friends stand back to back with a card and a pen each. The birthday person sits in front of them. 2. The host asks a question about the birthday person, such as "What do they eat first on the plate?" 3. Both friends write an answer and hold it up. If the two cards match, the pair scores. If they also match what the birthday person says, the pair scores double. 4. Swap in a new pair after three questions. Players: 5 to 30. You need: cards, pens and a list of questions.
  • Which Year Is Missing? 1. Collect twenty-one photos of the birthday person, one from each year of their life. Take one out and hide it. 2. Lay the other twenty out on a table in a mixed-up order. 3. Teams put them in order by age and work out which year has no photo. 4. The first team to name the missing year wins, and gets to see the hidden photo first. Players: 4 to 24. You need: twenty-one printed photos and a table.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions, written for this site for the host of a 60th, 50th, 40th or 21st birthday. Every game is built on the number or on the decades lived, and none jokes about age. The wording is ours and the player counts are our estimates. Nothing involves alcohol or a stake of any kind, and no fact about a birth year is given: those are the host's to look up. The few facts the games lean on were checked on 2026-10-09 against English Wikipedia, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the name: Roman_numerals, Standard_52-card_deck, Twenty-One_Card_Trick, Twenty-one_(basketball), Cornhole, Tennis_scoring_system and Nim. Licence: own work

How it works

These 60th birthday party games turn on the number: six decades, sixty seconds, five dozen. Nothing jokes about age, and nothing involves alcohol.

Read the full guide

Pick the birthday first

For another birthday, choose its set in the menu under the button: 50th birthday party games, Games to play at a 40th birthday party or 21st birthday party games, which has no drinking game in it.

Change the number

Every game says where its number goes, so it moves. For a 70th, Six Decades in Six Rounds gets a seventh round. For a 30th, Forty Cards, Forty Ages is played with three suits.

  • Ask the guest of honor for the answers a week ahead. Most of the quizzes need them.

Questions and answers

What games can you play at a 60th birthday party?

Games about the six decades. Six Decades in Six Rounds is a quiz with a round for each, Six Kitchens asks guests to place a memory, and A Walk of Sixty Steps ends at the cake. Sixty Seconds, No Clock needs only a stopwatch.

What are good 50th birthday party games for a man?

The same as for anyone: games about his fifty years, not about his age. Done It Fifty Times acts out his habits, Five Frames, Five Decades is bowling with a story, and The First Half Quizzes the Second Half sets old friends against new.

What can you play at a 21st birthday party without drinking?

The whole 21st set. Count to Twenty-One, the Loser Adds a Rule keeps the counting game and drops the drink. The Twenty-One Card Trick, Trash Can Twenty-One and Twenty-One Photos Before the Cake keep a room of friends busy.

What games suit a 40th birthday party at home?

Forty Cards, Forty Ages needs only a deck with the face cards taken out. A Forty-Domino Run and Build a 4 and a 0 From Forty Cups suit children too, and Forty Laps Between Us uses the yard.

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