Valentine's Day Party Games

For friends, family, an office or a banquet, with no couples games: press Pick 3 new games.

Valentine's Day Party Games

  1. A Table Name From Everyone's Initials1. Each table writes down the first initial of every guest sitting at it. 2. Using all those letters as the first letters of words, the table builds a name for itself: five guests, five words. 3. A spokesperson announces the name and the table stands for a bow. 4. The hall votes by applause, and no table may clap for itself. Players: 12 to 100. Time: 8 min. Props: paper and a pen for each table.
  2. Heart Sayings, Drawn Word for Word1. Write heart idioms on slips: heart of gold, change of heart, learn by heart, wear your heart on your sleeve. 2. An artist draws a slip and sketches exactly what the words say, not what they mean. 3. The table guesses the saying. No letters or numbers in the drawing. 4. A right guess scores for the guesser and the artist. Tables then add idioms of their own. Players: 3 to 16. Time: 12 min. Props: slips, paper and pens.
  3. The Other Half of a Famous Pair1. The host reads one half of a pair from stories and history, and players write the other. 2. From old tales: Hansel and (Gretel), Jack and (Jill), the Tortoise and the (Hare), Romulus and (Remus). 3. From history: Lewis and (Clark), who crossed the American West, and Orville and (Wilbur), the Wright brothers. 4. Then each table writes four pairs of its own for the next table, with no couples: things, places or partners in work. Players: 3 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: paper and pencils.

Next step Valentine's Day trivia questions

How it works

These Valentine's Day party games are for a room of friends, a family, an office or a banquet hall. No game pairs guests off or asks about anyone's relationship, and no candy is eaten against a clock.

Read the full guide

For a hall with tables

The seated banquet set is played from the chairs, so it suits a seniors' lunch too. One Tear Each: The Table's Paper Heart needs a single sheet of paper for each table.

For a house full of friends

Open with one of the Mixers in which nobody is paired off, then choose Paper-heart relays and tosses while people have energy. More filters, the last entry of the All games menu, sorts by head count, minutes and energy.

Tips
  • Buy one large bag of candy hearts: three of the table games use the same bowl.

Questions and answers

What valentine party games work for friends who are not couples?

All of these. Five Hearts to Give Away has guests hand stickers to each other with a reason, and Thirteen Hearts in the Room: A Trading Scramble needs only a deck of cards. Nobody is matched with a partner.

What games suit a Valentine banquet where everyone stays seated?

Tables Trade Lines With Heart in the Lyric, Count the Red at Your Table and Ribbon Around Every Wrist, Then Back are played table against table from the chairs.

What can you do with candy hearts besides eat them?

Sort and count them in Which Saying Wins the Bag?, lay them end to end in Chain the Sayings: Share a Word to Play, or invent new ones in Invent This Year's Two-Word Sweet Message.

Are these games suitable for an office party?

Yes. Nothing asks about anyone's private life. Four Corners by Chocolate, Defend Your Corner and Lunch-Sack Mailboxes Along the Wall fit a lunch break and a meeting room.

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All 40 games

Paper-heart relays and tosses 8

  • Fan the Tissue Heart to the Far Edge 1. Cut a heart from one layer of tissue paper for each racer and lay the hearts at one end of a long table. 2. Racers fan their hearts along the table with a greeting card. No touching and no blowing. 3. A heart that falls off the side goes back to the start. 4. First to fan a heart off the far end wins the heat. Winners meet in a final. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: tissue paper hearts, greeting cards and a long table.
  • Flip for Hearts Relay 1. Spread a whole deck of cards face down on a table across the room. 2. One player from each team walks fast to the table and turns over one card. A heart is carried home. Any other card is turned face down again. 3. Teammates may call out where they have seen hearts. 4. The first team holding five hearts wins. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: a deck of cards and a table.
  • Foam Noodle Through the Heart Wreath 1. Bend a wire hanger or a strip of card into a heart as wide as a dinner plate, and hang it in a doorway at shoulder height. 2. From five steps back, each player throws a short length of foam noodle through the heart. 3. Three throws a turn. A clean pass scores two points, and a pass that brushes the edge scores one. 4. After each round, everyone who scored takes a step back. Players: 2 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: a heart-shaped hoop, string and a short foam noodle.
Show all 40 games (37 more)

Paper-heart relays and tosses, continued

  • Fold, Stamp, Deliver: Three-Station Relay 1. Set three stations in a line for each team. At the first, fold a paper heart into an envelope. At the second, draw a stamp on it. 2. At the third, toss the envelope into a shoebox mailbox from three steps away. A miss is picked up and thrown again. 3. The next player starts as soon as the envelope lands. 4. The first team to deliver eight valentines wins. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 10 min. Props: paper hearts, envelopes, pens and a shoebox for each team.
  • Mend the Giant Heart, a Piece a Trip 1. Cut a poster-size paper heart into twelve pieces for each team and mix each set in a box across the room. 2. One player at a time walks fast to the box, brings back one piece and adds it to the team's heart on the floor. 3. Pieces may be moved by anyone who is waiting. 4. The first team with a whole heart, taped along every join, wins. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 10 min. Props: a poster-size paper heart cut in twelve for each team, boxes and tape.
  • One Bounce Into the Heart Box 1. Open an empty heart-shaped chocolate box, or any shallow box, on the floor against a wall. 2. From four steps away, each player bounces a table tennis ball once on the floor so that it lands in the box and stays there. 3. Five tries a turn, and each ball that stays in scores a point. 4. Line the box with a napkin for the first round. Take the napkin out for the second. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: a shallow box, a table tennis ball and a napkin.
  • Putt to the Smallest Heart 1. Tape three paper hearts flat to the floor: one the size of a platter, one the size of a saucer and one the size of a coaster. 2. From a line six steps away, each player putts a ball to stop on a heart. 3. A ball resting on the big heart scores one point, on the middle heart three and on the small heart five. 4. Three putts each. A ball knocked off a heart by a later putt no longer counts. Players: 2 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: a putter or a broom, a ball, three paper hearts and tape.
  • Tarts Onto the Queen's Tray 1. Cut ten hearts from red felt or card: the tarts. Lay three baking trays on the floor at three, four and five steps from a line. 2. Each player tosses all ten tarts, aiming at any tray. 3. A tart that stays on the near tray scores one point, on the middle tray two and on the far tray three. 4. Write up each total. The top scorer of the evening is crowned with a paper crown. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: ten felt or card hearts, three baking trays and a paper crown.

Card and candy-heart table games 8

  • Chain the Sayings: Share a Word to Play 1. Each player takes seven candy hearts from the bowl without choosing and lays them face up. 2. Put one heart in the middle. In turn, add a heart to either end of the chain if its saying shares a word, or a first letter, with the heart it touches. 3. A player who cannot go takes another heart from the bowl. 4. The first player with no hearts left wins the round. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: a large bag of candy hearts and a bowl.
  • Corniest Valentine to a Kitchen Appliance 1. Each player draws a slip naming something in the kitchen: the toaster, the kettle, the dish rack, the freezer. 2. In two minutes, write it a two-line valentine, as corny as you can make it. 3. Shuffle the verses. The host reads each one with a straight face. 4. On three, everyone points at the slip they thought was corniest. The winner's verse is taped to the appliance. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: slips, paper, pens and tape.
  • Invent This Year's Two-Word Sweet Message 1. Read a few real candy hearts aloud to set the style: two short words, all capitals. 2. Everyone writes three new sayings for this year on paper hearts, each of nine letters at most. 3. Shuffle them and read them out with no names. 4. Each player votes for two that are not their own. The winning saying is written on the cake board. Players: 3 to 14. Time: 10 min. Props: paper hearts and pens.
  • Roll Two, Then One, Then Four 1. Players take turns rolling one die, trying for the date: a 2, then a 1, then a 4, in that order. 2. A roll that is not the next number you need passes the die on. 3. When you roll the number you need, mark it on your paper and roll again. 4. The first player to finish 2, 1, 4 wins. For a longer game, roll 2, 1, 4 twice over. Players: 2 to 8. Time: 8 min. Props: one die, paper and pencils.
  • Round-Robin Valentine, Pass It Left 1. Everyone folds a sheet of paper into a card and writes on the front the name of someone who is not at the party: a neighbor, a teacher, a bus driver. 2. Pass the cards to the left. Each player adds one thing: a drawing, a border, a kind line. 3. Pass again every minute until each card is home. 4. Its owner signs it for the whole table and delivers it the next day. Players: 3 to 10. Time: 12 min. Props: paper and colored pens.
  • Slap on Hearts, Never on Diamonds 1. One player turns cards from a deck onto a pile in the middle, one at a time and fast. 2. When a heart appears, everyone slaps the pile. The first hand down takes the pile. 3. A slap on a diamond is a false alarm, and the slapper gives two cards to the pile. 4. When the deck runs out, the biggest stack wins. The turner changes every round. Players: 3 to 8. Time: 8 min. Props: a deck of cards.
  • Thirteen Hearts in the Room: A Trading Scramble 1. Deal a whole deck around the table until it runs out. 2. On go, players trade with anyone, one to three cards at a time, face down. Both sides say only how many cards they are swapping. 3. Nobody may say what suit they are offering. 4. Stop after three minutes. The player holding the most hearts wins the round. Play three rounds. Players: 4 to 10. Time: 10 min. Props: a deck of cards and a watch.
  • Which Saying Wins the Bag? 1. Pour a large bag of candy hearts into a bowl and let everyone read a few. 2. Each player writes down the saying they think appears most often in the whole bag. 3. Sort the hearts into piles by saying. This takes the whole table and a few minutes. 4. Count the tallest pile. Players who named it win, and the sorted candy goes back in the bowl to share. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 12 min. Props: a large bag of candy hearts, a bowl, paper and pencils.

Pen-and-paper games 8

  • A Telegram Spelled V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E 1. Everyone writes the letters of VALENTINE down the side of a sheet. 2. Write a message of nine words to a friend, each word starting with the next letter. 3. It has to make sense, more or less, when read as a sentence. 4. Read the telegrams aloud. The table votes for the one it would actually send. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: paper and pencils.
  • A Valentine From a Pirate 1. Each player draws a character from a cup: a pirate, a robot, a weather forecaster, a cat, a medieval knight. 2. In three minutes, write a short valentine to the whole room in that character's voice, without naming the character. 3. Pass the valentines to the host, who reads them aloud. 4. The room guesses each character. A point for each right guess, and two to the writer if everyone gets it. Players: 3 to 16. Time: 12 min. Props: character slips, a cup, paper and pens.
  • Finish the Old Saying About Love 1. The host reads the first half of each saying, and players write the rest. 2. Six sayings, with their endings: absence makes the heart / grow fonder; love is / blind; all's fair in / love and war. 3. And: home is where / the heart is; cold hands, / warm heart; the way to a man's heart is / through his stomach. 4. A point for each ending word for word. The host reads the funniest wrong ending aloud. Players: 3 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: paper and pencils.
  • Glove, Clover: Hunt the Hidden L-O-V-E 1. The challenge: write down words that have the letters L, O, V, E in a row somewhere inside them. 2. Give two for free: glove and clover. 3. Players have three minutes. Plurals of a word already listed do not count. 4. Read the lists aloud. A word nobody else found scores two points, and any other real word scores one. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: paper and pencils.
  • Heart Sayings, Drawn Word for Word 1. Write heart idioms on slips: heart of gold, change of heart, learn by heart, wear your heart on your sleeve. 2. An artist draws a slip and sketches exactly what the words say, not what they mean. 3. The table guesses the saying. No letters or numbers in the drawing. 4. A right guess scores for the guesser and the artist. Tables then add idioms of their own. Players: 3 to 16. Time: 12 min. Props: slips, paper and pens.
  • Name Grid: Cross as Many Guests as You Can 1. Give each table a sheet of squared paper and a list of everyone's first names. 2. Write one name across the middle of the grid. 3. Add other names like a crossword, each sharing a letter with a name already there. 4. After five minutes, count the names in each grid. The fullest grid wins and is pinned by the door. Players: 4 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: squared paper, pencils and a list of first names.
  • The Other Half of a Famous Pair 1. The host reads one half of a pair from stories and history, and players write the other. 2. From old tales: Hansel and (Gretel), Jack and (Jill), the Tortoise and the (Hare), Romulus and (Remus). 3. From history: Lewis and (Clark), who crossed the American West, and Orville and (Wilbur), the Wright brothers. 4. Then each table writes four pairs of its own for the next table, with no couples: things, places or partners in work. Players: 3 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: paper and pencils.
  • Rhymes First, Poem After 1. The host draws four slips from a cup of rhyming words, in two pairs: mine and shine, snow and go. 2. Everyone writes a four-line verse about a friend that ends its lines with those four words, in that order. 3. Three minutes. No names in the verse. 4. Read them aloud. The best verse is copied into a card for the host. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: rhyme slips, a cup, paper and pencils.

Church Valentine party games for a seated banquet 8

  • A Signed Valentine for Whoever Is on Duty 1. Give each table a blank card and the name of someone who is working during the meal: a cook, a server, the custodian, the person at the sound desk. 2. The table agrees on one line of thanks, and everyone signs. 3. One person from each table reads the line to the room. 4. A child or a volunteer delivers the cards before dessert. Players: 12 to 100. Time: 10 min. Props: blank cards and pens.
  • A Table Name From Everyone's Initials 1. Each table writes down the first initial of every guest sitting at it. 2. Using all those letters as the first letters of words, the table builds a name for itself: five guests, five words. 3. A spokesperson announces the name and the table stands for a bow. 4. The hall votes by applause, and no table may clap for itself. Players: 12 to 100. Time: 8 min. Props: paper and a pen for each table.
  • Count the Red at Your Table 1. Each table counts everything red or pink that its guests are wearing or carrying: a tie, a pen, a lipstick, a sock. 2. One item counts once, however big it is. 3. Tables call out their totals, and the two highest hold their red things up as proof. 4. The winning table is served dessert first. Players: 12 to 100. Time: 5 min. Props: none.
  • The Kindest Thing a Neighbor Did 1. At each table, everyone has thirty seconds to tell of a kindness from a neighbor, a stranger or a friend. 2. The table chooses one story to share. 3. That storyteller stands and tells it to the room in under a minute. 4. Nobody votes. The host thanks each teller by name. Players: 12 to 100. Time: 15 min. Props: none.
  • Kindness Is: A Hall Poem From Table Slips 1. Each guest finishes the line "Kindness is..." on a slip, in ten words or fewer. 2. The table reads its slips to itself and chooses one to send up. 3. The host reads the chosen lines in a row, as one poem. 4. Pin all the slips, chosen or not, to a board by the door for people to read on the way out. Players: 12 to 100. Time: 10 min. Props: slips, pens, a board and pins.
  • One Tear Each: The Table's Paper Heart 1. Give each table one sheet of red paper, folded in half. 2. The first guest makes a single tear, no longer than a thumb, starting at the fold, and passes the sheet on. 3. It goes around the table, one tear a guest, until the table agrees that half a heart has come away. 4. Unfold it and hold it up. The host walks the hall and names the roundest heart, the pointiest and the bravest try. Players: 8 to 100. Time: 6 min. Props: a sheet of red paper for each table.
  • Ribbon Around Every Wrist, Then Back 1. Give each table a spool of red ribbon. 2. The first guest holds the end and passes the spool on. Each guest wraps the ribbon once around a wrist and hands the spool to the next. 3. When the whole table is joined, send the spool back, unwinding as it goes. 4. The first table to hold up a rewound spool wins. Players: 12 to 100. Time: 6 min. Props: a spool of ribbon for each table.
  • Tables Trade Lines With Heart in the Lyric 1. Each table has two minutes to list songs or hymns that have the word "heart" in their words. 2. Going around the room, each table sings one line with the word in it. 3. A table that repeats a song or cannot answer in ten seconds drops out. 4. The last table singing wins. Play a second round on the word "friend". Players: 12 to 100. Time: 12 min. Props: paper and a pencil for each table.

Mixers in which nobody is paired off 8

  • A Strand From Everyone You Meet 1. At the door, each guest takes ten strands of yarn in one color, each as long as a forearm. 2. To swap a strand with someone, each of you first says one thing you did this week. 3. Collect a strand from as many people as you can in ten minutes. 4. Knot your strands together at one end and braid them into a bracelet or a bookmark. Players: 8 to 60. Time: 15 min. Props: yarn in many colors, cut into strands.
  • Five Hearts to Give Away 1. Every guest starts with five heart stickers. 2. Give a sticker to someone else and say why: for the laugh I heard across the room, for bringing the rolls, for a great scarf. 3. A guest may not give two hearts to the same person. 4. The aim is to give all five away before the food is served. Nobody counts what they received. Players: 8 to 80. Time: 15 min. Props: five heart stickers for each guest.
  • Four Corners by Chocolate, Defend Your Corner 1. Label four corners of the room: dark, milk, white, and no chocolate for me. 2. Guests walk to their corner and have one minute to agree on a reason they are right. 3. Each corner gives its reason in a single sentence. 4. Call new corners: sunrise or sunset, card or phone call. Guests meet a new group each time. Players: 12 to 100. Time: 10 min. Props: four signs.
  • Line Up From Palest Pink to Deepest Red 1. Before the party, cut paint-sample cards in as many shades from pale pink to dark red as there are guests. 2. Hand each guest one shade at the door. 3. On the signal, the whole room has three minutes to stand in one line from palest to deepest, without talking. 4. Walk along the line with the lights up. Neighbors who disagree hold their cards side by side and let the room decide. Players: 8 to 60. Time: 8 min. Props: paint-sample cards in shades from pink to red.
  • Lunch-Sack Mailboxes Along the Wall 1. Tape a paper lunch bag to the wall for each guest, with their name on it. 2. Put a stack of blank cards and pens on a table nearby. 3. Through the party, guests write short kind notes, signed or not, and drop them in other guests' bags. 4. The host checks that no bag is empty before the end. Everyone takes their bag home unopened. Players: 6 to 60. Time: 15 min. Props: a paper lunch bag for each guest, tape, blank cards and pens.
  • Question Hearts to Find and Hide Again 1. Write a friendly question on each of twenty paper hearts and hide them in plain sight: Who taught you to ride a bike? What is your signature dish? 2. A guest who finds a heart asks its question of three different people. 3. Then the guest hides the heart again in a new place. 4. At the end, the host asks for the best answer anyone heard. Players: 8 to 60. Time: 15 min. Props: twenty paper hearts and a pen.
  • Spell HEART in Other People's Initials 1. Give every guest a card with the letters H, E, A, R and T down the side. 2. Find someone whose first or last name starts with each letter, and have them sign beside it. 3. Nobody may sign the same card twice. If a letter is missing from the room, a guest whose name contains it may sign. 4. The first full card wins. Everyone else keeps going until the cards are full. Players: 10 to 80. Time: 10 min. Props: a card for each guest and pens.
  • Trios by Sticker Color, a Rhyme Each 1. Hand every guest a red, pink or white sticker at the door, in equal numbers. 2. On the signal, form a group of three with one sticker of each color. 3. Each trio writes a three-line rhyme about the party, one line a person. 4. Trios read their rhymes. Then mix the room again by calling "new trios". Players: 9 to 60. Time: 12 min. Props: stickers in three colors, paper and pens.

How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors on 2026-10-03 for a Valentine's party of friends, a family, an office or a church banquet. The wording is ours, and player ranges and minutes are our estimates. No game pairs guests off as couples or asks about anyone's relationship, and no candy is eaten against a clock. Checked on 2026-10-03: the pairs in the English Wikipedia articles Hansel_and_Gretel, Jack_and_Jill, The_Tortoise_and_the_Hare, Romulus_and_Remus, Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition and Wright_brothers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the name); and each saying and idiom in its own entry in the English Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ followed by the phrase). Licence: own work