New Year's Eve "Mystery Gift" Game for Adults

Are you looking for a game for adults to play at your New Year's Eve Party. How about one with a variety of prizes, including ones that turn out to be "booby prizes" or ones with little or no value. Well here is an idea of a game that will be a lot of fun. It takes a little bit of planning to set up, but in the end will result in quite a bit of interaction among your guests by the end of the night. As the host you can determine the true value of your prizes, but this article includes a guideline for a medium cost event.

The Set-up

You will want to have three "gift cards" for each adult attending your New Year's Eve party. Each adult will receive one that has a green letter, one that has a red letter, and two with a yellow letter. Tell them that the colors and the letters will all have an effect on what type of prizes they receive at the end of the night. Let them know that every colored letter corresponds to a prize chart that will be revealed as the night goes on. Some of the prizes will be revealed during the night, but most will be revealed at the end of the night.

The Prize Chart

Have a large poster board chart with each letter that has been given out for green, red and yellow in different rows. Write under each letter what the prize associated with it is. Put the the biggest prizes in the green row. Put some of the middle value prizes in the red row, and the cheapest prizes in the red row.

The green row- have only 20% of these letters have real prizes, for the others have them revealed as "sorry, play again", or "Wrong choice". Make these the big prizes. Suggestions would be $50 gift cards to local restaurants, tickets to a play, tickets to a sporting event, a nice bottle of champagne or wine, etc.

The red row- have 40% of these letters have real prizes. The rest will have the same "sorry, play again" message as below. Examples of prizes for the red letter redemptions at your New Year's Eve Party could be $10 gift cards to local restaurants, movie gift certificates, gas cards, moderately priced bottles of wine, champagne, or beer, etc.