Famous People: A Fun Birthday Party Game

Famous People: a Birthday Party Game

I first played this game with my wife's family before we were married. They've played it for years, originally on birthdays but now almost exclusively at Thanksgiving because it's hard to get everyone together.

Before the game, each person is given four to six (4 to 6) slips of paper on which to write down the name of a famous person. (Because our family is multi-cultured and international, we add the caveat that in order for a person to be famous, he or she must be known as famous by at least one other person in the room. For example, your fifth grade buddy might have invented post-its, but unless one other person in the room knows that, she isn't famous.) The pieces of paper are folded and collected in a hat or a bowl.

Teams are divided so that each team has at least two players. In large groups we've found it best to divide the groups into no more than five (5) teams of five players. (If the group is larger than that, consider having two separate games and having the top two teams from each game playing each other.)

There are three rounds to Famous People; the lightning round, the charades round, and the one word round. Each person has a one minute turn per round until all the names have been solved.