For a successful dinner party you need a couple of things: great company and great food. But to make it a memorable evening, you’ll need some dinner party entertainment. The meal might be nice, your house may be well decorated, but if your guests don’t enjoy themselves, was it really a good dinner party?
Well, if you’re looking for some inspiration for dinner party games or entertainment ideas, lets get the ideas flowing….
Conversation starters
You’ve invited people over for a dinner, therefore it’s going to be the main event and you can’t do much besides eating and talking during that. But keeping the conversation flowing might come naturally, or it might need a helping hand.
After all, we don’t want that long, awkward silence. For these situations there are some simple methods to get the conversation flowing again.
Some simple questions that could stimulate a bigger chat could be:
- Where did you guys go to college/uni?
- What’s been your highlight this year?
- Does anyone have any holiday plans?
- Has anyone been to the cinema recently?
- What’s the craziest/strangest/funniest/best thing that’s happened to you guys this year?
- Is anyone going to any music festivals this year?
- Option A or option B? (for example: beach holidays or mountain? Elvis or the Beatles?)
- When did anyone here last (go to a music festival, see so-and-so, visit a familiar place)?
Hosting the neighbours but running out of conversation? Yeah that can get awkward. Keep it going with these convo starters:
- I’m thinking about planting some flowers or trees, do you have any suggestions?
- Has anyone ever organised a garage sale?
- Where is best around here for (Sunday lunch, going for a coastal walk, wild swimming)?
- If you didn’t live here, where would you rather live?
- Whats the best/worst thing about living around here?
If in doubt, ask people about themselves. Everyones favourite subject is usually them, and this can often spark a conversation, debate or possibly even an argument. Great fun.
Music
An easy option for a dinner party entertainment idea is to break out the music. It can go on in the background and even if you aren’t talking there is still something to listen to, making awkward silences less noticeable.
Choose something that fits the vibe, you can even search for playlists titled “Dinner party” if you aren’t sure what to play.
Pick and choose from the lists and put something together that fits your event and your vibe. Also, make sure not to start someone else’s dinner party playlist, as you never know if they put a weird song in there to troll others. You need to be able to cover the entire length of your party too, so check the duration of your playlist and make it at the very least 3 hours long.
The volume of the music should be quite obvious. It should be loud enough to cover up the chewing sounds a bit, but quiet enough to allow the people furthest away from each other to talk easily. To test this you can sit down with someone at the two ends of the table and talk at your regular volume, then adjust the volume.
Liven it up
Everyone loves a boogie. Well… Most people do. If your music selection has been a hit, pump up the volume and dig out that old disco light. You do have a disco light don’t you? Grab one of these simple disco balls from Amazon if you don’t…
Obviously you’ll need a good dancey playlist. And you’ll also need to consider the neighbours (which of course you do 😉 )
Board games
Board games can be an excellent way to keep the party atmosphere rolling on a bit longer.
Ideally you will want something fast paced and simple (you don’t want to spend half an hour explaining the game to others). Obvious options here are charades, 20 questions or who am I (aka post it notes on the head game).
Card games are also a good option in these situations too, as you don’t have to pay attention to a ton of small pieces, dice and cards.
Some good examples are poker, The Mind, Cards Against Humanity, Codenames and Exploding Kittens. These can all be learned within 3 minutes and are really fun. Although, you can also bring an UNO deck out if you want to play something that riles your guests up.
Drinking games
Perhaps your guests aren’t interested in board and card games and the conversation is drying up quite quickly, yet it’s very clear that all of you still want the night to go on. Fear not, drinking games are the perfect choice. Grab a bottle of your favourite beverage and pick an app or a game you can play without a phone.
Never Have I Ever is the simplest and most common drinking game, although it’s a bit overused.
You can also go with Truth or Dare, however it might feel childish to your guests and you don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable with a messed up dare. Saying that, truth or dare can be a great adult game, if you’re trying to get the party a bit steamier.
These are all aspects to weigh, although if your friends are already drunk they might not really matter after all.
Either way, if all else fails you can simply download a drinking game on your phone. These allow you to put the names of players in, so that the game can pick and choose who can do which challenge, tell what truth, or it might simply tell every single person in the group to drink. The content in them is almost endless, so they are definitely a good option for entertainment at a dinner party.
