Games & Activities
Planning a teenager’s birthday party can be a bit of a difficult task for any adult. The ages between thirteen and nineteen can be a challenging period—especially when it comes to the age-old teenager moodiness! Never fear, this kind of challenge can totally be won and your teenager will love you all the more for it. It can be a fun experience figuring out the balance it requires to create a memorable birthday party for your teenager without coming across as the “overbearing” adult. Let’s first look at some basic activities that will work for teenagers of all ages and genders.
Icebreaker Games
If you’re having a simple, low-key birthday party for your teenager at home, icebreaker games are a great way to not only get the party started, but to keep the party going smoothly and quite effortlessly until it’s over. Some really fun ideas for icebreaker games include the Beach Ball Game, Have You Ever Musical Chairs, or Song Lyrics Match-Up. The Beach Ball icebreaker game consists of a large beach ball with short questions written in permanent marker all over it. Party guests get into a circle and throw the beach ball from one person to another. When someone catches the beach ball, they must answer the question that their right thumb is touching. For the Have you Ever Musical Chairs icebreaker game, place chairs in a circle with enough chairs for everyone minus one. One person must stand in the middle of the chair circle and as a “Have you ever…?” question. If anyone answers yes to the question, they must get up and quickly scramble to another person’s chair. Obviously one person will be left without a chair, and that person becomes the next questioner. Finally, for the Song Lyrics Match-Up icebreaker game, find song lyrics to popular songs that your teenagers will definitely know and write down several lyrics from these songs. Cut the lines in half and place them in a bowl for the guests to randomly pick, and they must go find their match-up song lyric! Great icebreaker games for a happy-go-lucky and “entertains itself” successful birthday party.
Games for Boys or Girls
If you have a specific theme or gender that you’re focusing on for your teen birthday party, go with the season. For summertime parties, outdoor games like cornhole and scavenger hunts work wonderfully for boys, while activities like Make Your Own Music Video and Twister make fun ideas for girls. In the colder months, staying indoors is more appealing, so great activities for girls Canvas Painting and Fingernail Designing Kits. Boys would enjoy video game tournaments and two-minute activity stations with games like Battleship for the ultimate challenge. Themes also work wonders for both genders while indoors, like a pajama slumber party for girls complete with their favorite chick clicks and a likewise a stay over party for boys, complete with their own brand of action movies and video games.
If you want to get out of the house with your teenager for their birthday party, then the best spot would be a place like Dave and Busters, in which the guests get to eat and play arcade games in a social environment. This takes clean up and cooking off of you and provides hours of activities for all ages and both genders of teens. Other out-and-about ideas for your teenager’s birthday party include a casual restaurant, bowling alley, skating rink, the mall, or the local aquatic center. All of these options offer an affordable solution in an extremely sociable environment, allowing for a wide array of activities at your fingertips that your teens are sure to enjoy. At any of these outside venues, there is still possibility to incorporate your icebreaker games and whatever theme you might choose for your teenager’s birthday party—whether it be pirates, cars, boy bands, or a Sweet Sixteen extravaganza!
Regardless of what activities or setting you choose, you can give yourself a giant pat on the back for giving your teen an awesome birthday party that they will remember forever.