Well, we’ve all had plenty of zoom parties, three lockdowns in. Some people love video conferencing, others find it a challenge. Organising games or activities can help everyone get involved and forget they’re on camera. Here’s our list of the best activities and games for Zoom.
Zoom vintage dance class
Online Dance classes are a great way to get your birthday party or hen do swinging. For couples or groups of family and friends it’s best to book your own private class, than you can arrange the time to suit everyone and have a really special experience! You can contact any dance teacher you know to arrange one, or check our our online Charleston dance class and other vintage and retro dance class options.
Online vintage tea party
Why not get dressed up for an evening in with friends? Bring your own cakes and get out the vintage china and teapot and have a relaxing winter afternoon chatting. We will soon have a rather marvellous online tea party option. Check our main website for details!
Murder mystery party
Online murder mystery games take advance preparation on behalf of the host – inviting the right number of people, emailing character profiles, scripts and other bits of information to each guest individually, and choosing a guests to play the inspector. It’s worth the effort! Red Herring have a good array. Get your guests to dress up and you’ll all be hamming it up with funny accents before you know it. Macmillan, the cancer support charity, do a wonderful online 1920s murder mystery which you organise as a fundraiser.
Online Escape Rooms
Great fun for small groups who like puzzles! You can find lots of free ones online by googling, or buy one. We did a free Harry Potter themed one which only lasted an hour – be sure to check how long it takes and the difficulty level! Here’s a round up of online escape rooms
Games to play on Zoom
Drawful
There are lots of games available to download through Jackbox Games, but this one is great for older kids too and a little like Pictionary. The host of the game shares the main game screen on a laptop, and then you all log into the game with a room code on your own smartphone or tablet, which you use to draw on. The drawing challenges are very surreal, such as ‘Napoleon riding a squirrel’ or ‘clown doorbell’ – you wouldn’t have dreamt them up! The players have to think up their own definitions for each others drawings, and you score points for guessing the correct definition, or fooling the others into thinking yours was correct. Highly recommended!
Charades
The family sitting room miming classic works very well on zoom with no technical skills needed. Google charades clues to find clues to choose from.
Bananagrams online
Great for small groups (up to 8). If you like word games, you’ll love Bananagrams. You don’t need to download the game. Instead, one player visits https://www.playbananagrams.com/ and creates a game, forwards the link to the other players who then log into the game. Each player starts with the same number of letters and uses them to make their own little crossword on their own laptop screen. When a players uses up their letters they press ‘peel’, which means that every player gets new letters. You race against each other to finish first. The controls on a laptop can be a little tricky, but with practise you get faster at it. A brain game rather than a highly sociable game.
Quiz night
I think most of us will have attended an online quiz night by now! If you’re having a hen party, why not do a themed quiz? There are lots of free quizzes you can find online to use. You could also google ‘1920s quiz’, ‘name the vintage hollywood movie star picture quiz‘ and so on to find quiz question ideas. Kahoots is a great place to set up your own quiz for screen sharing with players logging in to play on their own smartphone or tablet.
Tell Me
I have a rather quaint vintage game called Tell Me, and it actually works on Zoom. You just hold the spinner up to the camera…. Do you remember this? The host reads out a category from the cards in the pack (some are very quaintly worded and dated such as ‘name of a radio artist, male or female’; ‘an article in daily use’ and ‘What makes one happy?’). You then spin the wheel to generate a letter, and the first player to name something beginning with that letter that fits the category wins the round. If you don’t have this game you could make up your own categories and take it in turns to choose letters at random.
