21st Birthday Party activities, games, and entertainment
By an Award-Winning Professional Party Planner
Why you need activities, games, and things for people to do
Conversation-starters and activities to help break the ice
Ensure guests feel included with activities that allow them to contribute and share
Keep the energy up and atmosphere lively with activities that encourage circulation and flow
Create shared experiences that bring everyone together and help them bond
When throwing a party, people often overlook the importance of providing things for guests to do.
It’s so easy to become preoccupied with the basics of party planning, such as invitations, catering, and decorations, that you don’t spare much thought for what guests will do AFTER they’ve turned up, looked at the decorations, and had a drink.
Small talk will only hold their attention for so long before they start looking at their watch (or phone!) and wondering how soon they can leave.
Engagement is essential for creating atmosphere and ensuring people have a good time.
Activities and entertainment enable flow and circulation, which keeps the energy up, and they help break the ice, encouraging mingling, and provide conversation-starters.
Perhaps most importantly, they prevent boredom and people leave with something to talk about, share, and remember; they feel as though they’ve had an experience.
Milestone birthdays often involve a mix of family and friends from different social circles or stages of the birthday boy/girl’s life.
This can mean people of all different age groups—some close to them and others casual acquaintances or work colleagues—that don’t necessarily know each other, all being thrown together in a room.
In situations like this, you can’t just hope they all mingle and interact. If you leave it to chance, it’s likely people will cling to their tribes and congregate in groups; family in one area, work colleagues in another, old college friends all together….and so on.
This is a sure-fire way to kill the atmosphere.
Not to mention the poor birthday boy/girl will spend all night having to constantly flit between different groups, probably moderating their conversations or behavior accordingly, which is no fun for them.
Realistically, you can’t be on hand to introduce all the guests to one other or provide prompts for things they may have in common, which is why you need to lay on a few simple icebreakers that will act as conversation starters or talking points.
Another way to encourage people to connect is to include ways for them to contribute.
I once read about a holiday party where the host emailed guests in advance asking them to bring two photos of happy moments from the past year, which they then used to decorate the tree.
The party started with everyone gathered around the tree, sharing a drink, and reflecting on positive experiences that had brought them joy.
It sounded like a lovely way to bring everyone together; allowing people to bond over something personal and meaningful, and it no doubt set the tone for the rest of the evening.
For a milestone birthday, you could do something similar by asking guests to bring photos of memorable moment they’ve shared with the birthday boy/girl, which could then be clipped to strings to form part of the room decorations.
Alternatively, you might ask guests to ‘Take a Walk Down Memory Lane’ by writing down a favorite memory or amusing anecdote of the birthday boy/girl, then have them read a few out as part of toast or speech later in the evening.
People love to discover new things about someone they know—especially if it’s something unusual or unexpected—so these ideas act as entertainment. And by inviting guests to contribute and share makes everyone feel as though they are included.
It highlights—and allows everyone to bond over—the thing you all have in common; your relationship with the birthday boy/girl.
On a practical level, activities also help shape the party’s atmosphere.
One often overlooked element of party planning—that professionals play close attention to—is the importance of circulation and flow.
Keeping people moving, so they explore different areas, mingle with other guests, and discover new things is a key ingredient in ensuring the party has a lively and fun atmosphere.
The alternative, when the layout forces guests to remain relatively static in one area—clustered in corners and chatting only with the people they came with—makes for a low energy and often dull party.
It’s why people often dread seated dinners; because when you sit down, the energy goes down, and you end up stuck next to the same two people for long periods.
So, spreading a few interactive elements around the venue encourages people to circulate and explore, which keeps the energy up, and the atmosphere lively.
Not to mention they can be a handy excuse for people to extract themselves from any awkward conversations!
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You should always have at least one point in the evening where you bring everyone together as a group.
A shared experience—especially one that places the birthday boy/girl at the center—is a subtle way to unite all the distinct groups present; relatives, old college friends, work colleagues etc and recognize them collectively as one group; people that are all important to the birthday boy/girl.
Whether it’s something as simple as:
…creating a moment that everyone shares helps people bond.