Valentine Day games

Games that could be used with a Valentine or love theme.

Keep Your Partner

This game 'needs' an odd number of players, so if you are organising it be prepared to 'take part' or volunteer not to in order to achieve this.

Players partner up either with their real partners or a partner (it doesn't matter). Form a circle of chairs facing inwards, one chair for each pair of players, plus a chair for the odd player. One member of each pair sits down on the chair while the other member stands behind their partner and chair close enough to be able to touch their shoulders (If you want you can have it so that all the girls are sitting down, while all the boys stand behind their partners and then swap around later). The player without a partner stands behind an empty chair.

The object of the game is for the player without a partner to attract to his/her chair somebody else's partner who is sitting down by winking at them. If a player who is sitting down is winked at they have to get up quickly and go to the empty chair. They can be stopped only if they partner can touching them on the shoulder before they have stood up and moved out of reach. Players standing up can not move within the circle of chairs.

The player with an empty seat now has to attract their partner back or another partner into their seat...  Set a time limit and the person who has no partner at the end of the time is the loser.

Lap Game

Good game for finding things out about others.... and a useful game to have up your sleeve for big parties.

Create a circle of chairs facing inwards so that everybody playing has a seat to themselves. There is no limit to numbers, but its better to play this with larger numbers (eg 20+) than smaller. Ask players to remember the chair they are in as the object of the game is to move around the circle of chairs and get back to their own chair.

One person is the 'Caller' (most usually yourself or person in charge) and they call out various things that could apply to other people and a number of places eg "If you are wearing white socks, move 2 places", "If your birthday is in January, move 1 space", etc...  
If the fact applies to a player they get up move that number of places to their left (clockwise), sitting on the chair or lap of the person or person's already there (The number of players sitting on each others laps can get quite a lot!). Younger children playing are allowed to adjust their position so they are on top of the pile and not getting squashed.

If you want you can also play it so that certain facts are 'negative' and players have to go back a number of places eg, "If you didn't brush your teeth this morning, move two places to your right"

Partners

(simple game for younger children)

Players partner up and stand creating two concentric circles, so that one stands on the inner circle facing clockwise while the other one stands in the outer circle facing anti-clockwise. On command each circle runs in opposite directions until the leader calls out `partners’. Players then have to find their partner and holding hands sit on the floor. Last pair down are out but remain in the circle to keep it large.

What did I eat?

You will need to prepare or select in advance a variety of sweet, savoury and sour edible items which are relatively easy to identify through taste alone. Each team or pair of partners will need a sample of each and a blindfold for each person doing the tasting. 

Players divide into teams or partners and blindfold a member of the team or one of the partners. Once the blindfold is on give each group a plate of edible items which are fed to the blindfolded player in turn and see how many they can identify.

Imagination

You will need a variety of household items, containers, clothing, etc...

Not a game for the unimaginative... sitting in a circle each player has to use their imagination and act out as many alternative ideas for the prop they have been given. or you can pass the same object around the circle and see what each player in turn decides to act out with it. For example blanket became Superman's cape, a matador, a baby in a blanket... what ever your imagination can come up with and act out.

Bean Bag Melee

You will need 5 bean-bags or other unbreakable objects such tennis balls and 3 chairs. Put the 5 bean-bags in a cluster in the middle and place the 3 chairs equidistant from the pile of bean bags in the middle.

Bean Bag Melee layoutPlayers divide into 3 teams with each team standing by one of the three outer rings or points. Teams do not have to be even numbers. Each team selects a player to run each round. If you want you could have one team men, one team women and the other team children.

One player from each team is selected to run each round and sits on the chair waiting to go. The objective of the game is through speed and intelligence to get 3 bean-bags onto your team's chair. Players can take bean-bags from the centre OR from other players chairs. Players however may only carry one bean-bag at a time and cannot throw them, they must be placed on the chairs. Other team members can not defend their chair and stop bags being taken by the other players.

Human Tic-Tac-Toe (Naughts & Crosses)

From Kristi-Anna and Mike (moderators of the Youthworkers email list).

Play this as two teams (you might want to play as men versus women), but its a game for older youth who like the tactical challenge and quick thinking (literally on your feet) that's involved.

Arrange nine chairs in the center of a room or playing area in a naughts & crosses / tic tac toe formation as shown below. If you want and are able to you can draw the lines between the chairs as well. Divide players into two team with a minimum of 3 people in a team and get them to stand at opposite sides of the room.

Human Tic Tac Toe layout

Each team chooses three players who will run that round. On command all six players (3 from each team) run to the chairs and attempt to sit in chairs so that their team forms a line as in tic-tac-toe or naughts and crosses. - Players may NOT form a line using the 3 chairs nearest to their team.
- First player to a chair has the chair, no pushing off.
- If no line is formed by either team, players can move around until a line is formed.
- point goes to the team that forms the line.

OR

If you have a relatively even number of players on each team you could number each player so that they have an opposing player in each team and then call out three numbers for each round. 

Elf Defense

Find this and other games at Jonathan's Resources.

You'll need two different colored balloons, 25 to 50 of each for two teams of play. 

Form two teams of elves. Each team must defend its treasure (a pile of balloons) while attempting to steal or destroy the other team's treasure. Use two different colour balloons, one for one team. Designate a time period (5 to 10 minutes) to play the game. When the time ends, each team's unpopped balloons count 100 points each. Stolen, unpopped balloons count 200 points each.