9 Distance Games to Play with Friends during the New Year’s Eve

What with the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing, the New Year 2021 celebration for most of us is going to be very different from what we are used to. Instead of spending it with our friends and partying, most of us are going to stay at home and, at the very best, keep in touch with them using Zoom or something similar. However, it does not mean that we cannot have a good time – on the contrary, we can see it as an interesting challenge and still find ways to have a great New Year’s celebration. Here are 9 ideas for social distancing games that will keep your video chat alive. Call up all your college friends and spend the best New Year’s Eve in spite of everything!

Guess the Resolution

What better reflects the spirit of the New Year, new hopes, and new intentions than the resolutions so many of us make on New Year’s Eve? Guess the resolution is a fun game, both if the people participating in the party know each other well (it will help them guess) and if they are only superficially acquainted (it will help them get to know each other better).
Before the game, ask each guest to provide one of their New Year resolutions. Then copy and paste them into the chatbox, and ask the guests to guess whose resolution is whose. To spice things up, you can mix in a few fake resolutions for the guests to weed out. A perfect way to get a party going!

Two Resolutions and a Lie

Somewhat similar to the previous one, Two Resolutions and a Lie is a variant of a popular party game Two Truths and a Lie, with a twist: each guest shares three resolutions s/he made for the coming year, two of which are true and the third is a fake one. The rest of the guests have to guess which is which. To add a bit of competition, keep track of the right answers, and award a prize to the winner.

Never Have I Ever

The New Year is a time for adventure, trying out new and unexpected things, and hopes for the better, which is why Never Have I Ever is a perfect fit.
All guests hold up ten fingers and then take turns saying, “This year, never have I ever” and ending their sentence with some kind of activity. Every time somebody hears about an activity s/he actually took part in, s/he lowers down one finger. The first one to lower all fingers wins. Let us be honest – after 2020, a session of this game is going to take a while, because most of us did not get to do much.
A variant of the same game is “sudden death” – every time somebody hears about an applicable activity, s/he turns off his/her camera. The last one standing wins.

2020 Superlatives

An excellent way to strike up a conversation and probably even give way to some controversy. Prepare a list of superlatives like “The best experience you had this year”, “The best piece of advice you were given this year”, “The worst thing about this year” (this one is going to get a lot of competition), “the most embarrassing experience of this year” and randomly distribute them among the guests. Each of them will have to share his/her own experience about an applicable superlative.

New Year Trivia

Another foolproof variant is trivia, a game you can play on any day, but which is especially suitable for the New Year. You can ask general questions, but better yet if you make them relevant for the New Year’s Eve or the passing year (although some would probably say that it is not the best to remind people about 2020 without need). Do not overstay your welcome – your trivia quiz should not be longer than 20 questions.

Would You Rather

An excellent game for a group that knows each other well. The participants have to take turns asking each other what would they prefer in a choice of bizarre, embarrassing, and fantastic situations. To make things more thematic, add a 2020 twist – for example, would you rather live to 200 years but every year from now will be like 2020, or would you rather live out your normal lifespan?

Resolution Telephone Pictionary

This yet another resolution-based game brings a few extra twists into the formula. The guests not just share their New Year resolutions with each other. Instead, ask one guest to impart his/her New Year resolution to another, who then depicts it in a drawing. A third guest then has to guess what this resolution is and tell it to the originator. What is left is to laugh at the horribly distorted way in which it returned home.

New Year Mad Libs

This staple of parties the world over is easily adapted both for the New Year celebration in general and celebration of the 2020th departure in particular. You present the guests with a story with blanks and prompt them to fill them in before finally reading the resulting story aloud. What it turns out to be is usually so absurd and ridiculous that it may be a wise idea to put your glasses down before it gets read.

Charades

You can never go wrong with charades, and New Year’s Eve is not an exception. Act out events from 2020, whether they are personal, political, or cultural. Just make sure everybody knows about the events in question so that everybody has a chance to guess them right. If you are celebrating with your college buddies, you can focus on what happened with your university over the last year; however, 2020 offers us a lot to act out in all areas.
As you can see, Covid-19 restrictions are not the reason not to have an awesome New Year’s celebration – so follow these tips and have a nice next year!

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