Famous People Dress-Up Games

For Children

• Themes like storybook characters or fairy-tale characters are essentially "famous" to children. They are usually identifiable by many--if not all--kids, and no one feels left out if they are not familiar with a comic book or movie they haven't read or seen. Plus, games are easier to play when following a familiar story. Regular hide-and-seek can become "Little Red Riding Hood Looks For Grandma." Pick one child to be "Grandma" and the game ends when that child is found. Instead of Easter eggs, paint rocks and stones as "Fairy-Tale Finds" and let the little ones hunt them down. Remember that children love to be in costume. Having a costume presentation, parade, or runway with prizes can be the best game of the day.

Celebrities

• For adults, dressing up like celebrities can bring out the best and most surprising aspects of some people. It can help to narrow the field a bit by suggesting Hollywood celebrities, political celebrities, or famous people in history. Let the group of people selected help define the party games. Murder party games where someone is "the victim" and everyone is assigned a role to discover "who done it" is a lot of fun for your guests, but a lot of work for you. You have to plan the clues and hide them and essentially send everyone on a scavenger hunt to find them. However, if you have the time, it's a great game to play. You can also ask everyone who comes to create Trivial Pursuit-style questions about their celebrity. Have everyone guess and whoever has the most right answers wins. If you have a group of people who love to show off, have lip syncing or karaoke performances to do as the person's celebrity. Just let people know ahead of time so they can bring their own music.

"Mystery" Famous People

• Not every person who has been or is considered "famous" has an image we instantly know. For example, Jonas Salk. He discovered the polio vaccine, but who knows what he looked like? Likewise, there are lots of famous people in government, but not everyone knows what they look like. If you have this kind of party, the costumes and identities themselves can be the game. When inviting your guests, ask them to make up and copy fact sheets about their famous person. Everyone can hand them out to each other and everyone can guess who is who. Do it one at a time, charades-style, so everyone can be a star for a moment.