German Birthday Games

Hit the Pan

• In this game, a metal dish or saucepan is placed upside down over some sweets on the floor. One of the children is blindfolded and given a wooden spoon. The child has to crawl over the floor, hitting the wooden spoon carefully at its surroundings while trying to locate the metallic container. The other children will walk around and try to confuse the blindfolded child, but must avoid being struck by the spoon. Once the sweets have been discovered, the next child will be blindfolded. The game continues until all children have had a turn.

Sausages on a String

• This popular German party game requires the guests to work for their dinner. Boiled or fried sausages are tied on strings and hung up on a line. Two adults will hold the line at each end and gently bob it up and down. The party guests have their hands tied behind their backs and must try to catch the moving sausages with their mouths and teeth. The sausages can be replaced by carrots or celery sticks for vegetarians.

Choco Kiss Munch

• This game presents a favorite photo opportunity at German birthday parties, and requires a German food speciality called Choco Kiss. These small cakes are available in some Aldi and German food stores and consist of a waffle base, a mallow foam center made of beaten egg white and sugar, and a chocolate coating. Alternatively, you can use Mallomars or Krembo, but they will not have the same messy effect.

  In the munch game, the children are sitting around a table with their hands tied behind their backs and long hair kept out of their faces. A Choco Kiss is placed in front of each child who has to try to eat it. This sounds easier than it's done since the chocolate coating has a slippery surface and the white creamy center soon will leave traces all over the children's faces.

  In a variety of this game, the children are paired up, blindfolded and each given a Choco Kiss that they have to feed to the partner. The game is often played at the end of birthday parties to leave the cleaning of the child to the parents arriving to pick up their offspring.

Guess Your Name

• This game is a favorite warming up game for adult birthday parties or older children. Upon arrival, each guest will get a piece of paper with a celebrity name pinned at their back. The guests are not allowed to tell each other the name, but they can ask each other questions about their assumed name to figure out the character. The game is particularly used at large birthday parties where the guests don't know each other well. With the help of the game, people have something to talk about, and those who have difficulties in remembering names can call each other by their assumed identities once they are guessed.