Nighttime Games and Activities
Just because the sun goes down doesn’t mean the fun stops. There are plenty of dark-skies games great for families. Here are just a few:
No Bull Tip! Need to keep track of kids (or particularly slippery friends), equip them with glow sticks or light-up bracelets and necklaces to find them in the dark! If you want to get fancy, you can assign colors.
Flashlight Tag:
When the sun goes down pass the flashlight to the Seeker and send everyone out to hide in a classic hide-and-seek. Seeker, when you find someone you must hit them with your flashlight and call their name. Continue until you find the last player.
Charades: A fun classic game for any group. Act out the clue words for your team to figure out. Winning team gets the bragging rights until the next outing.
Glow in the Dark Frisbee:
What’s there to say? It’s a game of frisbee at night! Grab one of these psychedelic discs, find an open area for your game (try and avoid tripping hazards and gopher holes) and have at it!
Death Wink: This is a whodunit card game where every player gets a card. There must be at least one joker or wild card given out, or a specifically designated card to label the ‘murderer.’ Once everyone has their card (and therefore, the murderer knows who they are) stand or sit so you can all see each other. The murderer is attempting to subtly wink at other players to ‘kill’ them. If a player sees a wink sent their way, they must wait 5 seconds then -dramatically- fall dead (feel free to really for it). Players are trying to figure out who the murderer is before they all die. If a player guesses incorrectly, they are eliminated from the game. The player who guesses correctly wins!
Graveyard: Pick out your Gravekeeper while every other player must find their ‘grave’ and lay completely still. ‘Corpses’ must have their face visible and can only breath, blink, and move their eyes. The Gravekeeper watchers for movement, ‘out’ players join the Gravekeeper to monitor. The Gravekeeper is the only one who can get players to move or change their expression. Jokes, actions, just no physical touch or threats!
Red Light-Green Light: Get your ‘Traffic Officer’ set up a fair distance away from everyone else. It’s simple: Green means Go, Red means Stop – any players still moving after Red Light is called must go back to the starting line. Aim of the game is to be the first to cross with the ‘Traffic Officer.’
Firefly: Another flashlight game, but reversed (your flashlight should be small or low to make it harder to spot). The player with the flashlight is to go out and hide in the dark. The Firefly may constantly move as much as they want as the rest of the players try to find them, but they must turn the flashlight on and off once every 60 seconds until they are caught.
Campfire Stories: An age old tradition with a rich history tell stories around the fire to enjoy keeping the party going. We even have a few to pick from here:
No Bull Tip! Want to add some extra fun to your fire? Grab some colored fire crystals!
Picnic Plunder: You ever watch Squid Game? This should be familiar, but less deadly. Also called ‘Grandma’s Footsteps,’ choose a player to be the ‘Bear’ guarding the picnic, they get a flashlight and try to stop other players from stealing a ‘treasure’. The Bear must have their back turned to the other players who line up parallel several meters behind them. Players try to sneak up as quietly as possible to steal the treasure and get back to ‘base camp’ without being caught by the Bear’s flashlight beam (which is the only time they can turn around) anyone caught in the beam when they turn returns to start (and no, the Bear is not allowed to swing the flashlight to catch everyone. It’s a one-and-done). It’s best to have the item to be easy and light, and possibly glowing – light a light-up ball or even an empty plastic bottle with a glow stick inside.
Want to increase the difficulty? Have multiple pieces of treasure to steal, the player with the most back in their spot at start after all treasures have been successfully stolen wins!