Sitting around the campfire with friends and family is the stuff that lifetime memories are made of, and adding in a few campfire games can really help to get the laughter flowing. It’s a great idea to plan a few campfire games ahead of your trip so you’ve got entertainment at the ready and so you can make sure your evenings don’t fizzle out with the last burning embers of your campfire! Here’s a selection of our favourites to get you started.

CAMPFIRE CLASSICS FOR ALL AGES

1. CHINESE WHISPERS

Although this classic campfire game is guaranteed to produce a few howls of laughter, it’s also a good game to play if you need to keep the noise down.

How to play:

• One person thinks of a phrase. It can be as silly or as sensible as you like!
• Whisper the phrase to your neighbour.
• The neighbour then whispers on whatever they heard – mistakes and all – into the ear of the person next to them, and so on.
• Eventually, when the phrase arrives at the last person in the circle, they say whatever they heard out loud to the group. Cue peals of laughter at the interesting end results!

2. NAME THAT TUNE

If you have any budding musicians among you, encourage them to bring their instrument, particularly if they can play any song on demand. This way you can play name that tune by introducing a short riff or intro and everyone to shout their guesses. This game is guaranteed to lead into the classic campfire sing-song, so get ready for a raucous singalong!

3. WINK MURDER

This is a great game if you’re feeling theatrical and you might even discover the dramatic side to some of your campmates should one of them play out a very elaborate death scene!

How to play:

• One person is chosen or volunteers to be the ‘detective’. They leave the group so they are out of earshot.
• The remainder of the group choose who will be the ‘murderer’.
• The detective is then invited back to the group, which is when the murderer starts to ‘kill’ other members of the group by winking at them.
• If the victim sees the wink, they must act out a death scene, as dramatically as they see fit.
• The detective’s job is to work out who the murderer is before the whole group is eradicated. If they get it right then they win the game and get to choose the next detective. If they don’t manage to work it out, the murderer wins the game and becomes the next detective.

CLASSICS FOR ADULTS

4. WHAT’S MY NAME?

Depending on how obscure you dare, this game can keep camp mates entertained for hours.

Everyone writes down a name of a celebrity or public figure. If you so wish, you can theme it, so for example superheroes, politicians, historical figures, etc., or just freestyle it and see who your group comes up with. Once you’ve all written a person down, pick a name out of a hat and have everyone else guess who you are by asking you a series of yes / no questions.

Alternatively, once you’ve picked a name, don’t look at it but let your companions see who it is, leaving you to guess your selection. You can work in teams or as individuals, depending on how many involved.

5. TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE

This is a fun game to play when you know the participants quite well.

Each person declares three statements, two of which are true with the other a lie. It’s everyone else’s job to guess which one is the false statement. The more outrageous the truths, the more challenging the guessing becomes!

AND FOR SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT…

6. MAKE ME LAUGH

As the name suggests, this is a funny one! The aim is simple: make everyone else laugh whilst not laughing yourself. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just make sure you’re not the one laughing! Whether you play this before or after the campfire tipple comes out is up to you.

No matter what games you play, the key to all successful campfires is simply having fun. Enjoy each other’s company and get to know one another better. And if there are a few giggles along the way, even better! Enjoy!