DIY Gift: Celebrity Game

So, last month, during our bimonthly Dinner Group, a friend of ours introduced us to a fun party game, called Celebrity.

We had such a fun time with the game that we played it at a party the following weekend with neighbors.  Have you heard of it?  It's sort of like Charades mixed with Taboo... using only names of celebrities.  I was surprised to Google the name of the game and find tons of links!  How had I never heard of this super easy and super fun game?

Here's a quick explanation of the game:

*Each player writes the names of celebrities onto 5 or 6 strips of paper and puts them into a hat.

*There are two teams formed (although you can do more).

*Whoever is up tries to get their own team to guess the word on the paper, and you go through as many papers as you can within 60 seconds.

Round One:  With each turn, you can use motions, sound effects or words to get the others to say the name on the paper.  The ONLY thing you cannot say is any of the words, or variants of such, on the paper.  Try to go through as many strips as you can in one minute.

Round Two:  Same as above, but only ONE word may be uttered (it can be repeated though).

Round Three:  Same as above, but there can be NO words.

The best part is that you control the names on the slips... so they can be historical, sports-related, political, cartoonish, TV or movie actors, or even mutual friends.  Rules can be made as needed to limit names to those that most of the players would know.  With adult peers, we picked all sorts of political and musical and Hollywood names.  

We played this with the kids and simply had to adjust the "John Boehner" and "Sting" types of names in the hat for names like "Spongebob" and "Selena Gomez".  We had a ball with the kids!  I was shocked at how well they could act and give clues.  :)

I wanted to make a gift for my mom for her birthday, so I created a DIY giftable-Celebrity game.

It's super easy.

You'll need the following items:

a jar or container

several sheets of white paper

a small pen or pencil

a small tablet or pad of paper

the directions sheet

jar decorations

I used a pint size Mason jar.  After decorating the jar with scrapbook paper and a homemade label, I began to fill it up.  I created the directions sheet using an explanation I found on About.com.  After folding the printout (I printed front and back to save on paper), I rolled it into the jar.  Then I added the pad and pencil (for scorekeeping).  I also cut the white paper into strips about 3/4"x4.25" and put them in a rubber band.  

The only things that would be needed to play the game is a wide-mouthed bowl or hat (to pull names from) and a timer (most cell-phones have one).