16 Dinner Table Games For All Ages + Printables

Cooking icon Julia Child once said, "The dinner hour is a sacred, happy time when everyone should be together and relaxed." For many of us, this meal has become more important than ever. In times of uncertainty, knowing that dinner will be on the table at the end of each day can help us focus on what's important, connect with our loved ones, and allow us to practice daily gratitude.

Whether you've been enjoying dinner by yourself, with a roommate, partner, or your entire family (virtually or in-person), it never hurts to spice things up a bit! If you want to have even more fun the next time you sit down for the last meal of the day, try one of our fun dinner table games that you can play with friends or family, virtually or at the same table.

You can also download our free game tokens and scoreboard to make your dinner table games feel more official. Just click the button below, print on US letter size pages, and cut out the tokens before your next dinner!

Family Dinner Nights

We know that family dinner nights aren't always sunshine and rainbows—especially during a pandemic. When you're in a rut, dinner time can turn into a redundant nightly event. You cook, you serve, you eat, you clean and the night is over. But it doesn't have to be this way. Since dinner is already part of your family's daily schedule, it's a great opportunity to add the element of play!

Stuart Brown, M.D., founder of the National Institute for Play, recommends implementing play in your daily routine to promote creativity, social skills, and mental wellbeing (no matter your age). Here are some fun ways to get unstuck and enjoy dinner time with your family!

1. Switch

This game is super easy to play and only requires a minute of preparation time. Write everyone's names on a piece of paper and throw them in a bowl. Before your family sits down for dinner, ask everyone to draw a name. Everyone then has to sit in the other person's regular seat and act like them during the dinner. Make sure to draw again if you pick yourself so you don't lose out on the fun! You can also write characters from your favorite show, animals, or family members that aren't present on the tags and impersonate them during dinner.

2. The Gratitude Sandwich

If you're not really in the mood to play a game, this little gratitude round is the perfect way to put a positive spin on your day. Everyone gets to tell the group two good things that happened that day and one thing that wasn't so great. Make sure to say one of the good things first, then talk about something that you didn't like, and end with another positive event that happened to make the story a sandwich that's easy to digest!

When you're done talking, pick the next person to build their gratitude sandwich until everyone has shared stories of their day.

3. Printable Table Placemats

If your kids have a difficult time sitting still at the table, either waiting for food to be served or for everyone to finish their meal, we have something for them! Print out this cute placemat and give your kids a colored pencil to find their way through the maze.

4. What's Cooking?

This game is fun when your kids are a little bit older and have the vocabulary to describe different ingredients. Ask everyone at the table to guess the list of ingredients that are in the meal being served. You can just shout out the ingredients you think the cook used or give everyone a legal pad to make notes of what they think is in the meal.

If you have multiple people contributing to the dinner (appetizer, main course, dessert) you can play multiple rounds!

5. Once Upon A Time...

It doesn't get much simpler than this: start a story with the words "Once upon a time…" and go around the table so everyone can add a new sentence to the story until it's over.

If you like this game, you can ask your kids to write down a bunch of different themes, locations, events, or names and toss them in a jar. Draw one of these papers before your next dinner and tell a story that revolves around it! Here are a few ideas of what you could write on these paper slips:

• Princess story
• Knight tale
• Yesterday at school
• At the beach
• In the dark forest
• Easter
• Halloween
• Spongebob Squarepants
• James Bond

Dinner Party Games

If you're hosting a dinner party, having a few games ready is never a bad idea! Whether it's a quick ice breaker to get things going, a fun way to introduce everyone to get acquainted, or a game that keeps your guests hooked all night—we've compiled a list of the best dinner party games so you're prepared!

6. Guess Who

Write a fictional or real character/person on a sticky note and put it on the person's forehead who's sitting to your right. One person starts asking yes or no questions to find out who they are. If the group answers no, the next person gets to ask questions.

7. Murder Mystery Game

If you have some time on your hands to plan a more elaborate dinner party and know your guests will enjoy dressing up and playing a character all night—a murder mystery is the perfect game for you! The premise is simple: someone got killed and the murderer is among you. Find out who did the crime by asking the right questions.

You can purchase murder mystery game packs or find free versions online!

8. Cool Beans!

If you're in need of a good laugh, try this game. All you need to do is print our game sheet and cut the individual tags out. Place one tag underneath each person's dinner plate and ask them to read what's written on it after they sit down. They have to remember the word or sentence and try to bring it up during dinner without anyone catching them.

You get a point…

• If you say the odd word or sentence without anyone noticing, or
• If you catch someone saying theirs.

You lose a point…

• If you wrongfully accuse someone of saying their odd word or sentence.

Whoever has the most tokens at the end of dinner wins! Have fun coming up with your own odd words, expressions, or sentences and write them in our blank template if you want to play this game again.

Pro tip: Sneak in a few odd words or phrases that are not on your tag to confuse the others and increase your chances of winning the game!

9. Two Truths, One Lie

This game is great if your guests don't know each other too well and you want to introduce everyone in a fun way. Everyone has to share two true facts about themselves and make up one lie. For example, you could share that you're a nurse, play piano, and like to play board games. Now the rest of the group has to find out whether you lied about your job, musical talent, or hobby!

Go around the table until everyone's lie has been debunked!

10. Great Minds Think Alike

Divide your guests into two groups and give everyone a sheet of paper and a pen. Call out a category and ask them to secretly write down the first three things that come to mind. When everyone is done, read the words out to your team members and award a point (or token) for every word that was written down multiple times. If you have a large group of people, you can come up with a different point system (e.g. three points for every three words in common, four points for every four words in common, and so on).

Here are a few category ideas. You can go as broad or as detailed as you'd like to make the game fun for your guests:

• Something you would find on the side of the road
• The first thing you grab at the grocery store
• An ingredient you never cook without
• A famous person with a mustache
• A yellow cartoon character
• A song with a name in it
• A fictional animal
• Something sweet

Virtual Dinner Table Games

Spending quality time with friends and family is important, but we know that it's not always possible to get everyone you love in the same room together. That's why we're grateful for video calls! If you're planning to host a virtual dinner party or maybe have a regularly scheduled virtual dinner with your family, here are a few games that you can play in person or long distance!

11. Trivia Night

You don't have to visit your local bar to partake in trivia dinner night! Create your own trivia questions or find free ones online to host a fun virtual game night with friends or family. You can write them down by hand, read them to the group and rely on an honor's system where everyone records their own scores. If you'd like to put together a more elaborate game, you can create a presentation with all the questions and share your screen with the group. However you do your trivia night, this game will always be a fun way to connect with others.

You can pick a different theme depending on your guest list or make this a regularly scheduled event and pass the hosting torch around. Here are a few fun themes for your next trivia party:

• Television (favorite channel, reality TV, favorite TV show)
• Movies (80s movies, horror movies, Disney movies)
• Music (70s songs, 90s music videos, 21st century boy bands)
• Books (classics, authors, fantasy)
• Celebrities (relationships, movies, pseudonyms)
• Geography (countries, borders, landmarks)

12. Taboo

The best part of this game: you can play it with two or 20 people and it works in-person and for virtual dinners. Print our taboo list or write down your own 5–8 words that will be taboo words during the dinner. Give everyone a chance to familiarize themselves with the words or give everyone a copy so they can reference it during dinner.

Everytime someone says one of the words, they have to take a token (you can print and cut out our tokens or use coins, dice, or beads). Whoever has the least amount of tokens at the end of the dinner wins! If you play this game in-person, you can create a rule that the person with the most tokens will have to clear the table after dinner.

13. Apple, Banana, Cherry!

If you have regular virtual dinners with your family and want to keep the kids engaged, try this game: pick a theme like fruits, vegetables, things in the kitchen, or drinks. Start with the letter A and go around the (virtual) table working through the alphabet with a word that starts with each letter. For example, apple, banana, cherry, dragon fruit, etc.

The best part of this game is that only one person at a time will speak which makes the virtual dinner experience much smoother than a lot of people talking over each other.

14. 20 Questions

The best part about this game is that you never know where it's going to take you. One person has to come up with a place, person, animal, or really anything they can think of. The rest of the group now has to ask questions the person can answer with "yes" or "no" to find out what thing, person, or place they were thinking of. The group gets 20 questions to solve the riddle.

You can shout out your questions or go around the (virtual) dinner table.

15. Lyric Recall

This game can be played in groups or with everyone fending for themselves. Write a bunch of words or phrases on paper slips and throw them in a bowl. Draw a paper slip from the bowl, read it aloud, and ask everyone to write down as many songs as they can think of that have that word or phrase in them. Set a timer for two or three minutes to add pressure!

For every song you wrote down that nobody else thought of, you get a token!

16. Laugh Out Loud

Last but not least, this is a cute game to get everyone out of their shells. Appoint a "laugh master" whose job it is to make other people on the call laugh! For every giggle, cackle, or full on belly laughter the "laugh master" gets a token. You can pass the torch around so everyone gets the chance to make the rest of the group laugh.

It's so easy to make a regular meal with family or a dinner party with friends more entertaining. If you want to raise the stakes, make a pact that whoever loses game night has to take care of the dishes!