A Party Game for an Adventuresome Honoree

Find Your Birthday Party Present

Are you hosting a birthday party celebration for an awesome, adventuresome teenage or young adult friend or family member?  Can’t decide what to give them?  Want to make the presentation a fun activity for everyone at the party (adults and children alike)?

How about presenting the honoree with a check for his or her age in dollars and cents? If they are turning nineteen, you would present them with a check for nineteen dollars and nineteen cents.  If they are turning twenty five, you would present the check for twenty five dollars and twenty five cents.  Not feeling that generous?  Present the check for zero dollars and their age in cents.

You could simply put the check in an envelope with a nice greeting card.  That might be nice, but not very creative.  You could hide the check and have the person find it, perhaps especially appropriate at this time of year when people search for Easter eggs and Passover matzo.  If you have a really adventuresome teenage or adult honoree, you may want to make the search more challenging, though. You might blindfold the honoree with a nice bandana.  You might also want to make it very difficult for the honoree to find the present (after all, they are a teenager or adult).  To make it really difficult, you might hide the check in the bandana.  Actually, wrap the check in aluminum foil – to be sure your honoree can’t see through the bandana and then place the foil in the banana. Blindfold the honoree and have them hold up a sign similar to the one Vana Springer is holding, to show everyone else what their present is and where it is located.  Next,  spin and move the honoree around  (while they are seated in a swivel chair, if possible)and tell them their job is to tell everyone what their birthday present is and where it is located, while remaining blindfolded.  They may ask as many Yes / No questions as they like. They may move around.   Everyone present will answer the questions (listen as some people respond yes and others respond no to the same question!) … but the honoree will need to pay for the information with an extra spin or two each time.

We use this party activity as an exercise in assumptions and communications in some of our Education By Entertainment programs.  We discuss the assumptions the honoree is making and their search strategy at the conclusion of the activity, but you may simply have fun with it at your party.   At our programs (which may include small, medium or large audiences) our typical check is for $1.01 which is why Vana is holding up the sign saying that her check is for $1.01.

Be very careful if you do this party activity.   Be sure there are no trip hazards or uneven surfaces.  Supervise every move the honoree makes.

Have fun!!!

Ron would like to thank industrial consultant Dr. Margarita Cossuto and Texas Tech student Vana Springer for helpful comments.  Margarita and Vana were both awesome participants in this activity in Education by Entertainment programs while college students.