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[For Seniors] Lively! Entertainment Ideas for New Year’s Parties
With the New Year upon us, some staff members at senior care facilities are likely planning New Year’s parties.
Are you perhaps racking your brains over what entertainment to prepare?
What kinds of activities would delight the elderly residents?
This time, we’ll introduce nostalgic New Year’s games and simple exercises set to New Year’s songs.
Classic New Year’s pastimes can spark memories and get people sharing stories from the old days.
Let’s liven up the New Year’s gathering and make it a fitting event to kick off a fresh year with joy.
[For Seniors] Crowd-Pleasing! New Year’s Party Performances (1–10)
Karuta card game
Karuta is a game that really evokes the New Year—listening carefully to the words, identifying the right card, and moving for it, which tests both concentration and quick reflexes.
This version lets you play while seated and adds an element of force control.
Cards with hiragana are laid out on the field, and players toss beanbags toward the hiragana that corresponds to the reading card.
Even if they spot the correct card, the beanbag might not reach it, so encourage them to pay close attention to their throwing technique and how they control their strength.
What’s inside the box?
One easy and exciting activity is “What’s in the Box?” It’s often featured on TV shows and is likely familiar to many older adults.
The rules are simple: place an item in a box beforehand.
Without being able to see inside, participants put their hand in and guess what’s inside by touch.
Offer hints like “It’s something white” or “It’s something from the kitchen,” and let the older adults make their guesses.
Relying on fingertip sensations and using imagination is said to help stimulate the brain.
Fukuwarai activity
Fukuwarai is a traditional New Year’s game, but it seems the exact reason it’s played at New Year is not clearly known.
It’s said to originate from the proverb “Good fortune comes to a laughing household.” In fukuwarai, you’re blindfolded and arrange facial parts on a face.
The way the finished face turns out funny and makes everyone laugh is said to tie into the proverb.
By being played at New Year, fukuwarai has come to be considered auspicious.
Some older adults may even recall playing fukuwarai when they were young.
It’s a lively, fun game perfectly suited to the New Year.
Battledore with a balloon
Recreating the classic New Year’s game hanetsuki with balloons, this is an easy game to enjoy even while seated.
Split into teams across a table and have players rally a frilled balloon using small wooden paddles.
The key is to return the balloon using the paddle: since it’s harder to control than using your hand, it encourages greater focus and control of strength.
Chasing the balloon too much can lead to awkward postures, so it’s also important to help by guiding the balloon back toward the center when needed.
How much should I offer (at the shrine)?
I think many people make an offering when they visit a shrine for their first visit of the year.
This is a game themed around that offering.
First, prepare a donation box made of cardboard and some coins.
Have a variety of coins ready, such as 5-yen, 10-yen, 50-yen, and 100-yen pieces.
When the game starts, you throw the coins into the donation box.
Strings are stretched across the opening of the box, so if a coin lands on top of them, it won’t fall inside.
Pay attention to your throwing angle and speed, and try to get as much money as possible into the box within the time limit.
But remember: when you make a real offering at a shrine, you must not throw your coins.
Giant Menko Game
This is a game that focuses on the part of Menko where you throw cards at each other, competing by the points you earn from the cards you throw.
The throwing field is raised using cardboard, and each spot is assigned a point value.
Players take turns throwing cards toward the field, aiming to place a card of their own color on higher-scoring spots.
Even cards you throw yourself will flip and change to your opponent’s color, so the mind game of converting your opponent’s cards to your own color adds to the excitement.
Hatsumode indoors
As we welcome the New Year, some older adults may be visiting temples and shrines for their first shrine visit of the year (hatsumode).
However, there may be people for whom going out is difficult, making it hard to visit.
Others may avoid going out because the New Year season often brings cold winds.
In that case, create a space indoors where hatsumode can be experienced, and invite older adults to take part.
If facility staff dress as a Shinto priest or miko and set up a place to draw omikuji (fortune slips), you can create the atmosphere of hatsumode.
It allows people to express gratitude for safely getting through the past year and to pray for a good year ahead, which is likely to be appreciated by older adults.