3 Fun Things to Do with Friends at Home for a Memorable Gathering

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Are you thinking about organizing a fun gathering at home for your friends? Having your friends gather at your home with nothing fun to do can be a very stressful scenario for you, the host.

Sure, friends who have known each other for a long time would be able to get by just sitting around for a catch up and chit chat. However, they probably would not remember the session as “that great outing we had at your place” years later.

As a host, proper planning and preparations are definitely required for your friends to have fun at your home. You need to understand the preferences and character of each of your friend to get the dynamics right. After all, we want all of our friends to have fun.

A gathering where 3 or 4 friends had fun with the activity you planned, while others hung around awkwardly checking their smartphones from time to time is hardly a successful party.

So, what are the safe and fun things to do at home with friends at home? Here are some suggestions.

1. Texas Holdem with Real Money

Make sure to check out with your guests to ensure that most of them are interested and open to the idea of playing with money. Suppose your friends are all adventurous and open to a little bit of gambling, a game of Texas Hold’em can be a fun thing to do at home with a group of friends.

Keep the bets small so that win or lose, it is not going to hurt the friendship. But playing with real money is pretty essential to keep the adrenaline going and the game competitive.

There is a tendency for players to do an “ALL IN” indiscriminately when not playing with real money and that spoils the fun. Otherwise, the taunting, bluffing and trash talking during the game between a group of friends are sure to provide hours of fun.

To host a successful Texas Holdem home game, you will need to get proper playing chips. Trust me, this is one thing that you will need other than a deck of cards.

I used to open up my piggy bank to change out the notes given to me into smaller coin denominations for bidding. The tremendous effort required to start the game was often enough to hinder friends from joining in.

You would be counting the coins midway and before long, someone would suggest that it was too much trouble and go on to propose some other alternatives.

So, do read up on the rules of Texas Holdem and get proper playing chips to host a fun Texas Holdem home game.

2. Theme Movie Night

There are inherent risks in hosting a movie night. To ensure all your friends enjoy themselves, you need to consider several factors.

Who are your guests? Are your friends bringing any kids? What kind of movies would suit all your friends? Is someone going to be bored? Do we want to watch an intelligent movie which will set the stage for discussions later in the evening or do we want a relaxing comedy to past time while dinner is prepared?

Playing a movie in the living room on a small TV and getting your friends to gather round to watch an obscure movie that only some will appreciate can make a boring gathering.

In order for your movie theme night to have the “wow-factor”, you will need to have a decent home cinema in your house. Read more on my article on Home Cinema Installation for the Average Person.

Choice Of Movies

Animation for Friends and Kids

You will not go wrong with playing animations for your friends, especially if they have brought kids along. Kids will enjoy the show and adults generally do not mind watching along side their kids.

Alternatively, you can also gather all the kids and let them watch the show in a room while you can spend time catching up with your friends.

Appoint an older kid as the supervisor to report any one not behaving. Kids love taking on responsibilities and will do a good job.

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You can easily buy or rent Pixar Animations from Amazon Prime. There are tons of selections and you can’t go wrong.

Movies that You and Your Friends can Have fun Discussing

For smaller group of friends and movie buffs, I would choose movies that allow audiences to have different interpretations. I would play the movie in my home cinema room and finish around dinner time.

That way, my friends and I would have some interesting topics to discuss and debate about over dinner.

Inception is one of my favorite movies. I like it for its epic cliff hanger ending which will provide lots of materials for discussion with friends.

Searching was one of the best movies I watched in 2018. The many twists and small clues along the way make this a good movie for discussions. You and your friends will have fun comparing what easter eggs each of you caught throughout the movie.

Watching this at home is fun as you can discuss aloud with your friends throughout the movie unlike in the movie theaters.

Searching is available for sale or rent on Amazon Prime. It is actually a Netflix original so you can also watch it on Netflix if you sign up.

Green Book is an Academy Award winning movie based on a true story. It is a movie with great acting, great direction and many interesting plot points for discussion. You won’t go wrong with playing this movie at home.

There are some scenes which very religious friends may find offensive, so you have to know who your guests are.

Movie Marathon to Prepare for Upcoming Releases

With a blockbuster movie such as Avengers: Endgame coming, organizing a movie marathon to refresh on previous films can be a great way to hang out. Here is a suggested watch order for Marvel movies to prepare you.

Order the Marvel Studios Collectors Edition – Phase One Here.

Order the Marvel Studios Collector’s Edition Phase Two Here.

Order the Marvel Studios Collector’s Edition Phase Three Part 1 Here.

The thing about these great movies is that most people do not mind re-watching them at all. In total, I have watched The Dark Knight at least 5 times and I absolutely love the final scene

3. Organize a Street Fighter II (Or any Other Fighting Games) Tournament at Home

If you and your friends were born in the 70s to 90s and loved arcade games of the 80s, then the next recommendation will be a great way to have fun at home.

Read my post on How To Play Arcade Games of the 80s at Home for Free on what you need to organize a games tournament night.

Round up your friends and plan a Street Fighter II Tournament. Each Friend gets to play 3 matches with another.Winner stays and loser is eliminated until 2 players are remaining for the final show down.

The final champion gets all the bragging rights. You will have fun in the process as you taunt each other, support different friends and get excited when the match gets competitive.

Best of all, it is all free and you can do this on a monthly basis with the last champion having to defend his title. Each session effectively sets up the next meet up.

In Conclusion

In order to have a great gathering, understanding of the group dynamics is very important. Know what each of your friends enjoy and make sure the activity planned interests every body in one way or another.

It is not as simple as inviting friends over and then expecting every one of them to have a fun time in your home.

Other Fun Things to Do with Friends at Home that I Left Out?

Do leave your comments in the comment section to give more ideas on how to have fun with friends at home.

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