Campfire activities can be as simple and time-honored as telling a good story, something people having been doing around their fires since the dawn of time. You can roast marshmallows, play party games, and more. In fact, some of the best campfire games are games you can play anywhere, but they’re extra fun around a fire. If you’re camping with kids, you’ll want to keep these games G rated. Here are 20 ideas for family friendly campfire games.
20 Family friendly campfire games
There’s something about sitting around a campfire at the end of a day spent out in the wilderness that’s truly special. It speaks to something deep inside us, and somehow even normal, everyday activities take on a new meaning when done around the fire.
1. Chubby Bunny
A classic campfire game, the only thing you need to play chubby bunny is a bag of marshmallows, which frankly you should already have around the fire. The goal is to see how many marshmallows you can fit in your mouth while still saying the words “chubby bunny.”
2. Once Upon a Time
In this game, you work together to tell a story, line by line. One person says “once upon a time,” the next person finished that sentence, and then the next person comes up with another line. This is a great campfire game for families because you get to see just how creative everybody can be.
3. Guess the Jelly Bean
For this game, you need these special Jelly Beans. All the usual flavors are in there, along with special treats like stinky socks, dead fish, and dirty dishwater. Taste the bean, guess the flavor. Younger kids tend to get a bigger kick out of this little game.
4. Charades
The classic party game is just as much fun around the campfire as it is in the living room. Players act out words, phrases, movie titles, and more without using words. It’s a great game for all ages. Find the above version of family charades on Amazon.
5. Winking Murder
One person, the murderer, winks are people to “kill” them. The rest of the people try to guess who the murderer is. If you guess wrong, you “die.” One version of the game has a “detective” whose job is to find the murderer. That version is a bit more complex and works better with older kids.
6. Peel the Marshmallow
No campfire is complete without tons of marshmallows, and this game for families takes advantage of that. The goal is to roast a marshmallow until it gets nice and crispy on the outside, peel off the crispy layer, and repeat.
7. Truth or Dare
While you technically don’t need a campfire for this one, it’s definitely a lot more fun around a campfire than anywhere else. Just remember that with the family you’ll probably want to set some boundaries about what they can dare each other to do.
8. Earn Your S’Mores
Before anyone can get a s’more, they have to do something to earn it. Write down simple things like “dance for 20 seconds”, “tell a joke,” etc, on scraps of paper and put them in a bowl, then everyone has to draw a piece of paper and do whatever it says before they can have an s’more.
9. Sleeping Bag Race
Everyone puts on their sleeping bag and tries to hop to the finish line. It’s basically a potato sack race, but with sleeping bags.
10. Airplane
A two-person campfire game in which one person is the airplane and the other is the air traffic controller. The airplane is blindfolded, and guided around obstacles by the traffic controller.
The next games are geared more towards kids
11. Flashlight Hide and Seek
Just like regular hide and seek, but you use flashlights to tag the people you find instead of your hand. It adds an extra bit of fun to this kids game, and it really makes it feel like a special campfire version of a familiar game.
12. Color the Flames
One of the coolest things you can do with a campfire is to color the flames. These packets create awesome colors and your kids will love to play around with them to see the different combinations that they can make.
13. Glowstick Ring Toss
You need one big glowstick and a bunch of smaller glow sticks that can be bent into rings. Stand the big one up on the ground, and then form the smaller ones into rings, and then it works just like a regular ring toss game.
14. Make Me Laugh
You have one minute to make a person laugh. If they last the whole minute without laughing, they win. This can be done in teams or individually, and kids really have a great time with it.
15. Flashlight Tag
Like the hide and seek game, this is the same basic rules as regular tag but you use the flashlight instead of hands to tag people. This one of the best kids campfire games, because it’s a lot of fun without being too difficult or competitive.
16. The Frog Game
A simple memory game- the first person says “One Frog,” the next says “Two Eyes,” then “Four Legs,” then “In the puddle.” The goal is to get as many frogs into the puddle as possible, and if one person says the wrong line you start over.
17. Numbers
The goal is to count as high as possible, beginning at 1, without two people saying the same number. The trick is that everyone is calling out numbers at the same time- any person can all out a number whenever they want and they can call out as many numbers as they want.
18. In the Pond, Out of the Pond
One person is the leader; when they call out “in the pond,” everyone sticks their hands forward, when they call “out of the pond,” hands go up in the air, and when they call “on the bank” hands go one your knees. If you put your hands in the wrong place, you’re out.
19. Dead Fish
The goal in this kids campfire game is to do nothing (like a dead fish). The person who’s “it” goes around tagging people who move, make facial expressions, make noises, etc, and then those who out get to join in the fun by trying to get other people to make a noise or move.
20. Mosquito Bites
Take a pack of dot stickers, and give a couple of sheets to everyone, making sure that each person only has one color of stickers. The goal is to put as many of these stickers on other people, without them noticing, as possible. The person who gets the most stickers on other people wins.
Looking for some campfire games geared more towards adults? Take a look at this article
