Charades Ideas

Charades is a fun party game that people of all ages can enjoy. However, coming up with charades ideas can be hard, so I've compiled a list of possible ideas for you! These mainly come from my own charades successes, and of course the epic fails as I just stood there not sure how to act it out at all.

When choosing an idea for your own game of charades, ensure that every single person will be able to guess it, or at least know what it was when the answer is revealed at the end.

For a twist to the game, why not try having a team of two people both acting?

The rules of charades are simple. You must think of a movie, book, celebrity or something from another category chosen with your friends before the beginning of the game. You could also have a hat with charades ideas written on slips of paper (by someone not playing), and you have to act out whatever charades idea you draw.

Using gestures and your extraordinary acting abilities, you must then make your friends correctly guess what you are thinking of. You can do this in one of two ways. The first is to give your friends the gist of what you are doing. For example, if you were thinking of "Harry Potter", you may wave an imaginary wand around.

The second method is breaking it down word by word, and acting out individual words. For example, if you were thinking of "Harry Potter", you might hold up two fingers, showing that you are acting out the second word, and then mime forming clay (being a potter).

You are not allowed to talk. Whether or not you can make noises that are not words depends on what rules you choose to play by. This should be decided by the group before you start to play.

You cannot use props. For example, if you were acting out "Harry Potter", running to the bookcase and grabbing your Harry Potter book or running to the attic and grabbing a Harry Potter figurine to show your audience is not allowed.

Vertigo

Titanic

Shrek

Annie

Gremlins

Alien

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Black Swan

Jaws

The Birds

Psycho

Lord of the Rings

Beaches

The Devil Wears Prada

Ghostbusters

Saw

The Little Mermaid

The Lion King

Aladdin

Kung-Fu Panda

The Wizard of Oz

Hairspray

Bridget Jones' Diary

(READ: A list of charades ideas specifically chosen for children)

Harry Potter

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The da Vinci Code (this one might be hard!)

Little Women

The Code of the Woosters

A Clockwood Orange

Brave New World

Rebecca

Angels and Demons

The Handmaid's Tale

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

Jane Eyre

A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Wind in the Willows

Michael Jackson

Britney Spears

Paris Hilton

Justin Bieber

Superman

Homer Simpson

Bill Gates

A zombie

The Incredible Hulk

Spiderman

Catwoman

Wonder Woman

Rebecca Black

George Washington

Albert Einstein

Chandler Bing

Frankenstein

Giving birth

Mowing the lawn

Making the bed

Making tea

Swimming (to make this one harder, make it a particular stroke!)

Farting (no, you can't actually fart)

Now, be careful with this one. People can easily become the terrible actors they always were deep inside, like one person I played this with who just stood up and was completely still, not even moving to tell me how many words her object was, or give any indication of how close my guesses were.

Ten minutes later, she got too frustrated at me for not guessing what she was, so she just told me: a lamp post.

My personal recommendation is to steer clear of the "objects" category unless you have a great object everyone will get, or some sort of in-joke.

Do you have a great charades idea? Leave it in the comments below!!

Charades Ideas for Kids - A list of charades suggestions specifically selected for children, including books, movies, television shows and animals.

Hard Charades Ideas - Books, TV shows, movies and miscellaneous that will push your acting abilities to their limit.

Charades Ideas for Adults - Books, movies and TV shows including several old favourites.

Charades Ideas For Teenagers - Movies, books and TV shows charades ideas designed with teenagers in mind.

Truth or Dare Ideas