Riddles, Games, and Tricks for the Holidays!

It’s the holiday season, which means wonderful food and a constant stream of swing music on the radio but it also means you’ll probably have to chat with people over egg nog. So here’s a Green Door Labs holiday gift to you: a few casual, simple games that you can play anytime and throw into any holiday party conversation! Last year we posted 6 party/parlour games that you can play (and those are STILL fun so check them out!!) But this year we added some riddles and physics tricks- all in our quest to make you the life of the party.

So do tricks, tell riddles, play games and in general, have a merry ol’ time!

Riddles

Who doesn’t like a good riddle? Even the most sophisticated company holiday parties run out of things to talk about and your colleagues will be grateful for something fun to show off their logical chops. Here are five of our favorites. Try and figure them out yourself but you’ll have to click on the links to find the answers!

Brothers and sisters have I none but my brothers father is his brother’s son.
What is it that’s always coming but never arrives?
What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
If you put a coin in an empty bottle and insert a cork into the neck of the bottle, how could you remove the coin without taking the cork out or breaking the bottle?
Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?

To see the answers and find more, check out the list of riddles and solutions at BRAINDEN, RINKWORKS, or GOODRIDDLESNOW.

You may have some kids around, fear not! Kids love riddles, too! You can be that awesome uncle/aunt with all the riddles:

What goes down but never comes up?
I’m tall when I’m young and I’m short when I’m old. What am I?
What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

You’ll find a pretty good list of kid riddles at FUNOLOGY or EVERYTHINGMOM.

Mysteries

This like a more complicated version of 20 questions. Pose a (usually murder) mystery and people ask questions to solve it. You can only answer yes or no. It usually gathers a good group of people to play and it can take up to 10 minutes to crack the mystery… depending on what’s in your egg nog. Here are a few to get you started. Again, you’ll have to click on the links to find the answers.

A man dies in the middle of 52 bicycles
When she stopped at the 5th floor, she knew her husband was dead. How did she know?
A man goes to a restaurant, orders albatross, takes one bite, leaves the restaurant and shoots himself. Why?

Find the answers and more mysteries HERE or more involved mystery stories at BRAINGLE.

Physics Tricks

I was once at a party in NYC- of course all those well-dressed, wine-drinking NYC folk were milling around and I knew nobody. What to do? Naturally, try to get a grape to form a plasma arc in a microwave. It was the event of the evening and everyone crammed into the kitchen to try and see it work. Here are a few awesome but simple physics tricks that you can pull off with regular party supplies: