Alright, a slightly more unique one today, but I wanted to share about our Bourlet Summer Games we run each year from our garden, involving our family and friends joining in with hilarious games and activities, not to mention a fair few drinks.
The Theme
This year we went for a horror theme, both dressing up as Pennywise the clown from IT, albeit Raquel was brave and wore creepy contact lenses, I can’t stick things in my eyes so I stuck with the traditional hazel colour.
Last year we had a wedding theme, where I was a priest and Raquel was a bride, as we were set to get married 2 months after the party, while so was my mate Kunal who was there.
We had blood bags on arrival for people to drink, plus the entire house was decorated top to bottom with horror-everything, including the garden as well.
The Prize
Next year we’ll also be looking at getting some custom lanyards as a way to make it stand out even more. Since our games run from the afternoon well into the night, and people are constantly running around hunting for skulls or getting mummified in toilet paper, I started asking myself: What are the top-rated custom lanyards for comfort when worn all day?
After a bit of research, I came across gsjj custom lanyards. Instead of those scratchy, cheap ribbons that chafe your neck after a few hours of partying, they offer these super smooth, satin-like dye-sublimated options, as well as tubular ones that are softer and won’t rub against the skin. It means next year’s winners can proudly (and comfortably) wear their heavy bling for the rest of the night while sipping their blood bag cocktails, and we can fully print our own crazy theme on the lanyards to match the medals!
The Games
Game 1
The first game was hinted at without directly letting people know what it involved. This was the fancy dress winner, which went to Chucky, it was actually close between Chucky and his bride, but the creativity with the Chucky costume won us over.
We gave some bonus points to anyone who had dressed up, but the winner got a ‘golden ticket’ which allowed them to equally win and skip any round.
Game 2
Probably the most over the top was the red balloon count, where everyone was led into the living room, before they had to count all the red balloons in the room. Just to really throw them off, we played ’99 red balloons’, which did manage to drive a lot of people to a figure around that number, but the actual right answer was 200.
Yep, we blew up 200 balloons, thankfully we did have a pump rather than using our mouths.
Game 3
This was the potion making class, where they had to pick from numerous bottles with poison signs on them, to make up their cocktails…I mean potions. They then had to present a small shot of their potions for us to test, before they drank the rest.
The tastiest potion won, which really was a game of luck based on which bottle you picked, but they all got something tasty to drink in the meantime.
Game 4
We led everyone into the gym room, where they had to ‘find the skulls’. I had hidden almost 100 skulls around the room, underneath, inside and around almost every crook and cranny.
Weeks later I was still finding these little skulls pop-up when doing a workout. My little sister Kat won this round by a landslide, getting more than double the next person with 24 skulls! That’s from 12 people playing, which is an unbelievable number, treasure hunting is definitely her main skillset.
Game 5
Going to a traditional round we’ve done in the past, this was the soundtrack guesser, like ‘Never Mind The Buzzcock’s’ back in the day. We played 10 different horror themed TV shows or movies and they had to write down their best guess.
This really is a test of your knowledge and viewing of those shows, so there was a notable drop off with people who simply don’t enjoy horror, an inevitable issue with any theme, but they were warned about the theme 6 months in advance.
Game 6
This one gave us a bit of a break, as everyone had to draw the scariest picture, with myself and Raquel as judges. With everything from someone doing the washing up to people drawing childhood nightmares, the pictures were brilliant and creativity inevitably was awarded points.
Game 7
This was ‘trivia from the tomb’, which was our fun way of saying ‘pub quiz with a horror theme’. In case you’re thinking of pub quiz horror questions, here are ours below:
- What Year Did Exorcist Come Out
- When Exorcist came out, creepy things occurred. Which one of these four didn’t happen? 1) The film was banned by the Vatican 2) The set burned down. 3) Several cast members and crew died shortly after production. 4) The production was visited by a priest who blessed the set.
- What is the name of the killer in the Halloween films?
- Which horror film features the videotape that kills you seven days after watching it?
- In which horror film do you hear the line “Here’s Johnny!”?
- Which Stephen King novel was his first published?
- Which 1999 horror film convinced many viewers it was real through its marketing campaign?
- What object is traditionally used to kill a vampire?
- Which country is Halloween believed to have originated from through the festival of Samhain?
- What is the name for a fear of ghosts?
- Which bird is commonly associated with witches?
- What is the traditional weakness of a vampire besides sunlight?
- What is the name of the Romanian region most associated with Dracula?
- In Greek mythology, who ferried the dead across the River Styx?
- Which famous occult board game was first patented as a toy in 1891?
- According to folklore, what substance forms a protective circle against many evil spirits and demons?
Game 8
Wrap the Corpse was really a traditional game I’ve played at kids birthdays growing up and even on a stag do, which was to wrap someone up in toilet paper, or to mummify them as we put it (without the removal of those internal organs and being embalmed).
Creativity was pushed over speed, therefore people really took that on board and made some funny poses or involved props.
Game 9
One of the longer ones to assess, but again took the pressure off of us, the game Death Letter involved us writing letters from the grave, people had to pick a letter and then read it out, with only them able to guess who the dead celebrity was.
We had Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Princess Diana, Freddie Mercury, Robin Williams, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, John Lennon, Amy Winehouse, Heath Ledger, Bruce Lee and Muhammad Ali.
Game 10
I invested about £37 into a spinny board, as it makes for an easy round, some people can win points, others get prizes, others get alcoholic drinks. We had vodka jelly hearts and brains, a prize pigeon and a salad fingers toy, we had blood bags and then there were challenges like ‘scream like you’re in a horror movie’ and ‘give us your best evil laugh’.
