Top 10 fun night in ideas for housemates

01Black run

With a black run ("zwarte piste" in Dutch) the whole student house turns into one big pub crawl. Every housemate turns their room into a stop of its own, with a theme, a drink and a challenge. Then the whole group moves from room to room.

One room can be all about après-ski, the next about cheesy disco and another one about a completely failed casino. Because every room offers something different, the night stays full of surprises. And it usually gets more and more out of hand all by itself.

You can work with four levels, for example:

• Green run: simple questions and easy challenges
• Blue run: short challenges
• Red run: harder games or penalties
• Black run: the challenges nobody is proud of the next morning

Decide beforehand what happens on every run and let everyone do the route together. Dropping out is allowed of course. But as a house you can come up with a fitting consequence for that.

02Kahoot: how well do you know your housemates?

You live together every day. But how much do you really know about your housemates?

Make a Kahoot with questions about everyone in the house. The more personal and specific, the better.

Think of questions like:

• Who stays on the toilet the longest?
• What is your housemate's usual order?
• Who has the most anytimers open?
• Who had the last birthday?
• What is a housemate's biggest turn-off?
• Who would survive the longest on a desert island?

Ask everyone to send in a few facts or stories beforehand, or let everyone take turns adding questions. That way the person making the quiz doesn't already know all the answers.

03Flunkyball

Flunkyball is perfect if you have a garden, a car park or another outdoor space nearby.

You make two teams and put a bottle, can or other object in the middle. You try to knock that object over with a ball. A hit? Then your team can drink until the other team has put the object back and is behind the line with the ball again.

What do you need?

• two teams
• a ball
• an empty bottle or a can
• enough space
• drinks for both teams

The first team to finish everything wins. Or loses. That kind of depends on how you look at it the next morning.

04Pub quiz

Split everyone into teams, find a quizmaster and come up with a few categories.

Good rounds are for example:

• general knowledge
• music clips
• sports
• films and series
• photos of housemates
• things that happened in your own house
• embarrassing quotes from the group chat

Especially those last categories make sure it isn't just a standard quiz. Old photos, weird stories and screenshots from the group chat always go down well.

Get a prize too. It doesn't have to be impressive. A trophy from the charity shop is more than enough to make everyone crazy fanatic.

05Movie night

A movie night might not sound like the most exciting idea. But it always works. Especially if you make it a bit more than just putting on a film.

Pick a theme, for example:

• bad horror films
• Dutch classics
• films from your childhood
• a complete film series
• films with a dramatically low rating
• Christmas films in the summer

Let everyone suggest one film and vote on the winner together. Then drag the mattresses to the living room, put the snacks on the table and put the phones away.

06Christmas dinner (or a theme night)

Who said you can only host a Christmas dinner in December?

Put on your ugliest Christmas jumper in the middle of summer, set up the Christmas tree and cook an over the top dinner together. The less sense the timing makes, the better the night usually gets.

Split the tasks beforehand:

• someone makes the starter
• someone takes care of the main course
• someone makes dessert
• someone takes care of the drinks
• someone handles the decorations and music

Go all in on the theme. Fairy lights, presents, Christmas music and a way too formal seating plan. 28 degrees outside? No excuse. Just do a gourmet night, the Dutch Christmas classic where everyone cooks their own food on a little grill at the table.

07Salad bowl

Salad bowl ("slabakken" in Dutch) is a simple party game. All you need is paper, pens, a bowl and a timer. You usually play it in teams. It has a few rounds in which you describe the same words, act them out and in the end explain them with just one word.

Everyone writes a few people, things or animals on separate pieces of paper. Fold them up and throw them all into a pan or bowl.

Then you play three rounds:

1. Describe
   You can say anything, except the word itself.
2. Act it out
   No more talking. Good luck.
3. One word
   You can only give one hint.

Because the same notes come back every round, the links get clearer and clearer. Until someone only shouts "bike" for "Mark Rutte" and their team gets it right away.

08Cocktail night

A cocktail night is basically just an excuse to make drinks you would never order normally.

Let every housemate come up with or copy one cocktail. It can be a famous cocktail, but your own creation is more fun of course. Give it a name that fits your house right away.

Make it a competition and rate every cocktail on:

• taste
• looks
• name
• presentation
• originality

Make sure there are alcohol free options too. That way everyone can join in and the night doesn't go completely off the rails after cocktail number three.

09Build a fort

You probably haven't done this since primary school. That is exactly why it is a good idea.

Collect blankets, chairs, mattresses, drying racks and anything else you can build with. Then try to turn the living room into one big fort.

For extra competition you can make teams and give out prizes for:

• the strongest fort
• the prettiest fort
• the biggest fort
• the most unnecessarily fancy fort
• the fort that collapses first

Then order food, put on a film and stay in the fort for the rest of the night. Growing up can wait until tomorrow.

10Game night or drinking game night

A game night is simple, cosy and always good for some unnecessarily fanatic arguments.

Let every housemate pick a game or grab a few from the cupboard. Get enough snacks, put the drinks in the fridge and make it a little competition if you like.

Rather have a night full of drinking games? Then check out our top 10 drinking games for extra inspiration.

Good games for a night in are for example:

• 30 Seconds
• Hitster
• Codenames
• Exploding Kittens
• Ticket to Ride
• Werewolves
• card games
• a homemade drinking game

You can also make teams and keep score. The winner gets eternal glory. The loser does the dishes, gets snacks or gets another fitting house penalty.

Pick games everyone can join. A four hour game where only one person knows all the rules is usually not the best start to the night.

Do you play with challenges or bets during your night in? Then read what an anytimer is.

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