Campfire Games & Riddles

While there are many fun activities to do during the daytime while camping, such as hiking and swimming, young campers need to be entertained during the dark evening hours as well. Campfire games and riddles allow campers to get to know one another, exercise their minds and have some fun at the end of a long day while roasting marshmallows and hot dogs.

In "Telephone," one camper begins by whispering a sentence to the camper beside him. That person must then repeat the phrase as heard to the next camper. This continues until the sentence reaches the last person. This person must say the sentence aloud; this is often quite humorous as it is often very different than the original phrase. "Two Truths and a Lie" is a game where campers must state three facts about themselves, only two of which are true, and the others must guess which is the lie.

"Truth or Dare", a popular game with children and teenagers, involves campers choosing either a "truth" or a "dare" challenge. A camper who chooses a "dare" must perform a task assigned to her, which is often something silly or funny. A camper who picks "truth" must answer a question posed to them in complete honesty. "Twenty Questions" involves a camper choosing a noun, such as a place or person. The others can then ask up to 20 questions to guess the noun correctly.

The Kids Camping website suggests posing ongoing riddles to campers around the campfire. Ongoing riddles involve the campers guessing the answer to the riddle based on "yes" or "no" questions. For example, one ongoing riddle begins with the riddler posing the question "The music stopped and the man died. What happened?" The campers must then ask questions to discover exactly what happened to the man. This is more interactive than traditional riddles and also takes longer to solve.

There are other entertaining games to play around the campfire. "Hot Potato" is a simple game that involves passing or tossing an object around the circle while a song is played on the radio or a guitar. When the music stops, the person with the object is eliminated from the game. The game continues until only one person remains. "Chubby Bunny" is a funny game that has players stuff marshmallows in their mouths and try to say "chubby bunny." The person who says the phrase clearly with the most marshmallows in his mouth is the winner.