Retirement party bingo

Retirement party bingo tips

• Hobby squares count when someone mentions the hobby, not only when the object appears. A toast about finally having time for the garden marks the watering can or garden trowel; a joke about tee times marks the golf clubs. Say this rule out loud before the speeches start.
• Ask whoever builds the slideshow to include the honoree's first-day photo, an old name badge and a shot of their office desk. Those three squares then land in the same few minutes, so players mark several at once while the stories about the early years are still going.
• Hand out cards before the toasts, not after the cake. Many squares, from the champagne bottle to the handshake and the group hug, happen in the half hour of speeches and gifts, and guests who get a card late will have missed them.
• Pick prizes that match the squares: a packet of seeds, a fishing lure, a travel journal or a slice of cake to take home. Let the honoree hand them over, which gives coworkers one more chance to say goodbye in person.
• If the party is at a restaurant, the office desk and name badge squares may never show up in person. Count them when they appear on the slideshow screen or in a story, so the card still works away from the workplace.

Best for

Ages

Adults, from new hires to the honoree's oldest friends

Group size

10 to 50 coworkers, family members and former colleagues

Duration

About an hour, running alongside the speeches, slideshow and cake