When I was a kid I was amazed how many people assumed you needed to buy the game to play it, not realising that often you just need pencil and paper. They’d rather buy some tacky plastic game or watch TV than make their own fun! I’m of the play-it-on-paper or build-your-own-game tribe.

Since the Power Off Weekend is just around the corner, here are 101 things to do with your friends and loved ones — all without electricity:

The wonderful game of French Cricket, as shown in this picture by William Linford

101 electricity-free games and activities

Note: Not familiar with any game? Get in touch with me and I’ll help you out.

1. science experiments, flames, and safety
2. card games
3. reading books or plays out loud
4. ghost stories
5. board games, many you can also make yourself, like othello!
6. darts
7. shove h’penny
8. hang man
9. moving around the house without touching the floor (pretending the floor is the ocean)
10. shadow puppets
11. christmas card writing
12. origami
13. ten pin bowling with old water bottles as pins
14. hunt the thimble
15. hide and seek
16. model making
17. knitting and felting
18. art, picture drawing, painting
19. clay working or plasticine
20. making christmas decorations
21. writing letters to forgotten family
22. bingo
23. keeping a diary of the weekend
24. hop scotch
25. knots
26. rope making
27. kitchen science and cookery
28. three-legged race, sack race or egg & spoon race
29. music
30. dress up
31. magic tricks
32. making false teeth out of orange peel,
33. pass the parcel,
34. musical chairs,
35. paper games such as connect 4, battleships, connect the dots, etc
36. rock-paper-scissors
37. building structures with objects like cardboard egg boxes and tin cans, such as the tallest tower or the largest bridge span,
38. paper aeroplane competition
39. elastic band powered vehicles
40. morse code and secret messages
41. photography
42. claymation
43. tidying and cleaning and polishing
44. chinese whispers
45. quoit or hoopla or horseshoes
46. skipping rope
47. football
48. juggling and catch
49. kite making and flying
50. beachcombing
51. stilt walking (even on tin cans and string)
52. making toast, s’mores or toasting marshmallows on a real fire
53. nature walk
54. pin hole box camera
55. jigsaw puzzles
56. indoor basketball
57. brass polishing
58. bicycle repair
59. potato printing
60. charades
61. quizes
62. coconut shy (see bowling above)
63. pick-up sticks
64. i spy
65. radio, battery or wind up
66. simon says
67. paper trails and scavenger hunt
68. treasure hunt
69. 20 questions, animal, vegetable, miracle
70. obstacle course
71. eating together and conversation
72. a walk in the dark
73. star gazing
74. blind man’s bluff
75. hula hoop
76. tent indoors with sheets
77. piggy in the middle
78. foursquare
79. mini table tennis
80. french cricket
81. boule
82. jacks and marbles
83. carol singing
84. pin the tail on the donkey
85. make popcorn
86. spin the bottle
87. balloons
88. homemade jenga
89. feely box
90. blind tasting or scent testing
91. indoor golf putting
92. newspaper construction
93. quick on the draw / pictionary
94. three draw – word, picture, word
95. dominoes
96. house of cards
97. mini tug o’ war
98. memory game
99. diy and using tools
100. story or poetry or cartoon writing
101. fishing indoors
102. Jack’s alive
103. bobbing for apples
104. crosswords and word puzzles
105. wildlife safari / snail hunt

Here is also a great website I found:

http://www.familyeducation.com/home/

Most of the games here you can make yourself, which adds to the fun:

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/garden-games3.htm

Environment, happiness, Power Off Helpful tips, Power Off