PULTEVENT
Bonfire Night party games: 7 indoor games for before and after the fireworks
The 5th of November, a semi in Huddersfield, and it has been raining sideways since four. The parkin is cut into squares on the kitchen counter, the sausages are in the oven because the barbecue is out of the question, and the box of fireworks is sitting in the porch while the grown-ups check the forecast for the fourth time. Eleven children are in the front room. They have already eaten the treacle toffee.
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Anyone who has hosted a Bonfire Night party knows this bit. The display is the main event, but it lasts twenty minutes, and it is always either too early for the adults or too late for the little ones. Then there is the waiting: for the dark, for the rain to ease, for the community display down the road to start at seven, for the bonfire to catch.
The waiting is where I use a screen. PULTEVENT runs in a laptop browser and puts the games on your telly through an HDMI cable. Children old enough to have a phone, and their parents, scan the QR code and play along; nothing to download or sign up for. Their phones need to be online, Wi-Fi or data, and for the younger ones you just pass a parent's phone around.
7 Bonfire Night games for the front room
1 Remember, remember: the quiz
Ten questions on the Gunpowder Plot and on the night itself: what year it was, where the barrels were hidden, what a penny for the Guy meant, what parkin is made from.
How to run it. Write it in the quiz builder the weekend before. One question per family about their own bonfire traditions goes down well.
Most children know the rhyme and nothing else. Ten minutes later they know why they are standing in a cold garden.
2 The Plot in order
The events of 1605 on cards: the conspirators meet, the cellar is rented, the anonymous letter, the search under the House of Lords, the arrest. Teams put them in order on their phones.
How to run it. Check the sequence against a proper history source. Keep the wording simple for younger players.
It turns a history lesson into a race, and the grown-ups get it wrong as often as the children.
3 True or false: bonfire edition
Quick statements about fireworks, bonfires and the night, tap true or false on the phone.
How to run it. Read each statement aloud for the younger ones. Include one safety fact, like the one about sparklers and gloves.
Fast, noisy, and nobody has to know anything in advance.
4 Horse Race
Horses on the telly, each player tapping their phone to push their horse down the track. Children against parents is the classic.
How to run it. Three short races and a final. The little ones can tap on a grown-up's phone.
It burns off some of the toffee energy before everyone goes outside.
5 Fun Flight
A 3D flying game on the big screen, steered from phones, through rings and over obstacles.
How to run it. Keep it for the last wait before the display. It ends quickly and people put their coats on laughing.
Easy to understand in five seconds, which is what you need with a room of excited children.
6 Fireworks for the little ones
A splash screen with your family photo or the words 'Happy Bonfire Night', with firework and fanfare effects bursting over it on the telly.
How to run it. Turn the volume down for babies and dogs. Trigger it when the real display is too late or too loud.
Toddlers get their own fireworks at half six, and bedtime is saved.
7 The toffee apple raffle
Everyone scans once to enter, and the draw spins names on the screen. Prizes: toffee apples, a tin of parkin, a pair of warm gloves.
How to run it. Enter the smallest children through a parent's phone so everyone has a chance.
It gathers everyone in one room at the end, when half the party is otherwise in the kitchen.
A plan for the rain
If the display is off, the party carries on in the front room.
Fireworks on the screen
Firework and confetti effects over your own photo, for the ones too small to stay up.
Kids and grown-ups together
3D games anyone can play, quizzes for the older ones.
Twenty-minute blocks
Fits neatly between the sausages and the sparklers.
When it rains
It will, one year in three. Have the games ready either way and treat them as the plan B that everyone secretly enjoys. Run the quiz and the horse race while you wait for a gap in the weather, then rush out for the fireworks when it comes. If the gap never comes, the splash-screen fireworks and a raffle close the evening.
"Are we still doing the rockets?"
"Tomorrow. Tonight, horses."
Before the community display
Many families go to a big local display run by the council, a school or a rugby club, and meet at someone's house first. That hour at the house is perfect for twenty minutes of games. Time them so you leave with enough slack to park, because the roads round a big display fill up early.
Games for mixed ages
A Bonfire Night party can have a two-year-old and a grandad in the same room. Put the 3D games first, since they need no reading. Keep the quiz for the older children and the adults, and read questions aloud. The younger ones will be happy watching the horses and cheering for whichever one a parent picks.
Sparklers, bonfires and fireworks belong to the adults outside. The screen belongs to everyone inside.
A rough timetable for the evening
Guests at five, while there is still a bit of light. Hot dogs, jacket potatoes and parkin by half past. Games from six: the quiz and true or false for the older ones, horse racing for everyone. Out to the garden or the display around seven. Back in by eight for hot chocolate, the raffle and the telly fireworks for anyone who missed the real ones.
Keep an eye on the dog. Plenty of hosts shut pets in a quiet room with the radio on, and the screen games are far kinder to a nervous spaniel than rockets are.
What you need at home
A laptop, the telly, and a cable to join them. Check the Wi-Fi reaches the front room, and hand out the password to visiting parents. Phones without internet cannot play the phone games, but the splash-screen fireworks run from the laptop anyway.
Bigger bonfire parties
Scout groups, school PTAs and village bonfire committees often have a hall with a projector next to the field. The same games work there for a hundred people. The raffle in particular is handy for fundraising nights, as long as whoever runs it is clear about the rules on raffles for your kind of group.
Trying it out
Sign up for the 3-day demo a day or two before the 5th: it is free and there is no card to enter. That gives you time to write the quiz and test the horse race with your own children. To keep it for Christmas and next year, buy the licence once. No subscription. The price is on pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to set up Bonfire Night games on the telly
- 1
A few days before, write a short Gunpowder Plot quiz and a timeline.
- 2
Load a family photo onto the splash screen with a Bonfire Night caption.
- 3
On the day, plug the laptop into the telly and check the Wi-Fi in that room.
- 4
When guests arrive, put the QR code up so phones can join.
- 5
Play a block of games while you wait for dark or for the rain to stop.
- 6
After the fireworks, finish with the raffle and the screen fireworks for the little ones.
FAQ
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See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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