• Indoor games get teenagers to interact.games image by Ewe Degiampietro from Fotolia.com
  
  If you're hosting a party for teenagers in the middle of winter or the rainy season--or if unexpected rain spoils your outdoor party planning--you need plenty of indoor games to keep the party rolling. Look for games that will help teenagers to interact as a group, so that no individual feels left out.
  
  

Gift Exchange Games

• Ask each party guest to bring a small wrapped gift for a gift exchange. You can set a budget limit for the gifts, such as under $5 or $10, or ask guests to bring items from their closet, baked goods or homemade crafts. Have all the teens sit in a circle, and place the wrapped gifts in a pile in the center. You can proceed with the gift exchange in several different ways. To play the traditional "Grinch Exchange" game, have one person start by selecting a present from the pile and unwrapping it. Then the person to her right can choose to "steal" the first player's present or select a new one from the pile. The game proceeds through the circle, with each new player choosing to steal an earlier player's gift or select a new one. At the end of the game, the first player can choose to steal any other gift or keep her original one. You can also play the "Left-Right Gift Swap," in which each player starts with a wrapped gift and then passes it to his left or right as a story full of the words "left" and "right" is read aloud. You can find stories designed specifically for this game at partymerchant.com and party411.com.
  
  

Bag of Nouns

• This game combines popular classics such as Pictionary and charades. Have each party guest write down two or three nouns on different scraps of paper and place them all together in a bag or bowl. Divide the group into teams. In round one, teams take turns selecting one team member to draw nouns from the bag and describe them to her teammates. Her goal is to get her teammates to guess as many nouns as possible within the given time limit. Then the other teams take their turns, until every teen has had a chance to describe nouns to his teammates. Play proceeds in the same manner in round two, except that players must get their teammates to guess the nouns by saying only one word. Players must be able to remember the nouns from round one to be able to guess them more easily. In rounds three and four, players must get their teammates to guess the nouns based on drawings and then by acting and hand gestures. Teams get one point for each noun guessed, and the team with the most points at the end of four rounds wins.
  
  

Who is the Most Observant?

• Find out which party guest is the most observant with this sneaky game. Once all the teenagers have arrived, gradually pull one guest aside at a time to give each person an accessory or garment to don, such as a scarf, bracelet or belt. Once you have given something to each guest, hand out paper and writing utensils to every guest and announce the object of the game: to observe what item or accessory each guest is now wearing that she did not have on when she arrived. Give a prize for the guest with the most correct answers.