The best Charades ideas will depend on who you’re playing with. Younger gamers or those looking for a snappy playtime will prefer something simple, while more ambitious adults will be looking for a challenge. This guide features plenty of adult Charades ideas and simple, kid-friendly options for all kinds of Charades topics.
Before you get miming, here are a few more gaming guides from us. We can suggest some spicy Truth or Dare questions, as well as Never Have I Ever questions. We can also recommend the best board games in the tabletop space right now.
Best Charades ideas:
Charades categories
There are four main categories in a game of Charades: book, movie, song, and television show. Each of these has a specific miming action you perform to let your team know which category your word is from:
- Book – Unfold your hands to mimic an opening book
- Television – Draw a rectangle with your hands
- Movie – Pretend to hold an old-fashioned camera and turn the handle
- Song – Open your mouth and gesture as if sound was coming out
Some Charades categories are so simple that they have no category (for examples, see our action Charades ideas below). Other player groups like to add additional categories, such as stage plays or famous phrases. Since these are less widely known than the four basic categories, we recommend only adding these to advanced games.
Action Charades ideas
Easy action Charades ideas:
- Cycling
- Mowing the lawn
- Basketball
- Falling asleep
- Praying
- Singing karaoke
- Archery
- Shopping
- Washing the car
- Making a sandwich
- Taking a shower
- Brushing your teeth
- Using a jump rope
- Doing karate
- Climbing a ladder
- Surfing
- Swimming
- Putting on makeup
- Rowing a boat
- Petting a cat
Difficult action Charades ideas:
- Drinking out-of-date milk
- Doing the laundry
- Eating spaghetti
- Taking the dog for a walk
- Taking an exam
- Playing Hide and Seek
- Making a cup of coffee
- Riding a roller coaster
- Watching a scary movie
- Climbing a mountain
- Catching a cold
- Buying shoes that are too small
- Cutting down a tree
- Forgetting your keys
- Ordering a pizza
- Playing a board game
- Eating spicy food
- Winning a race
- Solving a Rubik’s Cube
- Going camping
Book Charades ideas
Easy book Charades ideas:
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Rapunzel
- The Secret Garden
- Dungeons and Dragons
- The Witches
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
- Little Women
- The Cat in the Hat
- Of Mice and Men
- Frankenstein
- Dracula
- The Lord of the Rings
- Holes
- War and Peace
- The Bell Jar
- The Shining
- The Turn of the Screw
- Goodnight Moon
- The Tiger Who Came To Tea
- The War of the Worlds
Challenging book Charades ideas:
- The Wind in the Willows
- Charlotte’s Web
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- The Wizard of Oz
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Macbeth
- The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
- Dune
- The Grapes of Wrath
- The Hound of the Baskervilles
- Through the Looking Glass
- The Gruffalo
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Pride and Prejudice
- A Tale of Two Cities
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Beloved
- The Catcher in the Rye
Television Charades ideas
Easy television Charades ideas:
- Friends
- Rugrats
- Peppa Pig
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Ben 10
- Sherlock
- Breaking Bad
- Game of Thrones
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Lost
- Doctor Who
- The X Files
- Star Trek
- The Walking Dead
- House
- Batman
- Firefly
- Archer
- The Office
- Mad Men
Difficult television Charades ideas:
- Cheers
- Succession
- Better Call Saul
- Battlestar Galactica
- The Simpsons
- The Last of Us
- Stranger Things
- Boardwalk Empire
- Band of Brothers
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- Twin Peaks
- South Park
- The Queen’s Gambit
- The Sopranos
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
- Grey’s Anatomy
- The Good Place
- Survivor
- Saturday Night Live
Movies Charades ideas
Easy movies Charades ideas:
- Frozen
- Beauty and the Beast
- The Dark Knight
- Fight Club
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Babe
- Alien
- Toy Story
- Scarface
- Jurassic Park
- Gone with the Wind
- Kung Fu Panda
- Jaws
- Chicken Run
- Star Wars
- Psycho
- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
- Up
- Taxi Driver
- Ghostbusters
Challenging movies Charades ideas:
- Pulp Fiction
- Reservoir Dogs
- Full Metal Jacket
- The Thing
- Finding Nemo
- Despicable Me
- Spider Man: Into the Spiderverse
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
- Back to the Future
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- The Exorcist
- Donnie Darko
- The Terminator
- Get Out
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Gladiator
- Trainspotting
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Apocalypse Now
- Avengers: Endgame
Songs Charades ideas
Easy songs Charades ideas:
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- London Bridge is Falling Down
- I Want to Hold Your Hand
- Running Up That Hill
- Rocket Man
- The Final Countdown
- Creep
- Bad Guy
- Jump
- Dancing Queen
- Lean on Me
- Ring of Fire
- Poison
- Umbrella
- Baby Shark
- Free Bird
- Bad Romance
- Over the Rainbow
- Flowers
Difficult song Charades ideas:
- Smells Like Teen Spirit
- Rolling in the Deep
- Stairway to Heaven
- Heart of Glass
- Vogue
- The Sound of Silence
- Wish You Were Here
- Single Ladies
- Sympathy for the Devil
- Ace of Spades
- The Phantom of the Opera
- Blue Suede Shoes
- Cruel Summer
- Circle of Life
- Uptown Funk
- Old Town Road
- Smoke on the Water
- Born to be Wild
- Dancing in the Dark
- Smooth Criminal
Christmas Charades ideas
Easy Christmas Charades ideas:
- Building a snowman
- Wrapping a present
- Elf
- Eating Christmas dinner
- A Christmas Carol
- Kissing under mistletoe
- Silent Night
- The Little Drummer Boy
- Santa Baby
- Decorating the Christmas tree
Challenging Christmas Charades ideas:
- Miracle on 34th Street
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Christmas Eve
- Advent calendar
- Love Actually
- The Grinch
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Away in a Manger
- Fairytale of New York
- Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
Disney Charades ideas
Easy Disney Charades ideas:
- The Little Mermaid
- Under the Sea
- Circle of Life
- The Princess and the Frog
- The Lion King
- The Fox and the Hound
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
- DuckTales
- Sleeping Beauty
- Pinocchio
- The Jungle Book
- The Muppets
- Brave
- Toy Story 2
- Cars
Hard Disney Charades ideas:
- When You Wish Upon a Star
- Tangled
- Let It Go
- The Bare Necessities
- The Emperor’s New Groove
- We Don’t Talk About Bruno
- Lilo and Stitch
- A Whole New World
- Ratatouille
- The Black Cauldron
- Colors of the Wind
- Lady and the Tramp
- Do You Want to Build a Snowman
- You’re Welcome
- Peter Pan
Running out of game night ideas? Here are the party board games and party card games we’d recommend. We can also introduce you to our favorite gateway games.
Source: Wargamer
