Wacky Funeral Parlor Games For The Whole Family!
By: Amanda Hoving
Tags: Humor, Death, Family, Games, Funerals

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

At the MacKenzie Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, we understand that having a loved one pass away can be a devastating, traumatic and confusing experience. Not to mention a total drag. Because the second worst part of losing your parent, best friend or eyebrow-threading technician may just be the time spent at our funeral home in the vacuum-sealed-potpourri-room-of-death while various stages of grief are on public display.

Can you say awkward time-suck?

But don’t despair (pun intended)! Here are five nifty games that can help turn “Grandma’s Viewing” into “Grandma’s Woo-Hoo-ing!” …

CASKET SARDINES In this classic game of reverse hide and seek, only one player initially hides while the rest of the lamenters seek, with all eventually piling into the secret space one by one. You may need to spend some quality time cozying up to Great Aunt Beth or others that only remember you for that time you threw up on the cold salad buffet at Ben’s retirement party, but the look on the face of the final searcher as everyone pops out of the coffin will be priceless!

DEADS UP: A spin-off of Ellen DeGeneres’s popular guessing game, this zany parlor pastime encourages guests to supply the names of their favorite “angel extraordinaire” in advance. Attendees will then blindly choose names and walk around the Arrangement Room while giving hints to the other grievers about which poor soul’s name they have taped onto their forehead. Just remember to keep the language clean when you’re shouting out clues to the guest sporting the name of your deadbeat brother. Little mourners have big ears!

THREE HELLS: The magician’s staple trick — Three Shells — involves a pea that’s hidden under one of three walnut shells that are moved around as quickly as possible, making it difficult to guess where the pea has landed. For this “dearly beloved” edition to work, you must have three caskets* and some strong helpers. Labeling the caskets with different levels of Dante’s Inferno adds a bit of whimsy, as does coordinating with other families sharing your visitation date at our facilities. Please try to get all of the expired back to “home base” by the end of the evening!

NAME THAT APPENDAGE: Around Halloween, many a trick-or-treater can be found playing this Spooktacular game, which involves dipping fingers into bowls of “eyeballs” (grapes) and containers of brains (cooked spaghetti). In this version, ask the funeral director to join in as he directs your hands to different areas of the deceased. Can you guess what body part you’re touching? Rigor mortis makes this one extra challenging. No peeking!

PROJECT EMBALMER: The chosen “embalmers” begin by placing weepy volunteers into poses that depict the unique personality of the guest of honor. But the fun doesn’t stop there, the “embalmers” may then use the contents of the MacKenzie Funeral Home and Cremation Services Lost and Found Box to help them “prepare” the participants! The honorary embalmer that receives the most compliments of, “They look like they could be sleeping,” gets first pick of the flower arrangements! Grab those budding fashionistas (or that cousin in Cosmetology School) to lead this one. Sorry — the corpse is NOT allowed to participate. Wink.

Finally, if you find that games aren’t your thing during this solemn time of reflection, but the apathy of mourning is still making you itch like that one semester during your junior year in college, you can always go rogue and have a…WEEKEND WITH GRAMMY! Just make sure you get the remains back within 48 hours** and bring a friend along to help record the experience!

We’re sorry for your loss,

The MacKenzie Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services

Where Death Doesn’t Have to be a Downer!

*Special offer includes buy 2 caskets get 1 free!

*Dry ice is not included in the cost of your Final Farewell package.