Give the FREE Salad Bowl Game a Shot at Your Holiday Party – Easy to Learn, Totally Fun for All Ages!

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Have you heard of The Salad Bowl Game? This FREE party game is perfect for your next gathering!

hand holding a Santa Claus clue from The Salad Bowl Game

If you love charades, you must try The Salad Bowl Game. 🥗

Looking for a fast, fun, and FREE party game for your next gathering? We have just the game for you to try! We’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about The Salad Bowl Game.

It’s an easy game that onlinebines elements of Charades and Taboo. We tested it out and it’s super simple to learn. Plus, the supplies you need to play are most likely already in your home.

The Salad Bowl Game is appropriate for almost all ages so the kids can join in too! It’s best played with a group of 6 people or more so it’s perfect for your next holiday, family gathering, or party. Unlike some board games, if you have a BIG group, that is no problem! When it onlinees to this game, the more the merrier!

Have we piqued your interest? We have The Salad Bowl Game instructions for you. Keep reading to learn how to play!


Here’s how to play The Salad Bowl Game:


how to play salad bowl game

The object of the game: The team volunteer/player for each round has one objective and that is to quickly get their teammates to guess what is written on the slip of paper. If the team guesses correctly, the volunteer will grab another slip of paper and keep giving clues. Each team has 1 minute for their volunteer to get the team to guess as many secret words as possible.

How to score the game: Each team scores 1 point for each word they guess correctly.


Salad Bowl Game Supplies Needed

How to set up The Salad Bowl Game:

Setting up the Salad Bowl Game is easy-peasy. Here’s a list of what you need:

  • A salad bowl or any large bowl
  • Several small pieces of paper
  • Extra paper for keeping score
  • Writing utensils
  • A timer

Writing charades clues onto slips of paper

Once you have your supplies, give each player 4-6 slips of paper and a writing utensil. Have them secretly write down a person, place, or thing on each piece of paper. You can use movie titles, fictional characters, and celebrities, too!

Once done, have the players fold their slips of paper and toss them inside the salad bowl (if you don’t have a salad bowl, you can use a pot or any other large container). No peeking! 🙈


Hand reaching into a container holding The Salad Bowl Game clues

Now for the Salad Bowl Game Instructions…

Ready to play? The Salad Bowl game is easy to learn and can be played with just 4 simple steps! Just follow these Salad Bowl Game instructions!

1. Make teams.

Divide the group into 2 teams with an equal number of players (larger groups may need to make 3 or 4 teams). Designate one player to also be a scorekeeper.

Salad Bowl Game Scoresheet

2. Choose the first clue giver.

Have each team choose a volunteer for the first round, pick the team that will go first, and set the timer for 1 minute.

Salad Bowl Game Timer Instructions

3. Start playing! There are three rounds with different guessing methods.

Round 1 – Verbal Clues

The first round is similar to the game Taboo. Start the timer and the first volunteer will pluck a slip of paper from the salad bowl and look at the secret word or words written on it. For this round, the volunteer can only give clues using words. There are no props or gestures allowed!

The player may give clues using any amount of words they would like. The catch? They cannot say any word (or part of any word) that appears on the slip of paper.  For example, if the slip of paper says, “skateboard” the player cannot say “skate,” “board,” or even “skater.” What they can say is, “Tony Hawk is famous for riding one of these.”

Once the time stops, the other team will have a chance to play the round. Once the round is finished, the scorekeeper will tally up the scores. Each team gets 1 point for each correct answer.

hand holding a salad bowl game clue while demonstrating the salad bowl game instructions

Round 2 – Charades

The second round is similar to the game charades and that means no talking! Have each team pick a new volunteer. Set the timer for a minute and let the first team’s volunteer begin. This player can use hand gestures but they cannot make words or say any sounds. 🤐 For example, if you get the word/movie title “Jaws,” you can’t hum the theme song, but you can pretend to have a dorsal fin.

Let each team take a turn and tally up the scores.

Salad Bowl Game Instructions - Charades Round

Round 3 – One-word only

Have each team nominate a new volunteer for the final round. This round is similar to the first except that players must keep their clues to a single word only, so make it good! The word they say aloud must not appear on the slip of paper.

For example, if the slip of paper says, “basketball net,” the player could give a clue like “Shaq,” “Jordan,” or “dunk.” They are not allowed to say, “net,” or “b-ball.” If the team is unable to figure out the word, it is up to you to set the rules on whether they can skip and try a new secret word instead.

Let each team take a turn and tally up the scores.

Game Salad Bowl - Basketball Net Clue

4. Score the game.

Add up the scores for each round. The team with the highest score wins the game!

How To Score The Salad Bowl Game - Salad Bowl Game Instructions

Who knew such a simple and FREE game could be so much fun?! 🙌 If you need a game for your next party, this is one to try!

“This game is so fun for a really large groups of people, which is awesome as lots of board games are usually up to 6 or 8 players. With this game, if you have a very large group for a Christmas gathering or New Year’s, you can play with everyone! I think what makes it so much fun is that it really works for all ages. The little kids can still understand and get laughs out of it as well as the teens and adults. It’s a really, really entertaining game that my entire family enjoyed – and that’s onlineing from teenagers who are usually hard to please!” – Collin, Hip2Save


Hosting a holiday party? Check out our list of fun and easy holiday games!


About the writer:

Kara is a writer and photographer from the Midwest. Her creative work has appeared in various publications over the past decade. With a background in finance, she loves to be money-savvy.


Join The Discussion

onlinements 16

  1. APS

    We love this game. At Thanksgiving we played with ages 7-77!

    • Jessica (Hip Sidekick)

      YAY! Thanks for sharing how much you enjoy playing this game, and the ages of all who played it! 🥰

  2. Amy L.

    It is so fun and adaptable for any group.

  3. shpootsen45

    We absolutely LOVE this game! Great with people of all ages and for large or small groups! Sometimes we even play it with a 4th round where you can only make a sound effect! 😂. It’s SO much fun!

    • Claudette (Hip Sidekick)

      That’s a great suggestion for the 4th round. Thanks for sharing.🙂💕

  4. Lydia

    Best of 3 fun games. What’s not to love!! Thank you!

    • Claudette (Hip Sidekick)

      You’re SO welonlinee, Lydia! 💗

  5. Stef

    We call this the ”paper game”. We play each round until there are no more papers left in the bowl and a new team member has to be the clue giver and then all the papers are put back in the bowl for the next round after each team counts how many correct they got.

  6. Mollie

    Thank you, I forced my multi generational family to play this. After about 2 minutes of grumbling, it was SO funny and so fun! We laughed like crazy and everyone loved it. Its hard to find something a tween, 2 teens, my husband and my elderly father can agree on and enjoy together. God bless you!!!

    • Collin (Mrs. Hip)

      Yay! You’re so very welonlinee, Mollie!❤️🙌 Super glad this game was such a hit with your family! 🥰Thanks so much for the update and the kind words! Happy holidays to you and your family! 🤗

  7. Kelly

    For Round 3 – one word only, are you only allowed to say one word and wait for them to guess? Or if your team doesn’t guess it, can you say another one word?

    • Amber (Hip Sidekick)

      Great question, Kelly! Here are the details on that – ” If the team is unable to figure out the word, it is up to you to set the rules on whether they can skip and try a new secret word instead.” Hope that is helpful! 🥰

      • Kelly

        Haha! Okay thanks!!

        • Amber (Hip Sidekick)

          You bet! 🤗

  8. BD

    If the people playing the game are the ones that wrote the words, how does that work? Do they stay silent if their word is used?

    • Jessica (Hip Sidekick)

      Hey there! The players are free to guess. However, if their group feels this makes the game too easy, they can increase the amount of words in the salad bowl or otherwise modify the rules to fit their family’s needs. For example, use two salad bowls and have each team write the clues for the other team. Hoping this might be helpful, and happy playing! 🥰

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