The 12 Games of Christmas: the 12 pubs, without the pubs

The 12 pubs of Christmas is a great idea for about four pubs. After that it is a queue in the rain, a round nobody wanted and a taxi home at nine. Here is the version we run in the café every December: twelve games instead of twelve pubs, one table all night, a daft rule for each game, and the whole thing costs less than the second round would have.

It works for a work night out, a family that has run out of things to say to each other, a group of mates, or a first date you want to last past the starters. You do not need to know any of the games. We pick ones that take five minutes to explain and ten to twenty to play, and if you get stuck you ask, because we all love the games and someone will come over.

How it works

• Book a table, or the whole downstairs for a bigger group. Tables take up to eight, so a work crowd of twenty is three tables racing each other.
• Playing costs €5 a person an hour, capped at €15. A full night is €15 a head, however long you stay. Under-12s play free, if you are doing a family version.
• Coffee, hot chocolate, milkshakes, pizza (€12 to €13), toasties and sandwiches from €7, and yes there is wine. Nobody has to drink to take part, which is rather the point.
• We are open till 10pm Monday to Thursday and 11pm Friday and Saturday. Twelve games fits in three hours if you keep moving. Most groups do nine or ten and call it a win.
• Print the list below or just ask for it at the counter and we will pull the twelve for you.

The rules are the bit people remember. Keep them, change them, add your own. The only one we insist on is number twelve.

The twelve

1. Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. Five minutes, loud, impossible to lose with dignity. Rule: you have to say your name before every card you play. Gets everyone's name learned, which is half the job at a work do.

2. Flip 7. Push your luck with a deck of numbers. Flip seven different cards and you win the round, flip a double and you bust. Rule: anyone who busts on their very first flip buys the next round of hot chocolates.

3. Skull. Each of you has three flowers and one skull. Bluff about where the skull is. Rule: no talking. Pointing, nodding and dramatic sighing are allowed.

4. Just One. The table writes one-word clues for a guesser, but matching clues get cancelled. Rule: the guesser has to wear whatever hat is nearest. There is always a hat.

5. Cockroach Poker. Pass a card face down, name a creature, and the next person says whether you are lying. Rule: play it in an accent. The accent must hold for the whole game.

6. Telestrations. Draw a word, pass it, guess the drawing, pass it, draw the guess. By the end "Dún Laoghaire pier" is a horse. Rule: the worst drawing of the round goes on the fridge. We have a fridge.

7. Wavelength. Your team has to guess where you have put a hidden target on a scale between, say, "overrated" and "underrated", from one clue. Rule: the clue has to be a person at the table.

8. Coup. Lie about which cards you hold, call other people's bluffs, lose influence when you are caught. Rule: the first person knocked out picks the next game's music.

9. Poetry for Neanderthals. Describe words using only words of one syllable. Say a long word and you get hit with the inflatable club. Rule: the inflatable club stays in play for the rest of the night. For the rest of the night.

10. KLASK. Table football meets air hockey, with magnets. Two players at a time, so run it as a knockout while the pizza arrives. Rule: the loser of the final does the Telestrations drawing from game six again, from memory.

11. Monikers. Three rounds of getting your team to guess famous names: first with any words, then one word, then charades. Rule: anything said in round one can be used against you in round three.

12. Codenames. The closer. Two spymasters, one word each turn, twenty-five cards on the table. It is the best party game ever made and it is quiet enough to play when everyone has run out of voice. Rule: the losing team books next year's table. Non-negotiable.

Every one of these is on the shelf here to play, and most are in the shop if the night goes well and someone wants to take one home; ask at the counter. Swap in ito, Jenga or That's Not a Hat if you want easier ones in the first half, and Blood on the Clocktower if your group is big and brave and has three hours.

For a work Christmas party

Downstairs seats up to sixty in tables of up to eight and can be booked privately. We will set each table up with its own stack so three or four teams can run the twelve at the same time, and we keep a scoreboard. Group food is pizza and platters; tell us numbers and we will sort it. For ten or under, book a table. Above that, use the contact page or ring 01 524 2984 and ask for Dave. December weekends go first, as you would expect.

There is more on how we do office nights in our team building and Christmas party guide, and if you are buying for the office Kris Kindle, the Christmas gift guide has thirty-five games under one roof.

The small print, such as it is

Walk-ins are welcome any night, but for twelve games with eight people, book. We are at 75 York Road in Dún Laoghaire, two minutes from the DART and ten from the pubs you are not going to.