One of my favorite memories from growing up, is of family game night. They weren’t necessarily a regular thing, but we always had lots of fun playing and competing against one another when whenever we did play.
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Family Game night is definitely a tradition we plan on passing along to our kids as they get older. Right now, my husband and I enjoy playing two player board games, and I’ve even written a post sharing our favorites in case you want to try. We play at night after the kids are in bed, since our babies are too young to play a traditional board games quite yet.
I do have a list of a few of our favorite family/group games! I thought I would share a few of those with you today, along with this neat infographic with some facts about some popular games! Can you believe the size of that twister board? Crazy! Click the link below to check out a really neat site with tons of family game night ideas! I spent some time on it earlier today, and really enjoyed it!
Best family games for game night
Taboo – This is still one of my favorite games. You need at least 4 players and you are split up into teams. You will have a stack of cards with a word at the top that you have to try to get your other team member to guess. BUT there is also a list of several words that you cannot say when trying to communicate the word to your teammate. It is such a challenge, and it can be pretty amusing listening to people try to describe something without using any of the obvious words that would normally be used to talk about it! This was my favorite as a kid, and I still enjoy it now.
Phase 10 Card Game – This was one of my family’s favorite games. It is a card game played with a special deck. You go through 10 phases, with different goals in each phase. If you don’t make your phase by the end of the round you will have to repeat that phase while every one else continues on to the next phase during the next round.
Apples to Apples – This is one of my husband’s favorite party games. It’s better with lots of people! The more people the crazier it gets. Again, you have a special set of cards with various words on them, in the end you all secretly share one of your card that you feel would be the closest “match” to the word on the card that the dealer chose. The dealer then shuffles through and decides which comparison is the funniest, most serious, craziest etc. They can choose based on any criteria that they wish, which makes it all the more hilarious! The dealer won’t know which card belongs to which person, so he or she is able to choose whichever one makes the most sense in their opinion. The person who’s card is selected gets a point, and you go again!
Jenga – A traditional game, but one that is so much fun for families to play together. I love this one because kids (and adults) of all ages have a fighting chance to win it!
Pandemic This game is so unique because it is cooperative! Instead of playing against each other, you play as a team to beat the game. It’s actually quite a challenge, and it’s neat being able to work together instead of always competing. The goal is to save the world from various diseases that are infecting it. Each player takes on a different role, thinks like “medic” and “research specialist” or “scientist”. Then you take turns working together to cure or eradicate the diseases! Super fun!
Catan Family Edition– This one was really popular for awhile, and for good reason! This is a great game that definitely keeps you on your toes. You are virtual settlers building roads and settlements and collecting points! We play this pretty frequently with a couple friends and it’s always a great time.
What is your favorite game for family game night?
More Board Game Ideas:
Becca @ The Earthlings Handbook says
We love games! These are some great suggestions. Here are some great games our son was enjoying by age 4.
kimberly amici says
We love playing games, especially at family events because conversation can get stale. Our favorite game is Taboo.
Amberly Steele says
We love family game night! Thanks for sharing these great ideas!
Candace says
Thanks for the fun suggestions! My family loves games. I haven’t heard of a few of these. I’ll pin this to check them out more!
Laura @ The Rookie Cook says
I LOOOVE games! When we got married, I slowing starting collecting them :) The hubby never played games growing up, but he has since gotten into games and really enjoys them. Looking forward to checking some of these out. Thanks!
Julie says
We love games nights in our house, especially when friends come round and we laugh till we cry. We play UNO -more players the better, classic card games like Chase the ace (so simple that anyone can learn in 2 minutes) Who am I (which we call the rizler game) where you write someone famous on a rizla paper then stick it on someone else’s forehead and then all try to guess who you are by asking questions (do you call them rizla in the US?) Can I just say, no one in our house smokes we just keep the papers for this game.
We also play a fun one, The scissors game which is just like pictionary but instead of drawing you cut shapes out of scrap paper (the words on the card have to be fairly simple – bucket, see-saw, tree, key, lorry etc )
I like the sound of your Apples to Apples – could we make our own cards do you think? How many do we need?
Pat says
We love family game night too! We have many favorites, but I would say our number one favorite game is BALDERDASH! We also love the tried and true PICTIONARY.
I love seeing the games everyone else enjoys. I will definitely add some of these to our collection!
Abby says
Great list! I have good memories of me and my siblings playing heated games of dutch blitz…can’t wait till my girls are old enough to have a game night!
Jann Olson says
Our family is big game lovers. Play many of these. I think it’s important to start teaching children to be humble when they win and good sports when they lose. Thanks for sharing with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
Jodi says
We love playing games around here. I’m not familiar with a couple of these. My kids might be a little to young for some of these, but we’ll get there. Thanks for the good ideas and making family game night happen.
Joybee says
When I was a kid we would play Uno (the card game) and The Game of Life. Thanks for sharing with GIT.
Krista Low says
My kids love playing board games, well really any game… We have a whole closet full of them and they absolutely love sitting at the table or in the middle of the floor having it out with each other. Lately our favorite game has been Munchkin, but we love Uno, Life, Monopoly too. Those are the ones we pull out most frequently. They like Apples to Apples too but my husband gets crazy when we play it because the boys usually have no clue what the words are. They don’t care though, they just think it’s silly. :)
Regina says
Dominoes :)) We play Dominoes or Life most game nights.
Karin says
Thanks for your list! We also love ticket to ride, king of Tokyo and scruples.