Family Night: Let the games begin this Thanksgiving

This week’s edition of our Family Night series is going to look towards enjoying our families to the fullest this Thanksgiving.

One of the best parts of this wonderful holiday season is the bonus time spent with one’s entire family – and part of the wonderfulness of that time is breaking out the family's favorite board games and engaging in some good-natured competition accompanied by lots of laughter. 

Following is a look at this Examiner's family's favorite games to play anytime, but especially during the holidays when more of us can play.  

The kids’ top holiday picks:

1. Guesstures: A humorous, fast-paced game of charades. The game comes equipped with a ‘mimer-timer’ and cards with words for you to act out. The cards come with two options on them – one is easier and worth fewer points, the other is more challenging and is worth more points. As the cards progress through the box they get increasingly more difficult.

• The play is hilarious, as the actor picks the first four cards from the box and chooses which words he’s going to act out. Then he’ll place the cards in the mimer-timer and once his team is ready, he’ll close the mimer-timer’s arm to get the timer started – then the fun begins. The actor has to act out each word in succession – before the timer ‘eats’ the card. Once the team has guessed correctly, the actor must grab the card from the mimer-timer before being eaten for the points to count; this alone is often cause for uproarious laughter as the actor frenetically works to act and save his teams’ points from being eaten. He’ll then move on to the next word.

In playing this game, my family has noticed we get progressively louder as time wears on. We don’t know why, but it’s a phenomenon we’ve noticed with games like Catch Phrase as well.

The game says it’s for ages eight and up, but younger kids are capable of playing. They might need someone from the other team to whisper the words to them, but they’ll enjoy taking part in this fun game. 

2. Apples to Apples: The original game is touted to be for teens and up, but there is a junior version of this game, as well, for ages nine and older. The game is played by dealing red cards to the players, while one person plays ‘judge’ for that round and flips over a green card. The name of the game is for the players to choose the card they think best describes the judge’s card. Once everyone has put their red card on the table, they get the opportunity to convince the judge that their card is the best response. Whomever the judge chooses wins the round. Everyone get to take turns playing judge.

• This Examiner has only played this game once and ironically, it was during last year’s Thanksgiving, but I do remember it was a lot of fun. And when each child was asked separately what their top three games for holidays were – Guesstures andApples to Apples were the first two immediate responses.

Swaying the judge to pick your comparison is definitely what makes this game so much fun – especially if anyone in your family has a flair for the dramatic. The arguments can range from reasonable to ridiculous.

3. The kids each had different votes for their final picks:

• Skip-bo (Card game)
• Life (The electronic version of this classic board game)
• Scattergories (This is a timed game where you have lists of categories; roll the dice for your letter, and fill in the category with words that start with the rolled letter. Prepare yourself, though, in this Examiner’s family there is a long running debate over whether or not ‘Runny Nose Boy’ could be considered a Super Hero/Villian…I’m going on record as saying, I think not). 
• Slapagories (A take off of Scattergories – it involves no writing and is very fast paced…and loud – at least in the Examiner’s family).

If you've got younger kids you can set them up with Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders nearby. Or you can go with the buddy system; they'll feel included in the fun just by sitting on your lap or next to you and "helping" you play. 

What are your family's go-to games during the holiday season?

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your family.

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