The festive season is a great time to crack out some family-friendly games and spend some quality time together with friends and loved ones who you perhaps don’t see all year round, they are also a great way to pass the time when the weather may be forcing you to stay indoors and can keep even the most active children entertained for hours. So whether you already have a firm family favourite or are looking for something new to play this Christmas here are 3 games you may want to try.
- Heads Up
Heads Up is a fun and addictive version of the classical game Charades and was created by Ellen DeGeneres and made famous through her TV show. All you need to play is an iPhone with the App installed and away you go. Simply pick a category and put your phone to your forehead with the screen facing outwards to the other players, the aim of the game is to guess the word or phrase you are holding to your forehead using the clues given to you by the rest of the players. There are categories suitable for most ages and the game is very simple to grasp making it perfect for even those who struggle with technologically. What’s even better is that you can use the phone’s camera to simultaneously record the reactions of the rest of the players as they try to give you clues and then save or share these as precious Christmas memories. - Classic card games
You can’t really go wrong with a deck of cards at Christmas, there’s so much that you can do with them and so many different card games that you can try from single person Solitaire through to competitive game of poker. There are card games suitable for all ages and even specialist packs of cards which are better suited to younger eyes. For younger children stick to easier games such as Snap or Go Fish and if you have slightly older children then consider exploring some slightly more complex games such as Pontoon and Rummy, and when the children go to bed the adults can keep going with fun versions of Casino classics such as Poker and Blackjack. Just make sure you learn more about the rules of more complex games in advance to save the frustration of figuring them out as you go along. - Scrabble
When thinking about classic board games to play this Christmas save yourself from the arguments that inevitably come from games such as Monopoly and crack out a good old fashioned scrabble board instead. Scrabble is an easy game to understand for all ages and is also a great way to encourage children to learn new words and practice their spelling. To make sure it stays fun, why not team up younger members of the team with an adult so that they can be guided if their letters are a little tough, or alternatively for very novice spellers you could purchase a junior scrabble board and have the kids and the adults face off against one another in two teams.
