Family Games

Family games have a magical way of bringing the entire family together. There are few opportunities that bring together family and children with such joyous majesty - those moments can include playing in the snow after a big snow storm, swimming in the ocean on a hot summer day, watching your children interact with new animals at the zoo, and sharing laughter and friendly competition on a rainy night at home with a good family board game.

We only had a few games in our home growing up, and my wife and I really got into games together as adults and would enjoy games such as UNO and even Las Vegas Monopoly after a trip to Vegas. Now as parents, we collected many family games when we adopted my sister at six years old. We already owned Checkers and she surprised us with her ability to consistently win or come really close when I stepped up the competition. But over time we added some classics like Candy Land, Operation, Life, Twister and a few other family friendly games.

We had so much fun playing family board games with her over the years and still do now that she’s almost twelve, but our little ones have not yet had the opportunity to play - until one recent Christmas eve.

As my wife and I arrived home after feeling a little defeated from life - money troubles, work troubles, car troubles and general exhaustion - we decided to get ourselves energized just before arriving home. We picked up some junky fast food, started singing and by the time we arrived home, we had a infectious affect on the family as they mimicked our energy and excitement.

After dinner we brought out the family Bingo game set and immediately our 3 year old was drawn to the rotary cage. He couldn’t wait to get his turn at turning the cage and watching the Bingo ball emerge from its dispenser. As he read the ball’s number, he would shout out, “B 9!” We couldn't believe he was grasping the concept of the game and we laughed and had such a good time watching him giggle and smile.

Our 21 month old repeated the letters or numbers as our boy continued to shout them aloud, and she had fun just being in the presence of the family.

So below we bring you some ideas for family games and even invite you to submit some of your own great ideas with our form further down. Feel free to share some far out ideas as well as some pictures, though any great fun ideas are always welcome.

Our Family BINGO Party always gets us excited and in a good mood, even when we're feeling really down. With its large rotary metal cage, it get's even our three year old boy's attention and the entire family has a great time!

Operation is the only family game we have that has a picture of my face on it! It may have been Photoshopped from a fellow coworker, but it is funny and brings us hours of laughter and family fun!