Family game night is a favorite at our house.  We love to play all kinds of games.  Whether it’s bowling, billiards, ping pong, obstacle courses, scavenger hunts, card games, or board games; we will play it! We often get new games for Christmas so we have a fun activity to do with each other while we are home that day.  We like to find an excuse to just play with our kids.  Usually we play board games on Sunday afternoons, but we also play them a lot when we are vacationing or camping.  They also help pass the time on long weekends or rainy days.  I love games, but I usually deal with babies while daddy plays with the kids.  It is a good bonding opportunity for all of them.  I wanted to give a list of fun games my family enjoys and your family might enjoy as well. This list is not meant to be comprehensive. I wanted to give you and your family a few unique ideas that you might not think of often.  Again, I am making a link to these games on Amazon for your convenience.  If you use my links it will help to keep my account active with Amazon so that I can continue to link things in my blog posts.  I may also make a very small fee, but I am not trying to sell you anything.

1.  Scavanger Hunt.  My kids and husband love to play the game where you take a picture of a small detail in your house and the kids have to find that object or area of the house.  It’s really fun.  We also do little treasure hunts with clues when we want to give them something exciting.  They love it.
2. Hide and Go Seek.  We love to play all variations of this game.  Sometimes everyone hides and the dog finds you.  Sometimes we face time our phones together and someone goes and hides using only what you see on the phone as your clue to find the hider.  Another great variation on this game we call Hide and Go Clean Up. Essentially while the person is counting they have to clean up ten items and then still hide, so it has to be done quickly. My kids prefer to clean this way and I get a mess cleaned up while they play a favorite game. Win Win.
3. Face Painting.  We love to pull out the face paints for parties and Halloween, but it’s also fun to do on a regular old day.  We recently did face paints while we were watching conference.  It was a quiet, fun activity for the kids.  It also beats standing in lines at different carnivals and events.  There are a lot of tutorials and pictures online to help you get creative.                             

4.  Obstacle Courses.  

5.  Bop It.  You would not believe the fun we can have with this game. It can be played individually or as a small or big group. All ages can play. The kids like playing this with their friends and cousins as well.

6.  Elf Storyteller Grab n Gab game by Hallmark.  This has seriously been fun for all ages and alone, in small, or big groups.  I don’t think it is as expensive through Hallmark, but it’s been years since we got it, so I don’t know if they still make it.  The game asks you questions (like name something sweet), which you answer.  Then it takes all of your answers and makes a quirky story inserting your voice (made to sound like an elf) at different places in the story.  It’s hilarious.

7.  Settlers: Cities and Knights of Catan.  This is a really fun strategy game that works best with kids eight and older.

8. Ticket to Ride. This game is also a strategy game for slightly older kids. It teaches geography while you play too which is an added bonus.

9. Play Nine. This game is fun for all ages and easy to get the hang of. We love taking it with us to family reunions. I think kids 5 and up can understand how to play this game fairly easily.

10. Farkle. This is a dice game that is really easy for the kids to understand. It also helps with math skills which is the added bonus.

11. Spoons. This game is played with a regular deck of cards and spoons in the middle of the table. There is one less spoon than players. You pass out four cards to each player, then the dealer passes one card around the circle at a time. The players decide whether to keep the card passed to them or not discarding a card every time they receive a card (so they always keep four) to the next player in the circle. As soon as one player gets four of kind they grab a spoon. The other players that see this grab a spoon too. The last person won’t get a spoon and they are out. It is fun for all ages.

12.  Pictionary and Charades.  Everyone loves these classic games and you don’t need an official game board to play.  It is not too hard to come up with a list of things to put in your game.  The kids always love this one.

13. Hilarium.  We love this game as a great ice breaker for any party or a way to get a quick laugh with your family.  Basically everyone does charades simultaneously.  Each action has a match and player has four cards that they begin acting out looking for someone that is acting out the same thing.  It’s really fun for the whole family.

14. Pie Face. Now this is not my favorite game of all time but my preteens love playing this one, especially with their friends. And the bonus is it’s tasty.

15. Badmitton/Volleyball. This game is fairly cheap to buy and really fun to play. It is light weight and can be set up on even tiny pieces of grass. There are also fun games like water balloon volleyball that can be played with the net. It is a game I like having on hand.

16. One Night Ultimate Werewolf. This game is a little scary for littles but an absolute favorite of the bigger kids and adults. It also works well as a teenage date night.

Of course there are all kinds of games that we all love to play. Some classics that come to mind are Monopoly, Phase Ten, CandyLand, and Scrabble. I was hoping to help you find a few things that help you reach outside the box a little bit. I would love your comments about other games your family loves. I need a few new ideas myself.