10 Great Party Games

     It is getting to be that time of year when there will be a lot of families and friends getting together for holiday gatherings.  Our family loves to get together all during the year and when we do, we play games quite a bit.  (We are all a wee bit competitive, but manage to keep it fun.) My husband and I both come from large families, and our own family is large by itself, so finding games that will involve a crowd can be a challenge. There are certain games that we love to play and have figured out the best ones and the best ways to include everyone.  Also, some games are great to play with everyone, including the kids, and others are a little above the kid's heads and work better when the kids are in bed or off doing something else.  So, here is our family's list of some great games to play when we are all together.

    First of all, games for people of all ages:
1.  SPOT IT   That is the game you see two of my grandchildren playing in the picture above.  It consists of a deck of round cards that have various pictures on them.  Each card has at least one match to every other card in the deck.  Players must find their match before their opponents do.  There are many versions of this game, such as shapes and numbers, Disney or sports and there are multiple ways to play.  During our recent wedding hub bub, when all of our family was here, this game kept the kids busy while the rest of us worked on wedding business.  But, I did take some time to play with my grandkids and we laughed and had a great time.  My sister and her girls, who were here for the wedding, enjoyed it so much that they had to get their own game once they got home.  

2. UNO  I'll bet you all know this game! This is one that works for the entire family or just adults.  At our house, with just adults playing, we play our version of what we call "Killer UNO".  That means we use 2 decks and we can stack Draw 2s or Skips or Reverses, etc.  Man, it is fun.  But with kids, we pretty much stick to the original rules because their hands and patience aren't big enough for the number of cards we sometimes end up with in Killer UNO. UNO is very educational for kids as they learn numbers and matching and to recognize letters and words.  It is also good for them to learn to strategize.  We also have a version of UNO calledUNO Attack! which the kids also love. If you have a large number of people playing, you can always add a deck to this game.

 3. CHARADES   has been around for a long time.  Kids love it because they can act things out and ham it up.  Once again, you may have to be a little lax on the rules with kids, but they love it.  When we play, we divide into teams and each team comes up with ideas that are titles from books, movies, TV shows or songs for the other team to act out.  Remember with kids to choose titles that they will be familiar with.  With adults, you can go much harder.  When one of my daughters was younger, she loved to play Charades so much that one year for Christmas she received the board game based on it called GUESSTURES.  In this game, the actor must get his team to say a series of words before the timer goes off and makes all of his cards drop out of sight.  I think my daughter still has this game! 

   Now, on to the games that are best for the older crowd, maybe starting at age 10.  
4.  SCRABBLE  You may think that this game is only for four people, but when we go and visit my family in CA, we all get together and have a scrabble tournament, with a few boards going at once.  Scrabble is a serious business with my extended family, and my 93 year old mother is a master at it.  We have so many memories playing this game.  I began playing at a young age and I know it helped me learn to spell better and increased my vocabulary.  

5.  Now, when we get together with Glen's family, TRIVIA games are the rule.  There are a lot of trivia games out there.  A popular topic is music and old rock and roll trivia.  We tend to not play the actual games, but to just have someone go through the cards and ask the questions.  We have used Trivial Pursuit and anything we can find on the internet. Here is one strictlyBeatles!  There always ends up being a lot of impromptu singing and fun! 

6. CATCH PHRASE  is like a Hot Potato version of Password. Teammates try to get their team to guess a word while a timer starts ticking faster and faster.  It can be played with as many people as you would like, which makes it a great for large families or parties. TABOO is another game that is very similar to this one.

7.  SCATTERGORIES  I really like this game! Players make a list of words, all beginning with the same letter, that fit into various categories.  When there are more people than game holders, we have played as partners, and that is a lot of fun. Depending on your family or friend's sense of humor and ability to think out of the box, this game can be hilarious!  

8.MURDER MYSTERY GAMES are a lot of fun if you plan ahead.  My husband and I had one for years that we never made a point of using, although I wanted to.  Finally a couple of years ago, we played it on New Years Day, when everyone was over for dinner.  We had a great time.  They even have these for younger kids to play, as long as they can read and there is someone to keep them on track.  The title of the mystery can set the theme of the party.  Ours was the Orient Express.  I have seen some with a Luau theme, or a Mardi Gras theme for example! 

9. APPLES TO APPLES is another game that depends on the personality and sense of humor of your group.  We have found that the more you can think out of the box, the more fun this game is.  If you have too many literal thinkers, it may not be as much fun.  It is great because it can include many people playing it all at once.

10.  Finally, our family's favorite game of all is one that costs nothing, but is side-splitting fun! We call it THE SENTENCE PICTURE GAME.  To play this game, all you need is paper and pencils.  Everyone starts with a stack of paper that equals the number of people playing.  So, if 10 people are playing, everyone has 10 pieces of paper.  On the top piece of paper, everyone begins by writing a sentence. It can be any sentence at all.  When you are finished, everyone passes their stack of paper to the person next to them in which ever direction has been previously determined.  When you are handed your neighbor's stack of paper, you read the sentence that they wrote and then put the sentence at the back of the stack.  On the next piece of paper, you draw a picture of the sentence.  Trust me, don't worry about being an artist, just do the best you can.  The various types of artistry is what adds to the fun.  After everyone draws their picture, you pass the stack of paper again.  This time you look at the picture and put it to the back of the stack and then write a sentence that you think the picture is depicting. You can't peek at the original sentence!  Get the picture? (ha ha) It is like playing telephone, only with sentences and pictures.  (By the way, Telephone is a great game to play with kids who can't read yet).  When the stack gets all of the way around the circle, the original person goes through and sees how much their intended sentence has changed.  We always share the sentences and drawings with the rest of the group one at a time.  I don't know if it is just the personality of our family, but we laugh so hard during this game! When we are all together, we always make sure we find time to play it.  

       I hope you try some of these with your family if you haven't already! Playing games together can be such a great bonding, memory making experience and a way to communicate with each other away from electronics! 
            Do you have any games that you love to play with your family that I haven't included?  I am always ready to try a new game!