The Best Family Games

     About five years ago, I thought I'd hit the jackpot when my dad said he thought it might be good to play some games during dinner.  Someone he knew at work did that with their family, and I was all for not having to just sit their and eat.  Playing a game sounded fun!  What followed is now known as our tradition.  Though we don't play games every night at dinner, we have become self-pronounced connoisseurs of family board/card/ect. games (RELATED: My Favorite Apps.) and from that esteemed position, I'm here to tell you the must have family games of this era.  If you are a semi normal family....or less than averagely normal-- like my own clan-- I promise you will thoroughly enjoy "womping" on each other in the following games:

Snorta
(photo credit: latoysetc.com)

Snorta- There's no better way to embarrass company and get to know someone than by making barnyard animal noises in quick succession.  This game is good for kids 6+, and combines a sort of go-fish concept with farm animal noises.  You pick an animal (there are actual animal pawns), pick it's "noise," and repeat the noise to the group.  Then, you hide your animal in its mini barn and listen to the other players as they announce their noise.  As the game begins, you are watching to see if someone lays down the same card that you just laid down.  If they do, you must make their animal noise before they make their own.  If you do, they get all the cards you had laid down.  The winner is the one who gets rid of all their cards first, and is an expert at quick thinking!

The Awkward Family Photo Game
(photo credit: wired.com)

The Awkward Family Photo Game- Ever seen those awkward family photos of mom, dad and the kids all dressed in denim?  How about the one where one child is looking like a soon-to-be ax murderer?  If you haven't, you clearly need to!  From the people who exploited these photos-gone-wrong, comes the board game that makes them even funnier!  You have to put captions on the awkward photos, tell what must have been happening before the picture was taken, and lots of other hilarious explanations.  You get points for having the funniest response.  The person with six points first wins, but honestly: we just kept playing till we were laughing to hard to continue!

Uno- This game is a classic.  It is what started our family game nights and dinner games.  We became quick experts at bluffing, cheating, and other wholesome aspects of competition....ok, that sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?!  No, we really did enjoy Uno.  Our family played it just about every night, and it's a simple enough game that younger children can either participate or team up with an older sibling.  This is a definite must have!

Scattergories

Scattergories- This is my personal favorite.  Although The Awkard Family Photo Game is a close second, I'm a sucker for creative thinking games like Scattergories.  I first played it at a friend's house, and laughed at her older sister for practically forcing us to play.  "She doesn't want to play anything else,"  my friend revealed, "We have to play it all the time!"  After a game, I realized why my friend's sister was so addicted to Scattergories: it is amazing!  It's pretty simple too; you roll the die filled with the alphabet.  Say you land on "B," then you pick a sheet that has plenty of categories (like: pop star, fruit, vacation spot, school supply, ect).  Everyone has 90 seconds-- or less if you want to set the timer to 60 seconds for a challenge-- to write down answers to the categories.  The catch?  Everything has to start with "B."  There are three rounds, and you change the letter and the category sheet every time.  The one with the most points at the end wins.  Oh, and FYI: I hate to lose at this one!  Everyone in my social circle knows that my brain is built for Scattergories, so I can't be inferior and lose :)

Wits and Wagers

Wits and Wagers- Wits and Wagers is a numbers trivia game that goes to the extreme by letting you "bet" chips, and win more chips by either, A.) getting closest to the answer, or B.) guessing the correct answer.  There's nothing more family friendly than teaching your kids to gamble, right?  I truly never thought of it that way, but I can understand now why people go crazy over betting.  Wits and Wagers is so nerve wracking!  There are seven questions asked (like: How many starring movie roles did Johnny Depp have before he was 30?), but it always comes down to the last round for us.  Nobody wants to stash their chips and be called cowardly.  We all know the winner is going to bet almost everything on the last answer, making Wits and Wagers and very dynamic game for the underdog!

Bananagrams
(photo credit: amazon.com)

Bananagrams- I'm sure I am not as good at this game as I think I am, but for someone who just discovered it last week, I think I have a pretty good concept of Bananagrams.  It's a fairly simple spin off of Scrabble-- which I love, but is WAY too slow moving.  I love words, so I enjoy spelling them out with my letters as fast as I can.  It is so much faster paced than scrabble, which I love, and it really works your brain!  I have yet to lose...so challenge me if you dare!

Apples to Apples- By now, I'm sure just about everyone has heard of this game.  You take turns judging while the other players try to best match the label card that was laid down.  These can be anything from "Old Fashioned" to "Gross."  The person who laid down the most fitting-- or, often, the funniest-- card, wins the round.  If you haven't tried it though, it is even more hilarious to do try to find the card that worst describes the judging card.  In fact, there are many variations on the game, some of which are written out on the game box.  If you have a larger group of people, this is sure to entertain the  masses for a long time!

Apples to Apples
(photo credit: amazon.com)

     And of course... some games aren't available to be purchased in a game store.  My creative aunt came up with this idea for our last family Christmas.  Sometimes, a homemade game is the must fun of all!  For the Great Marshmellow Conflict, our family split up into teams, each team making their own castle.  We couldn't use tape or glue to hold the castles together, and we had to make a marshmellow shooter at the same time.  When everyone's castle and shooter were completed, we declared war and began pelting each other with marshmellows.  It was too funny!  Some castles were built for beauty, and quickly met their demise.  Others were borderline unbreakable!  By the end, we were all cracking up laughing and trying to pick the smeared marshmellows up off the floor and off our bodies.  Come up with your own creative family game, or get in touch with my aunt!