Family Games for New Year's Eve

Our traditional New Year's Eve was usually spent watching a special movie or other TV entertainment, which is much like the rest of the families in the USA. Drinking alcohol has long become a thing of the past since we now have children. As our family got older and the TV entertainment became a re-hash of prior year's entertainment, board games such as Monopoly, Life and Clue soon became a mainstay. That all started about 7 years ago. Soon, our board games got worn out or had missing pieces. All I can say is thank goodness for computer games. Five years ago, we acquired Monopoly, Life, Clue and Scrabble for the computer. As a family, we started enjoying each others company playing board games together using a laptop computer set up on our card table.

This New Year's Eve, we will follow the tradition of snack foods for dinner and setting up the card table for whatever game we pick out. The last few months my husband has taught the family several card games so if we get tired of the computer board games we might play cards.

What started out as something different to do on New Year's eve one year has now become our "family game night" tradition too. At first it was every Friday night that we would play either a board game or cards and then became just one night a week that was the most convenient for that week.

Our daughter has mentioned our "family game nights" to her friends and to her amazement they were envious of her. Her friend's families did not have the kind of closeness that our family had developed over a few board games. I remember a few months back our daughter had a friend over for a sleep over that night. Her friend came from a home that was just her and her mother. We decided to make that night a "family game night" and played Life. Her friend got such a kick out of our "family game night" that she often asks my daughter when she could come over for another one.

We have found that it is not so much as what game we choose to play but it is our time together that counts. I suppose we could play Twister together but after a few trips to the chiropractor after a game we would probably put that game away for good. Choosing a game had to be something comfortable for all members of the family. The game could not be so complicated that younger members would get upset or frustrated. The game had to be advanced enough for adults too. We found our selection of games to choose from and I hope your family finds a nice selection too.

I find that developing a family tradition is very important for each family. Some families have a certain place they get their Christmas tree each year other families have a family reunion at a camp or relatives' house each year. We discovered "family game night" and it will remain a tradition at our house for many years to come.