The Great Free Family Games Hunt

MSE_Martin

What's it all about?

Christmas is coming and the shops are full of family games. Yet there's no need to spend the cash, many games exist which don't cost a penny.

To find them I thought I would tap MoneySavers' collective knowledge.

What type of games?

There are no rules about the games, except they can only use things that you'll find in a house anyway. Nothing new can be bought.

Of course there are the old standards like Charades or hang-man are obvious

What to do?

Simply click reply and explain your game, in as much detail as you can.

My starter - Dictionary

I used to play this with the other students when I was doing my postgrad in broadcast journalism, it's effectively a home version of Call My Bluff the TV game.

The rules

The person starting takes the dictionary (it should be a big one) and finds a word they suspect no one has heard of. They then say the word and check no one knows it.

Everyone else then writes down a guessed at definition of the word on a piece of paper, while the person who's turn it is writes down the real definition (though can rephrase it to make it less dictionary speak).

The papers are then read out by the person who's turn it is. After that everyone votes on which they think is real. Then the dictionary passes to the next person

The scoring

Of course you can play it for fun, but you can also score. We did it that if you pick the correct definition you get five points and if your 'incorrect' definition is chosen by someone you get 2 points. As long as everyone gets the same number of turns with the dictionary the scoring system works.

Now I must be honest, lots of people used to play this to come up with the silliest definions possible, and it was very funny, though I'm so competitive I always just liked to win!

Martin

cattie1

uuummm, can't think of many, there's all the usual card games.
when we were little we used to cut pictures of famous people out of magazines and stick 1 pic of someone on your head, you then had to ask questions .e.g "am I female?" "do I sing?" e.t.c until you guess who you are,
we had 10 questions but it's up to you!:D
you can only guess once and if you get it wrong you do a"forfeit/dare" (sp?)


I'll keep thinking and post some more later.;)

cattie1

Thought of 2 more.....:D
The yes/no game, you ask the "nominated" person lots of questons and they are not allowed to say YES OR NO.

At college when we were bored we used to play this as it always turned out really funny.
You need more than 2 people though-the more people the longer the game is!
Basically everyone contributes to each others paper so it becomes a humorous story, bare with me cos it's a bit confusing!:rolleyes:
you need:
paper
pens.
1st= everyone chooses a date/time =pass the paer to person beside you
2nd= everyone chooses a place-pass the paper to person beside you
3rd=everyone chooses a main character-pass the paper to the person beside you
4th=everyone chooses what that person was doing-pass ...
5th=everyone chooses a major event-pass...
6th= the outcome/ending
everyone reads the paper they are left with out.

so basically it reads like this
It was *date/time* in *place* and *character* was *whatever they are doing*, but then *major event* and *ending*

obviously you can add to this to make it longer/funnier.

n111kkx

At Christmas we always play good old fashioned games and have a tray and put 10 items on it then cover it with a tea towel, uncover the tea towel and everyone has 30 seconds to look at the tray they then have 2 minutes to write down all of the items on the tray.

Great Fun and the kids like making a tray up.

We also have 10 bags that we place an item in each we then pass the bags around and everyone has a feel to see what is in the bag.

Also post it notes on forehead with a name of someone famous or animals and you have to guess what you are by asking questions when you get a NO you move onto the next person.

All these games are free and the best fun!

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110frankie

We do a variation on Charades.
Using a dictionary you flick the pages until someone says stop. Then "third down fourth column", or similar.
Then, whatever the word, you have to describe it in a Charade-like manner.
It can be easier, or harder, than you think. A word everyone knows can be next to impossible to do, while a complicated word no-one's ever heard of can be simple.

virgin_moneysaver

there's 2 we play regularly on Christmas Day. As there are at least 10 of us ranging from 75 to 13 we try to play something thats suitable for all ages.

1) we have a battle of the sexes & use the question cards from the Trivial Pursuit game & each team has all 6 questions , just 1 point for each individual question &

2) each person need a good sized sheet of paper (A4 printer paper) & a pen, mark it into columns, 1 column for each person playing plus 1 extra. make a heading line across as each column has a subject & each person chooses a subject that everyone writes in the same colmun eg. colour, flower, football team etc.

The game starts with the 1st player reciting the alphabet in their head & the player next to them says stop, the letter is called out & you must try & write down answers across the columns starting with that letter. The first person to complete all columns shouts stop & everyone stops writing. Then everyone in turns call out their answer, you score 10 points if you have an answer no-one else has, 5 points if you have the same as someone else & 0 for no answer, put the total in the end column & the game continues with the 2nd person reciting the alphabet etc.

'USA states' is a good one so is 'countries' there are some in Africa that I'm sure my brother makes up
These are both armchair games which means you don't have too move away from the tin of sweets or bowl of nuts

maggiebee48

Problems and Solutions.
Give everyone a pen and paper. fold paper in half. On the top write a problem eg 'I have smelly feet' or my father has thrown me out' the stranger the problem the better. Pass paper on folded so problem can't be seen. then each writes a solution to his/her original problem. They can be really funny!

HappyBunny

Manic Chocolate Game

You need:-

That spare large bar of chocolate unwrapped, on a plate with newspaper underneath
a dice
Knife and Fork
Hat, gloves, scarf, sunglasses

1) Everyone sits on the floor in a circle with the chocolate in the middle.
2) Each person takes turns to throw the dice
3) If they throw a six, they have to put on the hat, scarf, gloves and sunglasses and eat as much of the chocolate as they can using the knife and fork. They carry on until the next six is thrown.
4) The dice continues going round the circle as fast as possible. When the next person throws a six the one eating the chocolate has to stop and hand over the hat, gloves etc to the one who threw the six, who put them on and eat the chocolate til the next six is thrown...and so on...

The faster the dice goes round, the less time people have to eat the chocolate.

HappyBunny

Bottle relay.

You need:-

Several empty wine bottles
one pencil or pen for each person
string or cotton or similar.

You may have two or more teams and one empty bottle is placed in front of each team. The string is tied to the top of each pencil and each person ties one pencil to their waist so that the pencil hangs down behind them so it hangs about 18" off the ground.

The first person of each team runs up to their bottle, stands over it and has to lower the pencil down into the neck of the bottle (without using their hands). When they've done that, the next person goes.... and so on.

This shorter the string the more the person has to squat down to get the pencil to the bottle. The longer the string the more difficult it is because the pencil swings more.

Warning:- It does look undignified to watch so have a camera handy !!!

Edinburghlass_2

My posts from another thread...

Right out a list of say Christmas Song (although any theme will do) two bits of paper per person, one with the song title on and the other bit to draw the song title on.

Then you pass round the drawings and everyone writes down on their list what they think the other people have drawn. No words allowed

Bar of chocolate, a dice, pair of large gloves, scarf and hat. Put the bar of chocolate still wrapped on a tray along with a knife and fork. First person to throw a six puts on the hat, gloves and scarf and tries to get a bit of chocolate using the knife and fork. As soon as another person throws a six the first person must stop and hand over the hat, scarf and gloves etc.

Sticky labels with a celebrity or film star written on it and stick this either on people's forehead or their back and by asking questions of other people they have to try and guess who they are.

An old one but a goodie, everyone in a circle and pass round a pair of scissors very carefully. One person has to say wether its crossed or uncrossed while the scissors are passed person to person.

In fact the answer crossed or uncrossed is dependant on if the person passing has their legs crossed or not but it takes a while as everyone is concentrating on the pair of scissors

Cut and paste pictures from magazines etc on to a piece of paper and people have to guess which Christmas TV programme the pictures represent

Same can be done with songs.

Another oldie, everyone sits down on chairs in a circle and one person is blindfolded and turned round a couple of times to confuse them. They then have to sit on the nearest knee and they say Duckie, Duckie. The person whose knee they sit on can only reply by saying Quack Quack and you have to guess who it is.

Two really old games I still have are called The Shopping List and Railways.

This involved cards placed round the house with lists of shopping or stations on them which read things like "bread now find milk" or "Waterloo now find Dingwall". Everyone was given a card with a starting point on it say "bread" and they had to find the card that said "bread" on it then head off to find the card with "milk" on it. First person back with a correct shopping list was the winner.

Hide and seek done in the dark. One person goes off and hides and after a due time everyone goes to look for them. Once you find the person you have to hide with them until such times everyone is then crammed into the hiding place.

Be careful if the person should be standing behind the toilet, once lost my slipper in the toilet as I didn't realise the toilet lid was still up

Then of course there are the team games, two teams and you have to pass a balloon up and down the team not using any hands with the balloon between your legs, then a match box sleeve passing it from nose to nose and an orange passing from under the chin. Frozen peas using a straw only.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=294473

Bargin_Betty

An enviromentally friendly, educational 'treasure' hunt for free.
I used to work with children on an adventure playgound so we worked outdoors, we had very little funding so creative free play was essential. I have found since the game works at large family gatherings.
It can be played indoors too, but perhaps make some rooms out of bounds!

Simply write a word ( it doesn't matter what it is ) on a piece of paper or card and do this several times depending on how many children are playing. Give them out, each child then has to find something starting with a each letter in the word. The words can be longer for older children. The first child back with the correct letters wins.

Children use their imagination and it's a great way of clearing the garden too!:xmassign: