Hey all,
Every Christmas Eve, my family hosts the dinner and events. For years my Mother has come up with some simple games to keep everyone entertained during the middle-later portion of the night.
She doesn’t like anything too complicated. I was wondering if anyone has any simple party games which are fun with extended family around the holidays.
Thanks.
I dunno how many people you have , but Cribbage with a group is actually a ton of fun. We would do groups of four with coworkers after work at a local pub. If we had too many people, we’d alternate groups each game.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/188530/my-favourite-things
This board game is great. It’s a really fun twist on a trick taking game. You give the person next to you categories and they rank things from 1-6 and then you give them back and play the trick taking game. Its fun because you get to learn more about people whilst also messing about with questions like 'do I think comic book guy from the Simpsons is a higher number for dad than a spatular is for mum’s favourite kitchen utensil… Hmmm…
Jackbox. Each one has several party games, everybody can play on their phone, and it’s lots of fun while being fairly simple.
Quick warning about Jackbox, older people may struggle. It’s incredibly simple, nearly foolproof, but there’s just a certain kind of old person who becomes completely toddler-esque useless around technology.
I still give the recommendation a +1 though. It’s cracking fun.
How old is old? Cause I’m 52 and have no trouble with it. :P But I also worked in IT and cybersecurity for ~20 years, so technology never bothered me.
“Most people don’t know how to weld” “Really? I worked as a welder for 20 years and never had a problem with it”
That’s not an accurate analogy. A more accurate one would be: ‘Most old people don’t know how to weld.’ ‘Really? I’m old and I know how to weld.’ I’m pointing out that broad generalizations are inaccurate at best.
In my defence I said “certain kind”. You must have met some. You tell them to press the green box that says [OK] and they just look at the screen confounded. You tell them to use their finger and they try and give it you back saying they don’t know how to work it.
I tried showing one VR, and they just stood there motionless saying it’s not working. I tell him “you need to actually move your arms, like you’re there, press that button in front of you with your actual hands” “what hands” “your real hands holding the controllers you need to actually do it like it’s real”. Stands there motionless for another 10 seconds. “No. It’s not working. It’s not doing anything.” Forget it. Come off the thing.
If there’s one of these people in the room Jackbox will quickly become a tedious chore.
That’s fair, i didn’t catch the ‘certain kind’ in the original. My bad.
And yeah I was by no means saying all old people will be fine anyway. But I’ve played a fair bit of it and all you have to do is type or sometimes draw on your phone. People do the former all day, and the latter isn’t terribly different from just navigating since it’s a touchscreen. shrug No doubt some people will find a way to block even that from their mind, but.
