A Fun Christmas Game for All The Family

Christmas is the time of the year when the family all gathers together to share food, drink and laughter.  There is usually a lot of great stuff on the television but this is the perfect time to actually turn the box off and share a fun activity together. A great game that the whole family can enjoy regardless of their age is Charades.

Charades is a wonderfully traditional game that everyone can enjoy. There are lots of different versions and rules that you can add but the basic instructions are quite straight forward so everyone can understand and follow along.

The Rules and Preparation Work

This is a game for two teams so choose two captains who will then pick their team members. Alternatively you can make it men against women or adults against children.

What is Charades ?

Simply put Charades is a guessing game where the aim is to try and describe a word or term without using your voice.  You have to use actions to describe everything.  This is where it can be really funny.  If you want to make it more competitive, you can set a time limit for each person. 

Each team needs to write down suggestions on pieces of paper.  Popular categories include names of books, films, television programmes, theatre shows, famous people, popular songs and even significant individuals or events from History.  It can be hilarious trying to figure out what your team mate is trying to describe as their arms, legs and the rest of their body contorts into different shapes in order to provide clues.

Depending on the age group playing you can make this quite a child friendly game or add a little bit of an extra edge if the group is much older.  This can be achieved in two ways. You can either choose clues that are a little bit raunchy and slightly suggestive. 

You can also introduce an element of a forfeit for the losing team.  If a team fails to guess their clue then a forfeit that you could add could include the losing team having to drink a shot of tequila.  As long as no-one has to drive anywhere, this can be quite amusing.  Another forfeit you could choose to use is having the losing team sing or recite a familiar song, poem or piece of literature.  Examples include the national anthem or a particular nursery rhyme that the whole group knows. 

If you prefer something active you could get the losing team to jog on the spot or do jumping jacks for a set amount of time. Even combine it with singing a nursery rhyme. Basically, the sillier the forfeit, the more amusing the game becomes.

Charades is a fantastic game for everyone to enjoy so it is time to drag the children away from their Ipods or their Ipads and get the whole family involved in this traditional fun game.