Staying home tonight? Plan a fun family game night! There are tons of different family game night ideas your whole family is sure to love. The best part is it will get your kids off screens and spending quality time together as a family.
Learn some fun games to play that will get all your family members laughing and having a great time together. Cool family game night ideas like Minute to Win It games, family board games, Would You Rather, Scavenger Hunts, escape rooms, card games, Heads Up, and more. Plus the classic game Charades that will keep the entire family engaged all night.
You’ll also learn how to plan a family game night and tips so you’re ready for a fun and stress-free night you all can enjoy together.
At the holiday time make sure to try our fun free printable Christmas Games perfect for family parties too.
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Best Family Game Night Ideas & Tips
Before you pick your family game night ideas you’ll need to know how to plan your night. So start here and then check out our favorite games.
How to Plan a Family Game Night
Pick a Date
Choose a good time that all your family members can play. Try to find a consistent day once a month to have a family game night so you will remember every month. Such as the first Friday of the month.
Decide on Game
Figure out what type of fun games you want to play for your game night. You can pick a theme for the night and find a game to match or just pick a game everyone enjoys playing.
Then decide if you want to play a family board game, card games, or interactive games like Charades or Minute to Win it games.
Not sure what to play? Get our Family Game Night Printable with 12 Pre-Planned family game nights so you’re set for a full year of games. Just print it out and you’re ready to play.
Menu
Make the night special with a fun family dinner, snacks, or desserts. The kids will love taking breaks in-between games to eat.
Some dinner ideas are, make your own pizza night, taco bar, or chili bar for dinner. At desert time try decorating cookies, making an ice cream bar, or fondue.
Turn off Electronics
Ditch your phone and devices for the night and just focus on having fun with kids.
Have Patience
Game nights can get pretty silly with younger kids so have some patience and just enjoy the time together.
Do You Want to Be Competitive
Decide if you want the game to be competitive or not. If you have younger kids I would skip being competitive and just have fun playing together. But if you have older kids they might enjoy a little competition.
Number of Players
Decide on the number of players you will have in each game. Are you playing in teams or individually? If playing on teams pick your team members before you begin.
Rules
Set up the rules before you start so that everyone knows and there won’t be any fighting.
Prizes
If you decide to be competitive have a prize for the end of the game. It can be something as simple as the winner picks the next game or the dessert for the next game night.
Another idea is to get a trophy or medal and each game night the winner gets to keep the trophy until the next game night.
Best Games for Families to Play Together
To find the best games for families to play together you want to find entertaining group games. Here are some of our favorite family game night ideas.
Don’t forget to check out our pre-made printable Family Game Nights Bundle too.
Minute to Win It Games
A great way to spend the night is playing a bunch of quick Minute to Win It Games. Players try and finish each challenge before the clock hits one minute.
Have the first person try out the challenge and then let the next person see if they can beat their time. Or play at the same time against each other.
These fast games are perfect for younger kids who might not have a long attention span. Plus they’re pretty funny to watch. Even your hard to please teens & tweens will enjoy playing these games.
Minute to Win It Games Ideas:
20 Easy Minute to Win it Games for Kids
Best Minute to Win It Games for Teens & Tweens
Family Minute to Win It Games for Christmas
Would You Rather
This hilarious game is a series of funny Would You Rather questions to ask your kids. You’ll love hearing their answers!
Families can play this while eating dinner or make it their whole game night. Get our Free Printable Would You Rather questions to print and your set for the game.
Try these themed Would You Rather Questions too – Would You Rather Christmas, Would You Rather Teens, and Would You Rather Valentine’s Day
Escape Room Games
If your looking for more of a mental challenge try an Escape Room Game night. It’s a super fun game and your kids will love the challenge of solving the puzzles.
You’ll need a storyline, clues, and puzzles to solve. We like to use the Escape Room Geeks or Lock Paper Scissors printable sets. They have everything you need for the game already created for you. Just print it out and you’re ready to go.
Read our review of the best printable escape rooms for kids to find the right age group & theme for your kids.
To start the game read the storyline to your family. Then use the set of clues to try and solve the puzzle and break out of the escape room. Parents can play the game also or be game masters.
The escape room sets are created by age group so you can find one that will be easy enough for all ages in your family. There is a range of escape kits that will work for kids ages 5 years old to teens & even adults.
This has been one of our kid’s favorite family games so check out the Escape Room Geeks and see if you kids will love it too.
Charades Games
Charades is a fun game of acting out words and trying to get your family to guess the correct word. It’s pretty funny to watch your family act out these words for you to guess.
It’s also a really easy game to play. Just grab our free printable 144 Charades Words List to get started. Cut out the words and add them to a bowl. Then have a family member pick a word and act it out. They will have 1 minute to try and get you to guess the correct word.
Learn how to play and grab your free printable Charades word list in our 144 Easy Charades Ideas for Kids.
Heads Up
The game Heads Up is a hilarious game that’s an app on your phone. This is a free game you can get on your iPhone or Android.
To play one person flips the phone to their forehead and a word will appear. The rest of the players need to give clues for that person to guess the right answer. If they get the correct answer then the player flips the phone again to get more words to guess.
It’s a quick game as each player only has a minute to get through a list of words. You can adjust the levels to easy or harder depending on the age of your kids.
There are tons of themes to choose from like the Celebrity edition, blockbuster movie, Animals, pop culture, Disney.
Tip: This is also a fun game to play in lines when you’re waiting in places with kids like amusement park lines or airports.
Treasure Hunt
Plan epic treasure hunts & scavenger hunts for your family game night. It’s super easy with Riddle ME a clue-based treasure hunt with fun riddles to follow around your house.
Riddle Me will create a customized treasure hunt for indoors, outdoors or both to print within minutes. Just add in the age group, number of clues you want, locations in your house or outdoors, and the riddle clues will be generated for you.
Add to the fun by picking additional activities or tasks your family needs to complete before you move on to the next clue.
Once you print out the Riddle Me clues hide them around your house. You can even place small prizes at the end of the hunt for your kids to make it more exciting.
There are hundreds of clues so you can do this over and over again as it’s sure to become a family favorite.
Riddle Me works as a great last-minute activity for game nights too.
You can also try our Free Printable Treasure Hunt Clues.
Bingo Game Night
Have a blast playing bingo games together on your family game night. It’s a super easy game that everyone knows how to play.
Use our Free Printable Bingo Cards Games for Kids to find the perfect bingo game for your family. Each Bingo game includes Bingo cards and bingo calling cards. All you need to do is print it out and you’re ready to play.
Check out our holiday bingo games for Christmas and Valentine’s Day too.
Detective Games
Plan a fun Mystery night with exciting Detective Games for kids. Tell the kids a detective riddle and have them write their answers in invisible ink to create secret messages. While it dries play escape room games, Detective board games, or have a teddy bear scavenger hunt with clues.
You’ll find tons of ideas in our Mystery & Detective Games for Kids.
Virtual Game Night
If you can’t be with all your family or friends consider doing a virtual game night. It’s a great way to still connect with family that lives far away.
Find tons of Games to play on Zoom with kids such as Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader, Pictionary, Heads UP, Scattegories, and more. There is even a cool Zoom Scavenger Hunt to keep your kids active while on Zoom.
It’s really easy to set up a virtual game night and it’s a great way to spend a night with the family.
Family Scavenger Hunt
When you’re doing a family game night during nice weather get everyone outside and enjoy a family scavenger hunt.
If you like to be competitive break up into teams and see who will be the first team to find everything on the list. I would suggest setting a time limit so all the players know when to return.
Use our free printable Neighborhood Scavenger Hunts so you can just step out your door and head out on a hunt. When you’re done head home for dessert and compare what you found on your list.
Young adults in your family will like the Teen & Tween Neighborhood selfie scavenger hunt.
Photo Scavenger Hunt
You can also plan a photo scavenger hunt through your neighborhood. All your family needs is a smartphone to take pictures and a scavenger hunt checklist.
For this scavenger hunt, each team must get a picture of each item they find on the list. Kids will have more fun with this if they get to make silly poses in each picture.
The first team back with all the items found wins the game. Grab this Free Printable Photo Scavenger Hunt checklist to play.
Nerf Game Night
Do you kids love Nerf Guns? Make it a Nerf Night with tons of DIY Nerf Targets & games to play.
Nerf targets are a great way to turn playing with Nerf Guns into a game. The targets can be made with almost anything from aluminum cans to pool noodles to using old boxes as cardboard spinning targets.
Give a point for every target you hit with bonus points for harder targets. Whoever has the most points wins. Set up the targets in different ways for the next round and play again.
If it’s nice weather go outside and have a Nerf War or play Capture the Flag on teams. Add to the fun by making cardboard Nerf bases too.
Fun Family Board Games
A classic way to spend a Family Game Night is with board games. There are tons of fun family board games out there but here are some of our favorite games.
Candy land (Age 3 and Up) – Great game for younger kids to play.
Zingo (age 4 and Up) – It’s like bingo but updated. Preschool-age kids will like the classic Zingo version with bingo pictures and kids learning to read will like Zingo Word Builder.
Headbanz (age 8 and Up) Guess what picture is on your headband with the clues from your family. There is also a Disney version of this game.
Game of Life (age 8 and up) is a classic family board game that has been a popular game for years. It’s a great game for all ages to play together.
Watch Ya Mouth ( age 8 and up) This hilarious game has players putting a mouthguard in while trying to talk. It will have everyone rolling on the floor laughing.
Select 5 Card Game (age 8 and Up) A quick card game that you will get better and better at as you play. Your goal is to find a Streak of 5 cards and you’ll do this by picking cards from a pile and stealing from your fellow players. The fast pace makes it exciting for all ages.
Kids Against Maturity (age 9 and Up) Silly fill-in-the-blank questions for the whole family to answer that your kids will love. There is some toilet humor and funny innuendos for parents.
What Do You Meme? -Family Addition (Age 8 & Up) Compete to create the best captions on Memes. Tweens and Teens will like this game.
Do You Really Know Your Family – (Age 8 & Up) Hilarious game with questions to see how much your really know your family. Great game for those hard-to-please tweens & teens too.
5 Second Rule (age 10 and Up) A player picks up a card and reads the topic and then has 5 seconds to name 3 things that fit the topic. The quick answers will be hilarious to hear.
Lego Game Night
If your kids love Legos make it into a fun family game night idea. Put a bin out with all different sizes of lego pieces. Then give everyone a time limit to make a lego creation from that box.
It could be 10 minutes or it could be 30 minutes depending on your kid’s age and attention span. You’ll be amazed at how creative your kids can be.
Try adding a theme for each Lego round such as animals, build a fort, create a garden, build the tallest builiding, or make a car. For older kids challenge them to make a Lego marble run or something with Technic Legos.
Get tons of Lego Challenge ideas on Pinterest.
Best Card Games
Another fun way to spend the evening is playing card games with your kids. Here are a few great choices for all different ages.
Go Fish ( preschool or younger) – Find matching fish by asking other players for the cards you need. If they don’t have it they’ll say Go Fish.
Guess in 10 (age 6 & up) My kids love this game! Each card has animal clues and players need to guess which animal is on the card.
It’s also a great game to bring on road trips or play at restaurants with the kids.
Taco Vs Burrito (age 6 & Up) Quick card game with a medium level of strategy that’s pretty funny.
Spot It (age 7 and Up) Round cards with symbols and pictures. Players need to quickly spot the matching symbol or picture on each card. It’s a fast-paced game and really fun.
Tip: We love to bring this on vacation with us as a family hotel game too.
Sushi Go (age 8 and Up) A fast card game trying to find the best combination of a sushi dinner. Score different points for each type of sushi roll created with you’re cards. This fun game takes a round or two to understand it but after that, it’s a blast.
Goat Lords (age 8 and Up) A crazy card game with strategy, luck, drama, and fun for older kids to play. It’s more of a mythical game with fairy goats, flying goats, dragon goats, escaped goats, and more. Put them all together for a hilarious family game night.
Are you ready not for an awesome family game night with your kids? I hope these family game night ideas have inspired you to create your own family games at home. It really is a blast!
If you need an easy game night plan make sure to print out our 12 Pre-Planned Family Game Night Ideas. It’s everything you need to create an unforgettable game night with your kids in a simple printable packet.
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