Family Game Night and the inside scoop on games

Husband has been away in Wisconsin for a trade convention hosted by one of our distributors. It's just for game industry manufacturers and retailers, so he got a chance to hobnob with some very interesting people like Steve Jackson (Steve Jackson Games), Zev Shlasinger (Z-man Games) and Greg Leeds (Wizards of the Coast). He promises he's coming home with a ton of cool new games (which I'll share next week) and all sorts of ideas to try at the store.

This week, instead of a game review, I want to encourage people to start a Family Game Night. A few years back, Hasbro started using this concept as the basis for an ad campaign. This year's commercial is kinda cute.

Some of my favorite memories are those times when we didn't have electricity for one reason or another and my family sat around in the evenings playing boardgames or card games. In fact, in addition to the games we play for work, we still have a Family Game Night with my folks every Wednesday.

Pick a day of the week that's good for the whole family and switch off the TV. Play American standards like Monopoly, Boggle and Sorry or try out some of the European-style games like Carcassonne or PitchCar. Dust off your games from the big companys like Hasbro or find those gem games by smaller companies like Blue Orange, Rio Grande or Mayfair. Boardgame Geek has tons of recommendation for every game imaginable.

Even if you don't have the money for boardgames, an inexpensive deck of cards can yield hours of fun with tons of games. I like Contract Rummy and Spoons. Check out yard sales and thrift stores for cribbage boards or backgammon sets. Build up a collection of games so that game night can have variation.

Once you've set the day and have something to play, add some traditions like keeping a scoreboard or popping some popcorn. It's cheap fun that can be enjoyed by all ages.