Our Family Game Night Ideas

At Cribsi, our care for home design goes beyond looks and function: creating the home is also about building a life you love with the ones you love. One of the most classic and surefire ways to create lasting memories with your family is to craft a fun family game night, where ideas are far more abundant than hours in an evening.

Where to start? After all, the basic concept is deceptively simple — just like the first time you open a game’s box and find out quickly that there’s more than meets the eye. Read on for some ideas for a fun family night together, and get strategizing!

What’s Your Gaming Style?

Styles for gaming can be just as varied as the myriad of home decor designs, and considering your family’s interests is the first key to success when gathering ideas for your family game night. Hone down your many gaming options by thinking through how you already enjoy having fun.

Role-Playing, Storytelling, and Tabletop Games

Fun games for family game night almost always include a combination of classic and original board games, and evoke images of a family huddled around a table, studying the rules and then getting to work strategizing and scheming.

If your clan already takes family game night seriously, one idea is to find more ways to flex (or strengthen!) their creative muscles, and find action in faraway lands and distant centuries. Setting out on an “adventure” together is a great option especially for families with older kids, including adult children.

Best of all, many of these games offer opportunities for players to create characters, as well as build and paint miniatures and terrain — all fun ways that can add to the anticipation of the game night while providing more opportunities for play long before the game itself. Just make sure you invest in good lighting!

Classic (and Not-So-Classic!) Board and Card Games

Many board and tabletop games include dice and cards, but some are all about taking chances! Does your family like games that require luck, or perhaps, when you think “luck of the draw,” is more based on what you draw with a pen and paper or act out? Since many of these games often have a quicker pace, it’s also possible you can mix and match in a single evening, or even have a few different options — a perfect idea for a large family’s game night, especially if there is a wide age range.

With so many choices of fun games for family game night out there these days, it can be overwhelming. Explore our collection of zany and creative board and card games for all ages, and for competitive and cooperative players alike.

Cooperative Video Games

If your family loves dancing to the beat, racing cars from the couch, or singing contests live from your living room, consider a “talent show” featuring video games where this particular game night idea gets the family up and moving!

Puzzles

If you prefer relaxing over a good puzzle, we have you covered there, too! At Cribsi, we are all about whimsy, which means that you are sure to find many whimsical puzzles and model building kits that will snap into place for your family fun night, inspiring more ideas for how you can cooperatively play together!

That said — don’t limit yourself too much! After all, spontaneity can create the best of memories, as you and your loved ones try new ways to have fun together.

Pick a Time and Place

Now that you’ve gotten some ideas and considered your family’s preferences, time to make the time for it!

And sure, the idea might be “family game night,” but why limit yourself to evening? Perhaps you have young ones who go to bed early, or family members who work at night. There is never a wrong time for fun, after all! And while family game night is all about fun at home, the question is where in your home?

Not limiting yourself to the kitchen table or couch after sunset also opens up more options: what about a game over a weekend brunch, or adding outdoor games to the mix? For warm summer months, consider creating a tent for a camping adventure in the yard or deck, with board games by a bonfire, roasting s’mores, turning your everyday living space into anything but for an unforgettable idea for a family fun night.

Pick a Theme

It’s all coming together — perhaps this is where you will get your spark of inspiration, and perhaps a theme is what will tie all the fun ideas for a family game night together into one cohesive package: Christmas? Halloween? Outer space? Fantasy? Wild West? Take a poll, have your family write ideas and draw from a hat, or, if you’re already searching for new ideas as family game night aficionados, let the game’s winner pick the next night’s theme.

And with that comes the next part: food, drinks, and music to complement your theme! This is where you can find new modern serveware ready for just about any game night and for all the days in between your next.

Create Your Winning Strategy!

Ultimately, the most important idea for any family game night is based on having fun! You know your family better than anyone, and we hope that with this blog, you have more considerations to help you set the pieces for even more rounds of enjoyment.