I do not celebrate Thanksgiving, but I know how wonderful and exciting the whole event can get, especially when celebrated with loved ones while feasting on some delicious looking turkey and mashed potatoes. So, when this cozy winter evening is spent indoors with family and friends, a game night adds to the charm of a get together! I’m not a big board games fan, but if there is a group of people sharing the same energy and excitement and are willing to scratch their heads to play the game, then I do not see an end to this thrilling night!
One of the games that I recently got introduced to is Codenames. At first, I thought it is an easy one and might not interest me to play it long enough, but to my surprise at 2 a.m. in the night it was my most favorite code to crack. It’s a multiplayer game with two teams (red and blue) of field operatives and a representative of each, the spymaster. The representatives have a rectangular grid to follow that have twenty-five Codename cards with each bearing a word in random order. A few numbers of these words represent the blue agents, some represent the red agents and one of them represents an assassin. The goal is for each team is to guess their color codenames with the hint provided, and make sure they do not guess the ‘assassin’ word during the process. The team who guesses the assassin loses the game. This challenging and fun board game also won “Spiel des Jahres” (Game of the Year) award in 2016.
My second favorite is UNO! This game has been a member of my family get-togethers since I was a kid, and we play this game with modifying rules. Yes, the basic rules of the game are fun but just to make it more interesting, we change or add our own set of rules, which can be frustrating for some players and fun for some. UNO can easily be considered a fun family game that is suitable for various age groups and can be played between 2 and 10 people. With more people and more deck of cards being used, the fun of endless reverses, skips and card draws gets into you. There is never a disappointing moment while playing UNO with friends or family!
While these are games that can be bought easily, there are a lot of DIY options as well to try this Thanksgiving like a basic “Pen and Paper” game list that includes Hangman, Tic-tac-toe and Dots and Boxes.
It feels good to celebrate a festival with people you love and care about, but it is even better to share the love with a few games to make it a complete package of joy. Happy Thanksgiving!
