TV & A Board Game Ideas
Finding ways to while away the hours during the waning winter weeks was always a chore when my kids were little, but I managed to dream up some pretty fun ideas to keep everyone entertained — wild things like tent camping in our own living room or building the ultimate pillow and blanket fort. When you’re parenting teenagers, I think it’s easy to get into the habit of letting everyone drift into their own bedroom. But keeping your family engaged by spending time together makes kids feel loved and accepted and — let’s be honest here — helps keep them out of shady Discord groups and other various hijinks most parents of teens don’t want their kids getting up to.
Even if the idea of a tabletop game makes your kid groan initially or they have to pretend like they’re too cool for it, most teens really enjoy playing games. Give them a deck of Uno, and they’ll be entertained for a fairly decent time frame, if not hours. My theory is that they love being competitive anyway, and playing a family game gives them a chance to be snarky and on somewhat equal footing with their adults, effectively preparing them for a future where they one day will be.
Lucy came up with a perfect cold-weather activity — a game night-themed watch party. And since we have a pretty well-stocked game closet, I told her this sounded like a great idea. After disappearing for a moment, she breezed back into the room with a stack of three Clue boxes. There was the standard Clue game, a Simpsons-themed Clue, and a Supernatural-themed Clue — after a quick vote, we settled on the Simpsons.
I love playing board games with my family because no one has a poker face and everyone is the worst kind of competitive, so things get pretty wild and silly fast. After a fairly long and energetic game in which Lucy was the winner, we sat down to watch the film Clue starring Tim Burton, following it up with the Psych “Clue” homage episode “100 Clues,” which, like the 1985 film, has multiple endings. The kids had a blast picking out references to the film like the actors, the chandelier, and that hilarious improvised quote about flames.
The evening was such a hit I thought it might be fun to put together a game-themed watch party so we can do it again. In the past, I’ve had a blast coming up with food to match game nights, so I thought I would do something similar here but make the whole thing revolve around a tabletop game.
I’m including our Clue-themed game night with a list of suggested snacks. I’m adding a few viewing options to choose from, depending on your kids’ or teens’ age and what you feel is appropriate (some are more “Mature” than others). Here’s what I came up with:
1. Clue Party
Game: Clue
Viewing ideas: Clue, Psych’s “100 Clues,” Knives Out
Meal/snack ideas: In the film Clue, guests are served Shark Fin Soup with Monkey Brains for dessert. Since I’m not really sure you want to (or should, for that matter) serve those dishes, you could always make the ersatz version. Here’s a link with some alternative ideas.
If you’re watching the Psych episode, you can add chocolate and licorice bites to your snack list.
2. Treasure Hunt Night
Game: A good old-fashioned DIY treasure hunt — this is a game where each new clue leads to the next clue. And it works best when clues involve a complicated puzzle — in Goonies, the kids have to use their knowledge from Spanish class and piano lessons to finish the clues. This will take some prep time, but you can find tons of ideas for creating a treasure hunt online — here’s one. The beauty of this is that your family doesn’t have to compete against each other — instead, they can all work together to solve the clues.
Viewing ideas: Midnight Madness, The Goonies
Meal/snack ideas: Ice cream, just like the kind Chunk finds stashed in the freezer.
3. Chess Club
Game: Chess, of course!
Viewing ideas: Alice in Wonderland, Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Seventh Seal, Queen of Katwe, Young Sheldon “A Rival Prodigy and Sir Isaac Newton”
Meal/snack ideas: Black and white candy and snacks like Oreos
4. Jumanji
Game: Jumanji
Viewing ideas: Jumanji and Jumaji – The Next Level
Meal/snack ideas: Jumanji berries. I don’t know what they are, but they’ll be there for you in your time of need.
Help me add to my list and keep these teens entertained for the rest of the season by dropping me a line in the comments, and have a family fun-filled week in your little nebula!
