My family started playing The Game For Everyone about three years ago. I wanted to have an activity we could all do after opening Christmas presents. I thought game playing would be fun, but we needed a pastime that everyone could be involved in, including my autistic niece, my Alzheimer’s affected mother-in-law and those young people with the I’m-here-for-the-presents-and-now-I’m-ready-to-hang-out-with-my-friend attitudes aka grumpy teenagers.
What my husband and I came up with is a riff on Pictionary. If you don’t know what Pictionary is, do a search on YouTube and you will see how it works.
SUPPLIES YOU WILL NEED
Dry erase board and markers
Chair or stand to put dry erase board on
Timer of some sort – kitchen timer, stopwatch, phone app, etc.
Bag – A Crown Royal bag is perfect 🙂
Small box
Slips of paper with numbers 1-20 (or how ever many people you have) on each slip
Slips of paper with clues on each slip
Prizes in a bag or wrapped or concealed however you like
Numbered list of the prizes
Pen or pencil
A room in the house for everyone to gather in
SETUP BEFORE GAME PLAY STARTS
You will need to write or print your paper with the numbers, and then cut into slips with a number on each slip.
You will need to write or print your paper with clues, and then cut into slips with a clue on each slip. To keep it simple, keep the clues in one category, like Christmas song. The clues need to be as simple as possible, as the point of this game is to make it easy for everyone to play and be involved. I don’t know how to draw “Good King Wenceslas”. But “O Christmas Tree” is pretty easy.
The prizes can be as small or as big as you like depending on your budget. As I had twelve people playing, I picked out 24 prizes so everyone had a chance to win two. Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree are great for things like candy, individual facial scrubs, silly little toys, toothbrushes, etc. Several two dollar bills in the mix keeps things interesting also. Write a list of your prizes and assign a number to each prize. Keep this list out of sight.
HOW TO PLAY
In regular Pictionary, a person draws pictures for his or her team to guess the clue. In our version, there are no teams. The artist draws and everyone gets to guess. Once a clue has been guessed correctly, the artist gets to pick a prize. If someone is nervous about drawing, like my niece, or is not capable, like my mother-in-law, a stand-in can draw for him or her. When the clue is guessed, the original artist still gets a prize. The stand-in artist will take his or her turn later.
So, to get started, gather everyone up, preferably in a room with no TV. All cell phones/ipads/handheld gaming devices are put away. Drop the number slips in the bag and shake. Have everyone grab a number slip. This will be the order in which everyone plays. Once everyone has a number, gather up slips, return to bag and set aside. Set up dry erase board on chair or stand so everyone can see.
Place the clues in the small box and shake. Set timer for one minute. Player one pulls a clue, and then has one minute to draw the clue and get the crowd to guess the answer. If the clue is guessed, the artist will get a prize. If the clue is not guessed after a minute, the artist can pull a new clue and try again.
After a clue has been guessed, the artist pulls a number out of the bag. Whatever number is pulled, that corresponds to the prize list. For example, the artist pulls number seven. On your prize list, the seventh prize is a two dollar bill. That’s what the artist wins. (And money is what gets the attention of grumpy teenagers. Once the cash showed up, they went from reluctant participants to making sure they didn’t miss their turn.)
Be sure and remove the number the artist pulls from the bag, and mark that prize off your list. The next artist pulls a clue and so on, until all the prizes are gone.
RESULT
My family played this for over an hour, and even though the prizes were small, every single person had a smile while excitedly waiting to see what he or she had won. The two dollar bills were definitely the most coveted prize. This game created a time of low-tech togetherness, without competition and with some good natured teasing over some pretty weird drawings. Awesome sauce.
BTW, The Game for Everyone is not what we call it. We don’t have an official name, so if you have a suggestion, drop it in the comments below. Have fun!
