How to host a family board games night
Hosting a board games night that works for families can feel like a nightmare. There can be massive arguments, major meltdowns and lots of boredom and lack of interest in games. So, you could feel a little apprehensive about how a board games night will go and may not know how to overcome these issues.
However, it is incredibly easy to create a fun-filled night that everyone will love and talk about. Follow our guide on how to host a family board games night to create the best evening that people will enjoy.
Think of who to invite & how many
The perfect family board games night consists of the right amount of people and the right type of people. You need people who love to play board games and who are just the right amount of competitive to keep the evening fun and relaxed. Consider reaching out to close friends and their families as well as your close family members.
Be careful to not invite too many people. Around the maximum of eight people works well but there can be fewer than this. Any more people and things can get overwhelming, time consuming and stressful. Large crowds for games night can also result in a lack of interest in the games and people being left out. However, it all depends on how big the space you are hosting in is. You need to know the maximum number of people you can fit into the space without being overcrowded. Plus, you need to make sure that everyone has a seat to be comfortable in for the night.
Pick a theme for your family board games night
To make your board games night fun, engaging and unique it can be best to choose a theme for the night. Doing this not only creates excitement for the night but also helps you to choose games that fit with the theme.
For example, you could base the evening on mysteries where everyone is a detective and need to figure out who’s done it. Or you could have a blast from the past night where you play more classic board games. You could even go crazy and choose a futuristic theme where you can play new and unique board games and take your guests into the future. Or, have an adventure theme night.
Whatever theme you pick, centre every detail of the night around it to make the planning phase easier for you.
Create a suitable space & environment
The key to a successful family board games night is to ensure that the space you are playing in is well suited to your guests. It is vital to have enough seating spaces, whether that’s chairs, the couch or comfy cushions or beanbags for the floor. Keep your guests in mind when choosing the seating arrangements, you don’t want your grandma sitting on a beanbag.
You also have to consider what surface you will put the games on. For example, if you choose to use a table, make sure it is the correct height for everyone. Something too high will be hard for the kids to get to but something too low won’t work for the adults.
Once you have sorted out the essentials, create the right environment based on your theme. If you are having a futuristic board games night, you could add in a changing colour light to set the ambience. You could also decorate your space with futuristic items and out of this world decorations such as, silver bunting or sheets to temporarily put up, spaceships and cool, edgy pictures.
If you choose to do the detective night you could darken the room to add mystery to the games and add some old fashioned pieces into the space. For an adventure theme you could transform your space into a jungle with various plants.
Pick out classic & unique board games to play
Think of board games that fit your theme and choose the best family board games that everyone will enjoy. Make sure that the games you pick out suit everyone, especially for kids as you don’t want them to get confused or feel like they can’t play. Consider the age range of your guests to choose the best fitting games.
For the detective night you could pick games like:
· Cluedo Wizarding World Harry Potter Board Game
· Ravensburger Jaws Board Game
For a blast to the past theme you could pick out:
· Monopoly
· Scrabble Harry Potter Board Game
For a futuristic theme you could choose:
· Alien Fate of the Nostromo Board Game
· Back to the Future Board Game
For an adventure theme you could have:
· Five night’s at Freddy’s Survive until 6AM Game
· Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sewer Battle Game
Show your options to your guests and let them all vote on which ones to play so that everyone is happy and has the most fun possible. We have lots of games available to suit any night.
Organise fun themed food boards with guests
To help you be the best host possible, a perfect idea is to get your guests involved with the food. Encourage everyone attending to make a themed food board to bring with them. You can discuss the best way to do this to make sure no one brings the same foods.
A great way to do this is to give each person a colour and everyone has to bring a board made up of that colour. For example, red would be strawberries, cherries, apples, ready salted crisps, Babybels and other red packaged food items. If you have 7 guests, you could base the colours on the rainbow and see what unique and yummy foods people bring!
Another way to do this is based on food types. Split up what kind of food everyone would like to eat and assign each guest with them. For example, someone brings sweet, someone brings savoury, someone brings fruits etc.
You could even encourage your guests to match your theme, picking foods that best fit with it. So, for blast to the past it can be retro sweets and foods that reminds you of years gone by.
Dress to impress
Encourage everyone to dress up to suit your family board games night theme. Doing this makes the evening more unique and enjoyable as it sets the tone of the night right from when guests arrive.
For a detective night everyone can dress up as old school detectives. You could wear a long beige coat or jacket, a fancy dress or pantsuit and top it off with a flap cap. Whilst for a blast to the past theme everyone can dress up in retro clothing of their choice such as 80s inspired neon clothing.
With the futuristic theme you and guests could go crazy with robot inspired clothing or out of this world items such as silver metallic dresses. And for an adventure theme you could all dress in explorer outfits such as long shorts, a shirt or top that matches, backpacks and even binoculars. We have some great children's fancy dress options that would be perfect for a games night.
Serve some board game inspired drinks
Create fun, fruity drinks your guests will love that matches the theme of your night and the board games you are playing. Whip up some amazing and delicious cocktails and mocktails that everyone can enjoy.
There’s lots of traditional and unique recipes to try when making cocktails and mocktails. Think about the colours and the ingredients when choosing your recipes to make sure that they fit with the theme. For example, for an adventure theme you could make the brightly coloured drinks such as strawberry daquiri and rainbow sangria. Here’s some brightly coloured cocktails for you to try that can be easily made as mocktails too.
For a detective theme you could go for the more dark coloured and gothic like drinks, a blackcurrant cordial with added fruit such as blueberries and blackberries for kids is ideal. With the blast to the past and futuristic themes you could go for more colourful and unique flavoured drinks, as well as traditional classics. Find some inspiration here.
You could even base your drinks on the games you will be playing. For example, if Back to the Future fits your theme you could do some yummy 80s inspired cocktails and mocktails. You could make a fruity punch, black and white Russian, pina colada, blue lagoon or tequila sunrise. You could even make your drinks brightly coloured with retro sweets for garnish to fit an 80s theme.
Moderate but keep it chill & fun
As the host, it is important to moderate the family board games night to ensure everyone knows how to play and play fair. When starting a game, it is your responsibility to read out the instructions clearly, show everyone the rules and check that people are abiding by them throughout.
However, this can be a difficult and stressful task, especially with children playing. Kids can easily get distracted, bored and they can forget rules or try to bend them. This can impact other players who may get irritable. To keep the fun flowing, moderate the game but don’t go overboard and be too strict. You need to keep a balance of not allowing cheating so others don’t get upset, but allowing little mistakes or actions slide so that everyone is having fun. The last thing you want is for an argument to break out or a lack of interest in playing.
You have to come to a ruling about peoples actions and keep the game flowing so that it doesn’t become dull. If you feel people are getting bored of a game or it’s going on too long, stop and switch to a different game.
Use our how to host a family board games night advice to create a super engaging, exciting and amazing board games night. Have family fun with friends and other family members and keep the evening full of excitement. Make sure that everyone is willing to play and that no ones over competitive to keep the night light-hearted. Also, it’s vital to make sure that kids are happy with the games and feel like they can participate too.
What are you waiting for? Host the greatest evening jam packed full of the best family board games and see who wins the most!
