Create Your Own Card Game for Family Night

Gather your friends and/or family around the table to start game night!

Take the card deck out of the box and pull out 15 cards: four hearts, three diamonds, three spades, three clubs, and two jokers. In Lyla’s card game, numbers don’t matter, but you can decide if you’d like to select certain cards. Assign an activity to each shape and tell your family members the rules. For example, if you pull a heart, then you follow the directions for that activity.

For example, Lyla and her family select these activities for each symbol:

Diamond: Mystery smell test. Choose three foods or other items such as soap or toothpaste that the player can safely smell. Ask the player to close their eyes and smell the items and challenge them to guess what they are before the timer goes off.

Heart: Hop to it! The player hops on one foot to every room and back with a stuffie or book balanced on their head. If hopping is a little too wobbly, try doing a funny walk around the room or simply try balancing a book on your head at the table.

Spade: Crab walk challenge. Crawl to your room like a crab, grab an object, and come back to the table before the one minute timer runs out. If crawling to a room isn’t an option, use crab hands (pretend your thumbs and pointer fingers are pincers) to pick up an object to put on the table.

Club: Spin walk. Close your eyes, spin five times, open your eyes, and walk from where you are playing to another chair or spot in the room before the timer runs out.

If a player doesn’t complete the activity in a certain amount of time, they are out. If a player selects a Joker card, they choose another card and can decide if they want to do the activity or if someone else should do it for them. The last one in the game has to do a final trick. If they beat the timer, they win!

If they don’t beat the timer, there’s no winner, and the game starts over again.

You can make up your own challenges and categories, too. For example, Hearts can represent a brain challenge such as naming five countries that start with the letter “N;” Diamonds can represent a physical challenge such as walking backwards balancing a book in one hand; clubs can represent a musical challenge such guessing a song by listening to it for just five seconds; and spades can represent an art challenge such as drawing a portrait of your family in two minutes. There are so many things you can do!

Next, mix up the cards. Lay the cards face-down on the table in rows of three. It’s time to play!

Choose the first player and ask them to flip over one card. Ask the player to complete the activity assigned to that card symbol. Set the timer and ask the player to start! Once the first player is back at the table, the second player can choose a card and do an activity.

Keep playing until everyone has had a turn, or play for as long as you like!