POLOKWANE – The festive season cliché is that it is a time to spend with your loved ones and if you’re lucky enough to spend this time with your family and/or friends, we have just the thing to keep you entertained during the holidays.

Take out your phone and download some of these apps, or put a festive-spin on some old-time favourites.

Phone Games:

• Snapchat

Snapchat has been around for some years now, but many only heard of the app when dog filters became a huge trend. What some people however do not know, is that in recent years, Snapchat has become more than just a fun way to send selfies around. They added some entertaining games and what better time to play them, than this holiday season.

Simply install Snapchat from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Open the app and go to ‘explore’ at the bottom of the home screen of the app. Search for ‘games’ and choose one of the various games that are available. Get the whole family involved by playing against or with each other.

• TikTok

TikTok has established itself as the ultimate app to get time to pass during lockdown, however, ’tis the season’ to make use of TikTok in another manner. You can easily get the whole family involved and become a TikTok sensation by putting your own creative spin on some trends, or create your own jaw-dropping and catchy videos which are between three and 15 seconds long.

Don’t delay and download TikTok on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store today.

Card Games:

The game that has withstand time and technology, which has ensured many hours of fun. Get your shuffle on (not the dance moves) and get the decks out.

• Five Cards:

Take out the Jokers in a deck of cards and shuffle it. Deal five cards to each player and place the remaining cards face down in the middle of the table. Players decide how many (if any) of their cards they’d like to discard, and then pick up the same amount of cards from the pile. Discarded cards are added to the bottom of the pile. Each player has to keep five cards in their hands and tries to make pairs, trebles or four of a kind.

Players then reveal their hands and scores are calculated as follows:

Four of a kind – 8 points

Full House (treble + pair) – 6 points

Treble (three of a kind) – 4 points

Two Pairs – 3 points One Pair – 2 points

Junk – 0 points

Scores are calculated after each hand and the pack is not shuffled. The first player to 20 points wins the game.  

• Memory Game

The youngest player goes first and on each turn, a player turns over two cards (one at a time) and keeps them if they match numbers. If they successfully match a pair of numbers, that player also gets to take another turn. When a player turns over two cards that do not match numbers, those cards are turned face down again and it becomes the next player’s turn.

When all the pairs have been found, the player with the most pairs wins.

Board Games:

• 30 Seconds

A general knowledge board game where players of two to sixteen teams can generally play against each other. One player must try to explain the name or sentence on the card without saying the exact words on the card, then the team mates have to guess the answer within 30 seconds.

If you don’t have the board game, you can easily make your own version of the game by writing general terms on a piece of paper and using your phone’s countdown timer.

• Scrabble

The ultimate crossword game in which every letter counts. Grab your friends and take turns forming words on the board. After playing your turn, count the value of all the letters in every new word that you formed and don’t forget the bonus points for placing letters on premium squares. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. 

Holiday twist on old favourites:

• Santa Belly

A holiday spin on ‘Limbo’ or ‘How low can you go?’. Have participants put a “Santa belly” under their shirt using a pillow. Place a limbo stick at a starting height and one-by-one try to limbo underneath until everyone has tried. Slightly lower the stick and have those who made it through go again. Continually lower the stick until one winner remains.

• Christmas Charades

Print out White Elephant Rules’ list of Christmas words and terms to act out. Separate everyone into teams and let one person from each team act out the word. Like regular charades, the actors are not allowed to talk or make signals of any letters. Every time a team guesses correctly within the time limit, they get one point. The team with the most points wins the game.

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