Festive family gatherings: The power of games and togetherness

POLOKWANE – The festive season is a time for family, friends, and fun.

For Bendor resident Lethabo Mamabolo, hosting family gatherings during the holidays has become a cherished tradition.

But what makes these gatherings truly special is the bonding that happens through games.

“For those families or relatives that are holding grudges or angry towards one another, try attending family gatherings so that you can try work your issues out, and after that enjoy playing games with the family. I’m sharing from experience because these type of festive family gatherings helped me as an individual,” Mamabolo said.

Here are some of the games they played during the holiday:

• Charades: Charades is a classic guessing game where one person acts out a word, phrase, or character without speaking, while the others try to guess what it is.

• Candy game: To begin the game, the first person rolls one die. If they roll a one or a six, they get to grab a candy from a pile in the middle and hide it inside their bag. If they don’t roll a one or six, they pass the die to the next person.

• Christmas Bingo: Each player takes a card and a pen, always keep your eyes down. As the caller reads out each of the festive items, mark off what you have on your card. The winner is the first person to get a complete line in any direction. Or for a longer game the winner is the first person to complete their card in full.

• Christmas guess who: Similar to charades game, each player will place an index card containing a Christmas icon’s name on their forehead and get clues from other players to guess who they are.

• Christmas trivia: One player or team asks questions to another player or team. These questions can be created by the family or downloaded from the internet. If they get it correct, they get asked another question in the next category. If they get it wrong, play moves to the next player or team.

• Jingle Bell Toss: Each team sets up an equal distance across from their playing board, and gets 10 jingle bells. The first player on every team tosses two bells towards their team’s board. If they miss, they must retrieve them, and return them to their team, before the next player on their team takes their turn.

• Guessing gift game: This one is for families that love buying each other gifts. Everyone sits next to the Christmas tree and guesses who the gift is from and also what’s inside, if they get it wrong, they drink or eat something that doesn’t taste good.

“There are more games that we play during the holiday, these are just a few of them. You can always start or play your own games as well, as long as they’re family friendly and see how fun it is to interact with one another on a fun level,” concluded Mamabolo.