#FamilyLegacy #CardGames #FamilyTime #FamilyTraditions
🃏 How a Card Game Can Become a Family Legacy 🃏
Growing up, I was fortunate enough to be exposed to a long-standing family tradition that I’m sure will endure for generations to come. It all started with a simple deck of cards and a game that has become a cherished part of our family’s history. In this article, I’ll share with you how a card game can evolve into a family legacy and why it’s worth considering for your own family.
The Value of Family Traditions
Family traditions play a crucial role in shaping the identity and values of each family member. They provide a sense of belonging, create lasting memories, and offer an opportunity for family members to bond with one another. In our family, our card game has become one such tradition that holds a special place in our hearts.
The Importance of Family Interaction
In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of daily life, often neglecting the need for quality family time. Our card game has become a cornerstone of our family interactions, offering a unique way for multiple generations to come together and connect. The game provides a platform for meaningful conversations, laughter, and shared experiences that have become a highlight of our family gatherings.
Creating Lasting Memories
Every time we gather to play our family card game, we create new memories that we will cherish for years to come. From the friendly competition between family members to the heartfelt conversations that take place during the game, these moments have become an integral part of our family history. I can already envision the joy on my children’s faces as they learn to play the game and carry on the tradition in the years to come.
Passing Down Wisdom and Learning Opportunities
Our family card game isn’t just about having fun; it also serves as a platform for passing down wisdom and knowledge from one generation to the next. The older members of our family use the game as an opportunity to teach strategic thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills to the younger ones. In a world filled with instant gratification and short attention spans, our family game offers a refreshing change of pace, providing a valuable learning opportunity for everyone involved.
Preserving Intellectual Complexity
In an era dominated by technology and digital entertainment, finding activities that engage the mind and spark intellectual curiosity can be a challenge. Our family card game offers a level of intellectual complexity that is both stimulating and rewarding. It encourages critical thinking, planning, and adaptability, qualities that are essential for personal growth and development.
Building Strong Relationships
Through our family card game, we have built strong and lasting relationships that extend beyond the game itself. The shared experiences, inside jokes, and friendly rivalries have brought us closer together as a family. Even when we’re apart, the memories of our game nights keep us connected and give us something to look forward to when we reunite.
Starting Your Own Family Tradition
If you’re looking for a meaningful way to bring your family closer together, consider introducing a card game as a potential family tradition. Whether it’s a classic game that has been passed down through generations or a new game that you create together, the benefits of establishing a family game night are undeniable.
Whether it’s a game of bridge, poker, rummy, or any other card game, the key is to find a game that resonates with your family and allows for meaningful interaction. As you establish your own family tradition, remember that the value of the game lies not only in the gameplay itself but in the bonds and memories that it helps create.
In conclusion, a family card game has the potential to become a cherished family legacy that brings joy, connection, and learning opportunities to all involved. As our family has experienced firsthand, the impact of such a tradition can extend far beyond the game itself, shaping the identity of the family and creating lasting memories that will endure for generations. So, why not start your own family game night and create a tradition that your family will treasure for years to come?
So, how do you play?
So teach the fam MTG, got it.
Games in general, I think.
My family has a board game that my grandpa made for my dad and his siblings, so when my sisters and I got a little older dad made one for us.
It’s just a square board with holes drilled in a pattern. The holes are of a size that a marble will sit on it (not in it, so it’s easily grabbable). Rules are simple and easy to follow.
My sister has already asked my dad about our board for her kids since they’re getting a little older now (marbles, after all). They will mark the 4th generation to play our little game! Haha.
I really needed to hear this. My family has played the same card game for about 20 years and I’m very much over it. My mom and her siblings love it. Even my 101yo Nana will play. The game takes 2.5 hours to play and at this point I’m bored of it. But now my son is old enough to play and I really want to encourage that. To have the next generation play would mean a lot to my parents. So thank you for giving me some perspective
Kinda like how they play hanafuda in that anime movie Summer Wars
I grew up playing card games, dominos, and our family favorite is Casino, think it comes from Italy. Hard to keep young ppl into the game. Dominos is hardcore in my family, we’re Caribbean. Taunting and loudness is the norm. My daughter enjoys Dominos now. And I hate Uno. Lol
My wife’s family has a card game that they play whenever family gets together. Since her grandmother’s passing it has become a way to keep her with them on holidays and such.
That’s how everyone in my family learned to play cribbage.
2nd. How do you play?
OP trying to get us all to play commander MTG. Nice try OP /s
If all could also mention the names of the card games they play, that would be great.
My family regularly plays a game we call “shit” (though there’s probably a better name for it). Best with four or more players. Simple enough rules:
Deal out the deck to all players. Remaining cards (i.e if the number of players is not a factor of 52) are left out in the first round.
It’s a trick taking game, High card takes the trick unless it’s trumped. The fun part is that you have to predict how many tricks you’ll take, but the total number of tricks predicted is not allowed to add up to the number of tricks available; it can be lower or higher, but not equal. The first round has no trumps. You receive one point for each trick you take, and if you hit your predicted number, you get ten more points.
For each round after that, you deal out one card less to each player, and the top of the remaining cards is flipped to specify the trump suit. This goes all the way down to each player receiving only one card, and all the way back up to the full deck being dealt.
tl;dr: It’s a lot like like Spades, but the trump suit is random and accurately predicting the number of tricks you take gets you 10 points each time.
Not a card game but my granddad taught me checkers growing up. Yeah the game is simple, but we used that time playing to just talk and catch up with each other and him teaching me things about life. When he passed away a couple years ago, I vowed to pass down my experiences to my niece when she gets older.
I don’t think I could play cards for 4 hours unless it was poker at the playboy mansion but glad you have such a fine tradition and pass it on to the next generation
My family (dad’s side) always played 500 at every big family event (or really anytime we had enough people around to play it.) 4 player bidding game and you’re partnered with the person sitting opposite you. Kinda similar to Spades in that respect.
All the 2’s and 3’s are removed from the deck, and one joker is added.
Each player gets dealt 10 cards and the remaining cards go into the “kitty.”
You bid on the trump suit (or no trump) and how many tricks you were going to take. It’s been a long time since I’ve played, but the suits were ranked Hearts/Diamonds/Clubs/Spades so the higher suit would win an equal bid, with a minimum bid being 7, but if you were the first partner bidding you could “mention” a trump suit to give your partner some guidance on your hand strength. A No Trump bid beat out any of the suits. You could also bid “Nil” or “Blind Nil” if you thought you could avoid taking any tricks at all. I don’t remember how that bid ranked because it’s been too long and it was rare anyone actually did it.
Winning bidder gets the kitty and can swap out their cards. They can also trade a card with their partner (especially important for a Nil bid since you need your partner to cover you.)
The jacks become right/left bowers based on the trump suit (right bower was the trump suit jack and the left bower was the other suit but same color jack…the other jacks just fit into their suits like normal.) Joker was the top card, followed by right bower, left bower, ace, etc. If the winning bid was No Trump then there were no bowers and the joker was still the top card.
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It would get pretty damn serious and you had to earn your way to the adult table. At the holidays we always had enough players for at least 2 tables. The only permanent members of the adult table were my dad, my aunt, and my uncle and they would get ruthless (particularly my uncle.) If you fucked up a bid or made an obviously bad play then my uncle would usually lay into you about it, even if the bad bid/play was to his benefit. It was a hell of a good time and one of the big things I miss about our old 4th of July and Thanksgiving family gatherings.
Absolutely! We have a family card game we love to play together. Three generations at one table. And it’s anyone’s game. There’s some luck involved but most of it is strategy and the game difficulty has evolved over the years as we’ve all gotten progressively better at it.
It’s called “Predict!” And can be played with between 3 and 7 people, though 4-7 is best. And is something like a lighter version of bridge. It’s a lot of fun, easy to learn, and beats the pants off monopoly for a family game. Also it doesn’t take four hours to play, you can play a round in 30-45 minutes. If anyone is interested, I can post the rules.
Just taught my kids Spades over the holiday. They seemed to enjoy it.
Definitely rummy for us! Tradition to play at every get-together.
My family plays a game called canasta that at least 4 generations of our family has played essentially any time 4 or more of us get together. I love that we have that, and it often is a time to tell stories about the older generations who are no longer with us.
We play Pictionary every year on Christmas and have for the last 20 years at least. We still talk about ridiculous guesses my cousin made for one drawing ten years ago.
Agree 100% I was introduced to the game “Blitz” by my wife’s family. Lots of fun playing with her grandparents. Super easy to learn and always brings about some excellent outbursts. About time for another family card night!
We play euchre and dominoes (race horse or 5-up) and it does make for great conversation and together time!
My family plays Liverpool Rummy every time we are together. It all started with my Granny playing, she then taught all of us, and it became a beloved ritual (and she kicked our butts every. single. time). After our funeral, about 20 of us gathered to play while reminiscing her life. It’s been almost 20 years since she has passed and it is still a game we all love. I can’t wait until my nieces are old enough to join us.
Dutch blitz is my family’s favorite, fast paced but can play for hours.
My in-laws love to play a game called Shanghai. It’s a lot of rules to learn and it’s not something you can get good at quickly. At least for me. And they are very competitive. Whenever they’ve tried to teach me, I just sit there like a crash test dummy waiting for my next mistake. I finally decided to just sit it out and offer my moral support. Ha!
Phase 10 can take hours but so much fun. We’ve had people cry from frustration when they get stuck on a phase but everyone still loves it.
Multigenerational family card games are the best. We have a few that we play every time we get together with my parents. Tripoly is one favorite. It’s good, because it can essentially go as long as you want it to. And you can even make it a low stakes betting game if that’s what your family enjoys. Just play with coins instead of chips.
My family has been playing 31 since before I was born. We play at every gathering and hear the same stories from 35+ years ago about passed relatives and how they would play. I fucking love it.
31 is our family game, we call it scat.
Each player gets 4 “lives” 3 of which are physical coins or bills or chips and the last chance is “on your good looks” or “on your face. If playing for money the winner takes all. We usually play with quarters, but sometimes there will be a late night adult game for 20$ plus per life.
3 cards to each player trying to get 31 points of the same suit, all aces are 11pts, can be played with the jokers as wild cards.
Play goes left of the dealer taking either the discard top card or the fresh card off the deck, then discarding.
If you have 31 you say 31 or scat and all players put a chip/life in the kiddie.
If you think you have more than the lowest count player you can knock on the table. You skip your turn and the rest of the players get one more chance at the cards then showdown. Lowest pays into the kiddie. If you knock and you are low you pay twice.
Last one standing takes all.
Can play this game with lots of people because the card count is so low, and kids can play at any age but usually only takes till about 7yrs old before they get the strategy, so it’s even playing field no matter your age or experience.
My family and friends have been playing a game called “shiptons” also known as “screw your neighbor” for 20 plus years and has reached legendary status for family gatherings. I bid a perfect game the first time I played with my gf/future wife. My cousin’s new bf showed up this Christmas and shattered the family high score on his first game!
You start by dealing out 7 cards (or however many you’d like to start with) to each person then flipping the top card of the remaining deck to reveal what suit is trump for the round.
Then starting left of the dealer, each person bids the exact number of hands or “tricks” they plan on winning (you can bid zero). The dealer bids last and cannot bid the number that would add up to the total # of cards dealt each round (the hand count i.e. In this round whatever number would add up to 7). If the total # of bids exceeds the hand count then the dealer cam bid whatever. This type of bidding means someone is always going to lose each round.
Once the bidding is done the player who bid first (left of the dealer) leads the first trick. You have to follow the suit that was led. If you can’t play the suit that was led, you can choose to trump and attempt to win the hand, or you can dump any other card in your hand. You cannot lead a hand with a trump card until it has been “broken”, meaning someone has to play a trump card during a hand before someone can lead a new hand with a trump (unless you only have trump cards in your hand to play).
At the end of the round you count your tricks.
If you make your bid you get points
Zero bid = 10 points
Every additional trick taken is 5 points (1 trick = 15 points, 2 tricks = 20, 3 = 25 and so forth)
If you miss your bid you get zero points
The next round you deal 1 less card to each person until you only deal out 1 card each. Then you increase the cards given out each round by one until you reach 7 again.
Whoever has the most points at the end is the winner.
So…what’s the game?
Gin rummy and Canasta or Pinochle were the ones that got played at our family gatherings. I remember playing in the other room as a kid and hearing the raucous screams of “the I’ll buy that” or “shoot the moon” lol.
Now it’s only a few of us that get together at holidays ( mom, sister, sometimes others) so we end up playing Phase ten lol
When I was younger I played the card game Rummy with my dad and siblings. This year, my aunt joined us for Christmas dinner, we played rummy, I realised they also played when they were younger, given how both my dad and his sister absolutely hammered me and my sister
Strip poker. Very creepy.
My wife and I dated long distance for about a year. We’d often meet for a weekend in a small town that was halfway between our respective homes.
The drive home was 3 hours for each of us, so on Sundays, we’d check out of the hotel, and then need to kill some time, as we wanted to maximize our time together, but almost nothing was open in the small town.
We found a mall food court that was open from noon to five, so we started hanging out there.
My (soon to be) wife went into the mall drug store and bought a deck of cards, and a huge book of card game rules. She proposed that we spend our time learning some games and I agreed.
We started with Gin Rummy. Then, we kept playing Gin Rummy. We got married, got jobs in the same building, and ate lunch together every day, and after eating, played Gin Rummy.
We’ve been married almost 17 years, and we still play Gin Rummy almost daily.
One of these days, we’ll get around to the second game in the book.
Hand and foot anyone? Interested to hear others rules as we seem to always find new people with different rules. Red 3 counts as 200 against you black 3 counts as 20 against you. Need a natural and unnatural to pick up your foot. Etc. my brother brought it to my parents long ago and they picked it up and traveled across the country with it. Lots of fun.