Fun Family Activities for a Friday Night at Home

When the long, cold nights of winter take up residence, you may find yourself stuck at home on a Friday night with nothing much to do.  And when the whole family is shut up indoors the situation can quickly boil over as people get bored.  So you may be looking for something fun to take your mind off the long work week and reconnect with your family (rather than letting everyone wander off to their own rooms).  Luckily, there are a lot of ways to get together and alleviate the boredom of a Friday night spent at home.  Here are a few ideas you might want to put into action.

1.       Movie marathon.  Order out for pizza, pop up some corn, or get a healthy blaze going in the fireplace to make s’mores.  Then put on PJs and snuggle up for a marathon of your favorite movies.  You can opt for a classic trilogy like The Godfather (if your kids are old enough) or Lord of the Rings (if you want to be up all night).  But you might also consider choosing a genre or a preferred actor and pre-ordering a few of your faves from Netflix in preparation for your night in.  Let the kids participate in the selection process if you want to ensure that you hold their interest for the evening.

2.       Game night.  If you haven’t busted out the old-school board games in a while, this is a great time to dust them off and play a round of Monopoly, Scrabble, or Jenga.  Of course, there are also a whole host of newer games that you would probably enjoy having in your collection, such as Cranium, Pictureka, and Apples to Apples, and they might draw more interest from the kids than the same old tired games they’ve played a hundred times.  But if you really want to get your children on board, why not opt for a modern twist by playing video games?  DDR and Rock Band have short turns (so players can rotate often) and Rock Band allows for several players at once.  But if music isn’t your thing you could always opt for FPS or racing games instead.

3.       Cook a gourmet meal.  Cooking can be a lot of fun when everyone pitches in.  So get input from the whole family and then select a gourmet menu of new recipes to try.  Everyone can get something they like as well as sample a dish they’ve never had before.  And the kids will begin to learn a necessary life skill.

4.       Star gazing.  You don’t necessarily need a telescope to gaze at the heavens, especially with computers and tablets to help you pinpoint the constellations.  So bundle up and head to the backyard with a carafe of hot chocolate in tow for a night of looking into the sky and naming the stars.

5.       Create a family holiday gift.  While some families get crafty making personalized cards or ornaments to send to loved ones for the holidays, you can up the ante by creating a video scrapbook.  All you have to do is upload your family videos from the year, download some free editing software, and then put together a clip reel (complete with music, titles, and so on).  Then it’s just a matter of DVD duplication to create copies of your family’s “year in retrospect” to send to extended family and friends.  It’s a one-of-a-kind gift that everyone is sure to love and your whole family can play a role, from editing clips to creating labels and colorful packaging (plus you’ll get a jump on holiday gifts!).