Garden Leisure

3 brilliant outdoor games to play this summer

Posted on by admin
outdoor games
11
Aug

Climate change means we’re due more heatwaves, and they’ll be more intense. It’s time for some outdoor games to help us enjoying our gardens more than ever.

It’s fantastic meeting up with friends and family outdoors to chat, tell tall tales, and catch up with the gossip. It’s great fun to sink some cold beers, enjoy a few chilled Proseccos, or take fancy coffees outside. The fun hits a different level when you add outdoor cooking to the entertainment menu. So how about some very cool outdoor games to add even more spice to the occasion? We particularly like these…

One of the best BIG outdoor games – Garden Jenga

Thanks to Wilfirs for the fab Mega Garden Jenga image.

Regular Jenga is a hoot. Mega Garden Jenga is even more of a grin. If you haven’t played before it’s simple, so perfect when you’ve hoovered up too many drinks to do anything complicated! The idea is to take turns sliding a block out of the tower, then placing it back on the top.

Some of them are easier to pull out than others, and things get wobblier as the tower gets taller. Ultimately it falls down. For some reason it’s very satisfying as well as funny.

The set in the photo is sitting on grass but it’s actually better on a firm surface like a patio or deck, or on a flat surface on top of the grass.

Laugh ’til you cry with Twister

Invented in 1966, Twister has been making people of every age laugh ourselves silly for almost sixty years. Players spin the board, which tells everyone where their hands and feet need to go on the dotty plastic sheet. The longer you play, the more tangled the players get, until everyone falls over. It’s such a simple idea but it’s hilarious, no wonder everyone loves it. Play as individuals or compete in teams.

Thanks to Classic Board Games for the image, which they found on Amazon.

If there’s loads of you, buy multiple Twister games, set the plastic sheets up in a row, and let the madness begin 😉

An old indoor and outdoor games favourite – play Snap

SNAP! The word alone makes us smile. Playing the game makes us smile even harder. Everyone can play snap, whatever age they are. It takes no brainpower at all, just fast reactions. Do we need to tell you how? It’s unlikely, but let’s do it anyway just in case. You’ll need a pack of cards for every six players. The more people play, the more manic and exciting it gets.

  • The dealer deals all the cards face-down
  • Nobody looks at their cards
  • Starting with the player to the dealer’s left, you take turns flipping the top card from your pile and putting it face-up in front of you
  • You keep on flipping until one of you turns over a card with the same rank as the top card on someone else’s pile, for example a three
  • The first person to shout ‘snap’ takes both people’s piles with the matching cards and puts them face down underneath their own heap
  • If tow of you shout snap at the same time, you put two piles with the same card together, face-up, in middle of the table
  • You all keep flipping your top cards until one of you gets one that matches the top card on the pile in the middle of the table
  • Shout ‘snap pool’ first and you win the whole pile
  • The one who ends up with all the cards wins

We recommend buying outsized decks of playing cards for outdoor snap. It makes the whole thing even sillier, so it’s even funnier. If you find yourself screaming ‘slab’ or ‘trap’ when you see a matching card, that’s what happens when you’re so excited you can’t speak properly or think straight!

Thanks to Bonanza.com for the image of giant playing cards. Very cool.

What’s your favourite outdoor game?

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