Board Games for a Family Party

Scrabble is a game of words that both kids and adults can play.scrabble win image by Bionic Media from Fotolia.com

Board games have long been a part of American culture, one that brings family and friends together in the spirit of fun and competition. Playing board games at a party is an activity that everyone can enjoy, kids and adults alike. So gather your neighbors, family and friends for a party, and play board games that everyone can participate in.

Trivial Pursuit

Trivial Pursuit is the classic game where players answer trivia questions from a variety of topics, gathering game pieces as they travel around the board. Split your party guests into teams based on age, gender or other allegiances, and test your knowledge in a trivia competition. Trivial Pursuit games are available in a number of different themes including an '80s edition, family edition, music singles edition, kids edition, team edition and television shows. With so many different variations of the game available, customizing the game to your particular party crowd is a cinch.

Build your vocabulary and have fun at the same time by playing Scrabble at your next party. In Scrabble, players create words from randomly selected lettered tiles placed on a game board. Players build off the words of other players until all tiles are gone. Scrabble is perfect for adults as well as kids because scores are based on placement as well as the complexity of the words. Split your guests into teams or create a tournament-style competition with winners playing each other for the title of Scrabble champion.

Pictionary combines quick thinking and creativity in a game where team members guess a phrase or word from a variety of categories based on the drawings of another team member. Pictionary can be played with as few as four players but can accommodate teams of any size, making it a perfect party game. Don't fear if your drawing skills are less than stellar, you don't have to be a modern-day Picasso to play Pictionary. Stick-figure drawings and badly rendered pictures of a dog might be all your team needs to decode a key phrase.

Cranium is a team game that draws upon various skills of players who must complete challenges in four different categories. Pick your teams carefully because you will need those talented in acting, sculpting, drawing, singing and trivia to become a Cranium champion. There is a version of Cranium available for all age ranges. The original Cranium game is recommended for ages 16 and up. A children's edition is available for ages 7 and up, and a party edition is designed for adults.