“Board games bring out the worst in me."

Every Christmas in my family the board games get dusted off and we indulge in really long games such as Monopoly.  Today, in attempt to get all my friends together in the daytime…rather than huddled together at the pub on a night when it’s freezing cold and we all have to walk home moaning…I hosted what I called ‘Christmas Game Day’.

This consisted of six friends eating junk food, drinking tea and ploughing through a various board games.  We started with Pop-up Pirate, moved to Mouse Trap, then Scattergories and finally…the big one…Monopoly.

The first few were fine, kids games after all, but then it got serious.  After Scattergories we actually had to break for lunch to, in my friends words, “calm down a bit before Monopoly”.  I guess she needed it because after a full on sulk and a period of continuously shouting at her boyfriend because he was “cheating” she announced “board games bring out the worst in me…I hate Monopoly.”  She quite promptly lost all of her money and properties and was out…though not before me, by the time I’d made it once round the board everybody else had lapped me at least twice and brought all the properties.  I really stood no chance.

It was funny, however, that when I logged onto Facebook afterwards I read a status that said: “Lauren finds it funny that a game of Payday with her sisters can turn into a war.”  Not just us then…so why on Earth do we all turn to board games at Christmas when they are never used any other time of the year? 

I suppose it’s because it’s cold and nobody can be bothered to go out, the television is rubbish and there is something so uniting and rustic about sitting down with your friends and family and just spending time together.  No need for alcohol (though it always makes game day funnier), no need for a treacherous icy walk home in the pitch black and no need for electricity really.  If you ignore the fact we had the radio on and by 3pm the lights were required to see the games…stupid clocks going back!

Since we finished every one of my guests has text to say thank you for a wonderful time.  Don’t think I’ve ever had that when I’ve hosted a party…looks like I’ve found a niche with which to entertain people in their early twenties.  Some feat really.