Family night ideas include fun games and activities any family can enjoy together at home or in their neighborhood. Whether you’ve got toddlers or grandparents to entertain, family nights are the perfect family bonding activities.
Family Night Ideas With Toddlers
When you’ve got little kids, learning how to have fun with your family at home is priceless. Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers don’t stay up too late and often get cranky at night, so finding fun in and around your home is often the best option.
Free and Cheap Family Night Ideas for Little Kids
Free and fun family activities are great for this age group because little kids already require a lot of money for necessary items. Toddlers especially enjoy things they aren’t supposed to do or play with, so give them novel experiences, and they’ll be thrilled.
- Play flashlight hide-and-seek in the house.
- Create an indoor drive-in movie by pushing the couch aside and sitting in pillow-lined laundry baskets to watch a show.
- Use painter’s tape to map out a road around one floor of your house, then play cars together.
- Outline each family member on the floor using painter’s tape. Find clothes and accessories to lay on top of the outlines to dress the people.
- Craft and serve custom drinks by giving your child small cups of a few different drinks like juice, soda, and lemonade. Each family member can make and name a new drink, then everyone votes on their favorite.
- Start a family band using items from around the house like pots and pans. Let the kids pick their favorite song, then try playing and singing it together.
- Have a playdough guessing game where you each fashion creations out of playdough and guess what each other made.
- Have a dance party using a speaker with a built-in light show or a disco ball and make up new dance moves to teach each other.
- Watch a movie somewhere weird, like while sitting in the empty bathtub together or laying in a pillow fort.
- Set up your own bowling alley using 16-ounce plastic cups or empty pop bottles as your pins and any softer toy ball.
- Play your family’s favorite board games.
Elaborate Family Night Ideas for Little Kids
If you’ve got a little more spending money, kids who don’t get too cranky in the evening, or aren’t afraid to make a mess, you can try out some more elaborate family night ideas.
- Go on a holiday decoration scavenger hunt in your car by driving around town looking for great displays at Christmas or Halloween.
- Head to the nearest railroad tracks and watch for trains to pass by. Bring snacks and train-themed coloring pages to keep kids busy while you wait, then count the cars when one appears.
- Create your own indoor water park if you have one of those large walk-in showers. Throw on your bathing suits, turn off the lights, and bring glow sticks and water toys into the shower to play.
- Build a teepee out of sticks and branches in the woods, then sit inside and play a card game.
- Use snow tools like brick molds to make an igloo in the backyard.
- Fill water balloons and squirt guns with colored water and create snow art by playing with the water toys in the snow-covered yard.
- Use a kit to build a simple rocket that launches using baking soda and vinegar, then take it outside to launch again and again.
- Make your own pizzas using unique and creative ingredients.
- Go camping in the backyard. Set up tents, build a fire, and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.
Family Night Ideas With School-Aged Kids
Elementary-aged children have very definitive ideas about what they like, so look for family night ideas that play to their interests. Since they’re older, you’ll be able to try out activities that take up more time.
Free and Cheap Family Night Ideas for School-Aged Kids
Willing parents are pretty much all kids need to have fun as a family. Think outside the box and look for activities that are really creative and fun.
- Invent your own family board game and play it.
- Have a fun family photoshoot where each person gets the chance to create the backdrop and choose everyone’s outfits.
- Make a family trip wish list in a notebook or on a map of all the places you’d like to visit together. Hop on a computer or iPad and research the top three places.
- Set up a s’mores buffet and use an outdoor fire pit to roast marshmallows. Make each other unique s’mores by replacing the chocolate bar with other candy bars and ingredients. Which one is the sweetest, the most clever, and the most delicious?
- Play a group phone game that gets you moving, like Pokémon Go or Wizards Unite.
- On warm summer evenings, have a real water war in the yard where each person has a home base, and use water balloons, squirt guns, and even buckets of water.
- Have a Nerf gun fight indoors or outside. Make sure you stock up on Nerf darts and keep them in buckets around the play area.
- Make a ninja warrior course inside or outside using furniture, kiddie pools, and other DIY obstacles.
- Break into two teams and go on the ultimate nature scavenger hunt. See which team finishes first.
- Make a family time capsule.
- Play a hilarious game of charades.
Elaborate Family Night Ideas for Older Kids
Kids in this age group like to feel independent and want a say in how they spend their free time. That said, some of their ideas won’t come cheap. If you have the funds and the time to devote to making their family night dreams come true, let them take the reigns and plan your family night.
