Ancestor Pictionary (or Charades)

Pull out those Ancestor Cards and challenge your family to a new twist on a classic guessing game!

Over Christmas break my little nuclear family was blessed to spend time with extended family for meals, music, games, and many favorite old traditions. We also tried a sprinkling of activities that were brand new and one of these involved the use of our Ancestor Cards.

The idea was simple: why not try to play Pictionary but use our Ancestor Cards as the prompts? The resulting play was SO fun and SO hilarious that my kids keep requesting a repeat!

I imagine that that every family will come up with “House Rules” of their own to suit their players. This is what we did to set up and play with a group of eight:

1. Place one complete deck of Ancestor Cards in trading card binder sleeves. We organized by colored suit and number.
2. Shuffle another complete deck of Ancestor Cards for use as the “prompts.”
3. Grab a whiteboard, markers, and a timer.
4. Divide your group into two teams. Let the guessing team hold the binder.
5. Set the timer for two minutes and tell the first “Artist” when it’s time to draw. He/she will take the top card from the shuffled deck and do their best to draw any clue to get their teammates to guess the Ancestor on their card.
6. Keep playing until the timer runs out! Sometimes this may mean a team gets through several Ancestor Cards successfully….Other times, not so much.
7. Take turns between teams and between players so all have a chance to draw. We generally play until each player has two turns as “Artist”, but you could set a goal for points for “the win” or cap it off at half an hour of play or even try to make it all the way through your deck(s)!

Our family has not been into tracking points, but if your family likes the competitive element you can easily build that into your play. We also allowed use of the bindered Ancestor Cards by players of all ages at any time. You could of course do without such an aid entirely. Or you could limit its use to the youngest players or to the last 30 seconds of each round, for example.

One more thought/twist to consider: If Pictionary with Ancestor Cards is fun, why not try Charades? Or blend the two (as we often do).

I’m sure that you will quickly find what works and doesn’t work for your crowd. My only advice:

Keep it fun!

After all, the point is to connect family members, right? In a game setting like this there is potential for players to connect with one another AND with their deceased ancestors.

What are you waiting for?? Gather some family around and give it a try!

And please comment below with your own ideas for playing Pictionary/Charades with Ancestor Cards 🙂