Valentine’s Day Games for Couples and Families

Likes and Dislikes

This game can help couples get to know each other and can also be used for families or as Valentine’s Day party games.

• Each player writes a list of five things they like and five things they dislike.
• The lists must be truthful but can include things that other players would not be aware of. For example, your family may already know you dislike spiders but may not know you dislike terracotta flower pots.

Couple Version

• If only two players, each partner writes all ten items in one list randomly so the items are mixed between likes and dislikes.
• The couple exchange their lists and try to work out which items are liked and which items are disliked.

Parties or Families Version

• When many players play this game, each player should keep the two lists separate.
• The lists are collected and one person reads the lists while the other players try to guess who wrote each one.

Shepherds and Wolf

This is an unusual two-player board game since each player has a different aim to win the game.

• What you need: a standard chess/checkers board, and five counters or markers (four red and one white; use other colors if you don’t have red and white).
• Player One has the four red counters (the Shepherds) which start on the black squares at one end of the board (the sheep fold).
• The other player has the single white counter (the Wolf) who can start on any other black square.
• Player One moves first and can only move one Shepherd forward diagonally one black square at a time.
• Player Two (the Wolf) then moves two squares diagonally in any direction.
• Neither Shepherds nor Wolf can jump over each other or capture each other.
• The Shepherds try to block the Wolf from having any valid moves (that is, two squares in a diagonal line) while the Wolf tries to get past the Shepherds to the sheep fold.

Guggenheim

Guggenheim is another of those flexible Valentine’s Day games that can be played by couples, families or large groups.

• A keyword of four or five letters (for example, “HEART”) is written down across the top of the page with each letter above a separate column. On the left side of the page are written four to eight categories such as “Color”, “Boy’s Name”, “Flower”, “Country”, and so on.
• Each player must try to find one word for each category starting with the letters of the keyword. For example, the category of “Girl’s Name” could have Harriet, Eve, Andrea, Rachel and Therese.
• After everyone has filled in answers for each column and category (if possible), the answers are compared. Players score one point for any answers on more than one person’s list, and two points for any unique answers.
• The first player to twenty points wins.

Telegrams

Telegrams were used for communication long before telephones, computers and the internet. The cost for sending a telegram was based on the number of words in the message so it was often very abbreviated and did not include punctuation. “STOP” was used to end a phrase or sentence, and all words were CAPITALIZED.

• In this game, players create a telegram-style message based on a 10 to 18 letter word.
• For example, using the word “ Valentine” could produce the message:
  VERY ANCIENT LOVERS EXPECTED NINE TREASURES IN NINE ELEGANT SACKS DESIGNED AS YACHTS –STOP-
• The word “YouAreMySunshine” could become:
  YOUNG OPTIMISTS USUALLY ARE RELIABLE –STOP- EVEN MISERABLE YOUNGSTERS SOMETIMES UPSET NASTY SUPPOSITIONS –STOP- HOPE IN NEARLY EVERYONE –STOP-
• Obviously the telegram messages need to make some sort of sense, but they can be fairly strange! A dictionary may help your creativity.

You can also play any other games for two players as Valentine’s Day games for couples and families, such as Gin Rummy, Alquerque and Reversi, as well as old favorites like chess and checkers. Don’t forget some of the less common card games such as Switch and War.