This Valentine’s Day, why not host a fun gathering for friends. Here are some simple ideas for groups to have a fun Valentine’s Day together. Your Valentine’s Day board game party does not have to be just for couples, any close friends will have fun and it doesn’t have to feel like a Hallmark greeting card? 
Party games are perfect for a group of people that know each other and just want to have a fun night any time of the year. Party games have the benefit of allowing many guests to play, you can even play them as teams, guests participate in game play often, humor keeps people interested and having fun, all players participate in the game until the end and the games themselves are easy to learn.
The Games:
Truth be Told, by Buffalo Games, is an excellent choice for your Valentine’s Day board game party. I have played this many times with my friends and it’s quick to learn and the scoring is great in that it gives everyone a chance to get points at anytime, not just during their turn. The fun is with the creativity and truth and even some funny bluffing. But who cares who wins anyway, I prefer the laughs, and this game has a lot of laughs.
Blog friend Bayard wrote a nice review at his own blog too.
Tip: I find a simple tissue works the best at erasing the answers.
A couple places you can find this online :
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The following games were suggested by a few of my blog and Facebook friends for groups and couples on Valentine’s Day or any day really.
The Newlywed Game (suggested by Manduh) is an updated board game version of the game show family and friends may remember. The name recognition can help pull them into trying other games.
Battle of the Sexes (suggested by Julie) is a simple fun party game for groups of at least 4 or more to have two teams of 2. I think it works even better with more people.
Pandemic (suggested by Tara) is a pure cooperative board game where 2 to 4 people work as a team to save the world. Cooperative board games have been a rising trend in games and I even wrote a post about co-op games last year.
Lost Cities (suggested by Patrick and Erica) is referred to by many as a couples game. It is a simple to learn short card game with nice art and strategy to keep you coming back.
You can also purchase any of these games at most local game shops to get them quicker. Feel free to leave a comment or email me and I can help you find a game store in your area.
Note : Prices and availability are accurate at the time of this post and do not include shipping costs.
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Games as Snacks:
Nathan suggested Chess for couples to play, but what about Chocolate Chess you can eat after you take a player’s piece? For those that are comfortable with the basics of melting chocolate you can buy molds to make your own playable and edible Chess or Checkers sets. This is a very creative way to play and enjoy some chocolaty goodness. The Confectionary House website has a couple game pieces molds and the baking chocolate pieces to melt. You can melt the chocolate easily in a microwave or a double boiler. I actually use a double boiler for melting chocolate, just don’t get water in with the chocolate as it will burn. I learned the hard way
Chess Pieces candy mold – $2.79
Checker Pieces candy mold – $2.79
Tip: You can even just purchase some baking chocolate and white chocolate discs and use those on a checker board without worrying about molds. These are sold at many grocery stores and chocolate shops for only a few dollars for a small bag.
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Online Invitations:
A couple great ways to get the word out to your friends and collect RSVPs is through online invitations. Evite.com has a wide selection of Valentine’s Day themed invitations to send to all your friends. Facebook also has an easy Event page option where you can invite Facebook and non-Facebook friends and collect RSVPs right there.
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Other Snacks:
Besides purchasing some tasty truffles and other chocolates at your local store it’s fun to melt and make your own chocolate covered strawberries. You could simply purchase some chocolate to melt in a microwave or double boiler, dip some fresh strawberries in the chocolate and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.
Tip: Make sure the strawberries are dry so the chocolate sticks better.
There is also a creative recipe for the swirl chocolate strawberry, pictured here, at the Food Network’s website.
The Family Fun website also has an eye-catching Windowpane Heart cookie recipe for something different… and shiny.
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Decorations:
Some quick and easy ways to set the stage for a Valentine themed party is to :
- simply dim your lights and use candles around the room for a mellow feel
- for a more traditional Valentine’s theme use red, white and pink colors
- balloons on the ceiling with helium or on the ground and balloon arrangements to greet people at the door are a great addition
- cut out paper hearts on the walls and confetti can add to the fun festive mood
- a simple table decoration is to use a white tablecloth and simply sprinkle it with heart confetti, candy hearts and/or candy kisses.
- wrapping hanging pictures and items on your walls in red or pink wrapping paper can help decorate your walls easily.
For a less traditional Valentine’s Day theme try to take inspiration from the romantic misty forests scenes and mysterious gray cloudy color palettes used in the Twilight movies.
- for more of the misty feel try long gray plush drapes from the ceiling and over windows and candles in various sizes in different groupings with a woodsy scent.
- you can also add some rich dark sheets of red or black and mixed with a rich cream to give a romantic victorian feel
- add some candles, rose petals and roses and spread some dark chocolates and truffles around
You can grab some last minute Valentine’s Day decorations at your local Party City.
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Get more game night ideas and join in the discussion at the Buffalo Games Facebook Fan Page
Here is a very easy Jenga themed game night snack I saw at the Party Planning Professor. This is a snack I want to make for a future game night with a bunch of friends. A mini Jenga tower of cheese blocks. You can make the tower smaller or larger depending on the amount of people.
Just get two blocks of different cheeses to help make the tower look more varied. Depending on the size of the blocks you may want to split them in half and then start cutting rectangular shaped blocks that look like Jenga pieces.
Then just add your favorite crackers or an assortment of different crackers and put a cheese knife out for people to cut smaller cubes for the crackers.
For those that want to be more precise, a Jenga block is about 3″ long by 1″ deep by 1/2″ tall.
More easy creative game night snacks
Photo by Elizabeth Norton
Last summer I posted an article about many different board game tshirts. I still receive email about it and alot of visitors to that post. So when I was watching the video podcast show Totally Rad Show I saw one of the hosts Jeff Cannata wearing a new funny Settlers of Catan tshirt design by Bustedtees.com saying “yes we Catan” and figured many of you may be interested.
“…we can truly build the Longest Road.”
.Note: For more board game related news and goodies like this, send me a happy friend request at my Facebook page where I update regularly with quick links to things I don’t have time to post about here at the blog.
After about a week of working on the new blog design everything is basically done and coming together with the new elements and look. I’ll babble about a few of the elements below and why I blindly did what I did
Space -
The new design offers more space for me to place pictures that are almost double the size of the old design (seen above). This way you do not have to click on them to see them larger because they are already larger. Also more space for the text so you don’t have to scroll as much. The right side is also wider so I can highlight some great links to blog categories and other websites. I also have more room now to add more page options under the header.
Comments-
A comment option is right at the top of the post now too and more prominent. I like reading your comments after all.
Color-
I kept the basic color scheme from the older blog design of the green and the background color. The colors are a little faded and have a retro feel. This brings me to the visual style.
Visual style-
The old design had aspects of a retro revival feel but I’ve gone with more of that feel with the new header and title. Many people emailed me that they enjoyed the illustration style from the old design and I too felt that style fit and set it apart from other blogs. Also, on a personal note, when I think of game nights I think back to my own childhood and seeing those old board game box designs with their 60’s images and design sense. Those were fun times and with game nights seeing a revival and the retro design style seeing a revival in mainstream design this is a nice fit.
Header-
I wanted to make sure the header was more fun and reflect the content of the blog so when a new visitor comes to the blog, no matter what post brought them here, they will see the header and know what the blog is about. I may tweak the header a little more.
Title-
To go along with the retro look I made up a design to fit. It still keeps the same basic layout and design elements of the old title design but now has some retro elements to make it “fit”.
I’ll still be adding content and a few more tweaks visually and behind the scenes but it is finally done and I can start reading other blogs and Facebook updates and such again So let me know what you think. Constructive thoughts and opinions and even a quick comment are appreciated.
With a fresh new year I am adding a fresh new face to the blog. For the past couple weeks I’ve been tinkering with ideas and styles and over the next week or so you’ll be seeing things visually changing. I’ll still keep the fun illustrated look to images I add but I want to allow more room for content, larger pictures and widgets (like the links and such) on the right side. This will allow the content to shine and the blog to grow. Looking at the stats, this blog has been around for about 2 1/2 years. I thank the regular readers as well as the daily visitors and growing online gaming community for inspiring me to keep going. I look forward to molding the blog through 2010.
Look for the header and things to be all done next week sometime.
