During the holiday season, people hit the roads and travel to spend time with the ones they love. If you are planning a holiday road trip, you may be thinking about ways to pass the time with your family.
Here are three traditional games that you can play in your car while you are on your holiday road trip.
The Alphabet Game
The alphabet game is an easy game to play to help you pass time on your holiday road trip. The game has simple rules that you can modify if desired. The basic rules including finding each letter of the alphabet in order on road signs, billboards, or even other vehicles as you are driving. You start with the letter “A.” Once that letter has been spotted, you move onto the letter “B.” Each player is responsible for finding every letter of the alphabet on their own, and players cannot use the same letter once it has been claimed by another player. For instance, if a billboard has the letter “B” on it, only one player can use that “B” and the others will have to find their “B” elsewhere. The game continues until each letter of the alphabet has been spotted. If one player gets way ahead of the others, the game will usually get tight again when the letter “Q” is reached, as it is notoriously the hardest letter to find. This game can be played individually or the family can play collectively together.
The License Plate Game
Another simple game that you can play while you are in the car on a holiday road trip is the license plate game. Prior to hitting the roads, print out maps of the United States. Give each passenger a map. When they spot a license plate from a different state, they can cross out or color in the state on their map. The first person to find all of the states, or the person who has the most states crossed out at the end of the road trip, wins.
Here is a printable map from the folks at Little Schoolhouse in the Suburbs
The Counting Game
If you have smaller children traveling in your car, or you are looking for a simple game to help everyone in the car stay alert, consider playing the counting game. You can pick to count anything that you may see frequently on your drive, including cows, stalled cars on the side of the road, police cars, or your favorite fast food chain. As you are driving, the person who spots the items starts by yelling one. The next time the item is spotted, someone yells out two. The game continues until you tire of the game, change the item you are counting or you reach your destination. You can also make the game more competitive by having each person keep track of how many of the items they spotted. The person to reach 10 (or whatever number you choose) first, wins.
Playing games on a holiday road trip can help make it feel like time is going by faster and help you to stay alert while you are driving. Preparing a list of games to play is not the only step you should take prior to hitting the road. It is important to have a pre-trip inspection of your car performed, to ensure your car is safe and ready to go. Here at CAMS automotive, we can help you with all of your auto maintenance and repair needs. Call us or use our online tool to book a pre-trip vehicle inspection with us today.
