How to Host a Weekly Game Night

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, MARS Wrigley Confectionery. All opinions are mine alone. #RaiseTheChocolateBar #CollectiveBias

Every Friday, my husband and I host a game night with good friends. We are so lucky that they live nearby and are willing to let us host at our house, which makes it easy to put our kid to bed and still enjoy late-night games!

We usually trade off on who cooks or brings dinner, or we can order delivery for those really busy weeks. But the consistency of weekly game night has done wonders for our souls.

Want to host your own weekly game night? Here are some ideas to get you started!

Step 1: Gather your games

After dinner, we’ll set up a strategy game, like Settlers of Catan, Azul, or Century Spice Road (a new favorite). Sometimes we go on long stretches playing the same game, and we love it! Other times, we’ll invite more friends and mix it up with a big-group game like Seven Wonders.

• No pressure party games: If you are inviting new game players who aren’t into really strategic games, maybe start with a fun party game like Scattergories, Balderdash, or charades.
• Beginner strategy games: Some introductory and easy-to-learn options for adult strategy games are Splendor, Camel Up, and King Domino.
• Advanced strategy games: Looking for more advanced games for experienced game players? Some other favorites that we’ve played are Pandemic Legacy, Suburbia, and Dominion.

Step 2: Shop for treats

Next, the treats come out! Our go-to and easiest-ever treat is chocolate bars, but we’ve also done birthday cakes (depending on the occasion), ice cream, or homemade cookies. Most recently, we served scoops of cookies & cream flavored ice cream with bits of M&M’S® Milk Chocolate chocolate bar on top.

These bars are new at Walmart, and they are ideal for sharing. They are easy to cut or break into bite-size pieces. And surprise! Each bar is filled with colorful M&M’S® minis!

They come in 5 fun flavors, and each one has M&M’S® Minis inside a big 4-ounce bar. We all thought the Milk Chocolate version was just perfect! The blue-wrapped M&M’S® Crispy Chocolate Bar is filled with crisp rice plus the M&M’S® Minis, and the addition of peanuts to the M&M’S® Peanut Chocolate Bar is super yummy.

Shop Dove and M&Ms at Walmart

Step 3: Set up a hot beverage bar

I also picked up some M&M’S® Almond Chocolate Bar at Walmart, to add to our hot beverage bar. We regularly keep a stash of flavored hot chocolate and tea bags near our coffee station, which we can pull out for game night! My husband, the resident coffee drinker, always makes sure there’s coffee, too.