Spending time with your family is not only good for your relationships but also great for your health, family time is proven to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety and improve levels of happiness. Studies reveal smiling helps professional standing and that it is even the embodiment of lasting relationships. Family time is important to many however day trips and family vacations can be difficult to organize, particularly if you are limited by a tight budget or busy family schedules.

Thankfully, there are a huge number of ways you can enjoy some quality time at home. Finding fun activities that everybody will enjoy can sometimes require some creative thinking. Here are a few simple family activity ideas that you may want to consider:

Have A Themed Movie Night

This first activity is something that the whole family will enjoy. There is a variety of movie genres to choose from, so plan your evening’s movie theme around them.

For instance, buy a few horror films picked from a streaming site or DVD collection, and it could be paired with spooky-themed nibbles and scary fancy dress. Or for wizarding fans, why not watch the entire box set of Harry Potter and dress in the colors of your chosen Hogwarts House.

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One tip for movie nights is to choose the films in advance of your planned time, this will help to avoid arguments and delays during the evening. You can always take a vote or pick films from a hat to keep things fair.

Have A Games Night

Another fun at-home activity is a games night. Get out all the board games and card games you have out of the cupboard and select a few to play throughout the evening.

For the adults, games such as blackjack and poker can good fun. If you are unfamiliar with these then you can easily find the rules and hand combinations in poker in advance. Other family favorites include charades, pictionary and jenga.

To keep things interesting, you can even assign prizes for winners such as a week off doing chores.

Build A Fort

Fancy getting creative with the family? You can build yourselves a fort in the lounge using whatever materials you have to hand, this might include blankets, chairs, cardboard boxes and cushions. You are only limited by your imagination!

You might even decide to combine this with another activity such as a movie night. Bring your laptop or tablet inside the fort and huddle together to watch a movie in your new space.

Host A Cooking Class Or Competition

Perhaps one of your family members is known for cooking the best pies or pasta dishes. They could be put in charge of hosting a cooking class to show the rest of the family how its done.

Alternatively, if you’re a competitive bunch you might wish to have a bake-off or cooking competition. Who can make the best pizza using whatever toppings you have in the refrigerator.

For this activity you ideally need to plan a shopping list and pick up the ingredients. However, if that isn’t possible you can always experiment with whatever food you have to hand and try to invent a new dish.

Camp In The Backyard

There is a range of activities you can do as a family outdoors as well, you will need some suitable equipment and good weather. Camping doesn’t always need to be in a new destination, buying a tent for your backyard is a fun way to enjoy the great outdoors at home.

You may also wish you have a campfire or barbeque and cook up some food to keep you going. Camping is a great way to practice teamwork as you will need to work together to set your tents.

Make A Time Capsule

Making a time capsule is a lovely idea that gives you (or future generations) some great memories to look back on in the future. Find a container that can withstand the elements and fill it with items that have some meaning to you in the present.

These might be pictures of the family, written notes, fashion items or CDs with current music on them. You can then agree on a date that the capsule will be retrieved and opened if you plan to look back on it in the future.

Then you will need to find a place to put it, this might involve burying it in the yard or putting it up in the attic or basement for someone to find in decades to come. Time capsules can help people in the future to learn about what life was like in the past and teach them about what their relatives were like when they were younger.

Have An Indoor Or Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

One final idea could be a scavenger hunt, this can be done indoors or outdoors depending on what space you have and the weather conditions at the time. One person will be in charge of putting together a list of items that the others must find and then the rest of the family will head off to collect as many things as they can.