christmas lights bingo

A new tradition established

Social media can really suck, especially during the holidays. People are either bitching about how busy they are, sharing creative Elf on the Shelf ideas that I will never attempt (because I’m 100% uncommitted to those little shits), or showing photos of people enjoying alcoholic drinks that I can’t have right now due to my 9 month sobriety challenge. I will caveat this negativity with the fact that I am hormonal right now so that could be the cause for my current dislike of FB. However, I must thank this time-sucking vortex for introducing me to what is now a likely new Curtin Family tradition: the Christmas Lights Bingo game.

It’s really simple. You print out bingo cards (which I’ve expertly designed with my limited PowerPoint skills), drive around, and look at lights. I’m not explaining to you how to play Bingo. If you don’t know, google it. But dear God, what rock have you been living under?

Anyways, we drove around the other night before dinner, drinking hot chocolate, and playing Christmas music as we tried out this game. We are very fortunate to live in a larger community with people that decorate and also doubly fortunate to have a golf cart so my heart could rest easy on not contributing to climate change with my unnecessary gas usage.

We decided to play for a prize, since what’s the point of winning if you don’t get anything? Since we decided to play more than one round, the prize if my girls won (ages 12 and 8) was to stay up 5 extra minutes that night past bed time. If I won, I got 2 minutes of hair brushing from each of them. Yes, I LOVE to have my hair brushed. It’s so relaxing and gives me tingles. The best. So I make my kids do it any time they want something.

We ended up playing 3 rounds and I didn’t win one. Figures. But, the time we all spent riding around, looking for random objects like a burnt out string of lights or the elusive nativity scene (only 1 in our neighborhood), was a little bit magical. Wanted to share with you all and give you the chance to adopt this tradition as your own.

Feel free to print out the cards I made and play with your fam.

Recommendations for Playing Christmas Lights Bingo

1. Get plastic sheet protectors and put your bingo cards in them. The sheets are like $3 for a 25 pack at Target. I had some at the house because my kids always seem to have them on their school supplies list, yet never use them. Using the sheet protectors makes it so you can play multiple rounds using the same card. You’ll also need a dry erase marker for everyone playing.
2. Bring a wet paper towel or wipes to clear your cards after each round. I didn’t bring any so we used my spit and the gloves I had on. Gross, but effective. Lesson learned.
3. Have a judge. It eliminates arguments. My husband was the driver so it was perfect to have him call the shots. Even though I didn’t agree with some of his opinions. It was fair.
4. Bring a little flashlight or wear light up Christmas necklaces. It was hard to see the cards sometimes.
5. Come up with a prize that can be given during multiple rounds. Small things like 5 extra minutes of tech time or you choose dinner tonight. Whatever you want. I just don’t find games like this as fun without the competition that a prize creates.