For almost a full year, everyone has been in quarantine, cooped up in their home home with families or roommates. Throughout quarantine, people have had a lot more time on their hands than usual, with many running quickly out of ideas for activities. A great option is watching movies or playing some games. Here are some great options to partake in with your family. 

Among Us has recently gained a lot of popularity and is currently one of the most popular games around the world. Among Us is an entertaining way to pass time with family and friends or even online with random people. In the game Among Us, there is one team called the “Crewmates” while the other team is called the “Imposters.” The Crewmates’ goal is to get the Imposters voted out of the game and to finish their tasks. Some tasks include connecting wires, swiping an admin card and downloading some data. The goal of the Imposters is to eliminate the Crewmates. The Crewmates win when they vote off the Imposters or if all the crewmates complete their tasks. This game is a great game to play with your household family and with family members who live in a different city or across the country. Among Us is free to play on mobile but costs five dollars for PC, which is generally cheap for a video game. Unfortunately, it is not on the Xbox or any Playstation consoles. 

A fantastic board game that takes up time and is fun to play with family is Monopoly. Monopoly is about buying properties, building houses and trading properties with who you are playing. Monopoly only requires two players and can have up to four players. You can buy Monopoly on Amazon for 25 dollars.

 An excellent card game to play is UNO. UNO is a color card game where the main objective is to be the first player with no cards. This is one of my favorite games to play with my family because you can give your sibling or your father a draw four when they have one card left, to keep them from winning. 

Another popular board game to play with your family is Clue. Clue is a detective game that can be played by three to six players a game. The game’s objective is to solve the mystery of who committed the murder. In order to do so, players must determine where the murder took place and with what object. Players must move from room to room in a mansion and make accusations against other players. The best part of this game is that it can be found on Amazon for only eight dollars.

However, if you do not like playing board games there is something else that you can do with your family and friends. You can watch some of the best Christmas movies with them, with these suggestions to keep in mind. One classic movie you can watch with anyone is The Nightmare Before Christmas. Some people may argue that The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween movie but it is really both a Christmas and Halloween movie since it has both elements of those holidays. The first part of the movie is focused on Halloween and the second half is more focused on Christmas. In the first part of  the movie it shows Jack Skellington home. His home consists of very dark tones.  His town’s occupants are all monsters and look similar to halloween costumes. Everyone who is there celebrates Halloween all the time. The second part shows Jack Skellington discovering the holiday Christmas. He finds presents, reindeers and Santa Claus. He wants to be Sanat for that year and goes around giving his own presents. This movie follows Jack Skellington and his journey on learning more about Christmas. This movie is available on Disney+ or on DVD. 

Another excellent film to watch is 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This movie stars Jim Carrey as the Grinch and revolves around the Grinch and his relationship with Christmas. It shows the Grinch’s past life as a child all the way up to adulthood. It also shows  what he has suffered throughout his schooling years, friends and Christmas wise!It shows how he comes to love Christmas after hating it for years. Overall, this movie is a great movie for Christmas and it is a great family movie to watch. You can watch this movie on Netflix or if you have the DVD. 

One of the best movies to watch during Christmas is Home Alone. Macaulay Culkin plays the main character Kevin McCallister, a child who accidentally gets left at his home by his family when they go on their Christmas vacation. It shows Kevin enjoying life home alone and dealing with two robbers trying to rob his house. This movie personally is one of my favorite Christmas movies of all time. You can watch this movie on Disney+ or if you have the DVD. 

These board games and movies are amazing to play and watch with family and friends during the lockdown. In my opinion, the best game to play with family and friends is Uno because you can play competitively or casually and it is fun either way. My favorite Christmas movie is Home Alone as I find it very entertaining and it is overall just a classic. Stay safe, and have a Happy Holidays.