10 car games to make holiday travels fun

“Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go. The horse knows the way …”

Cue sound of screeching tires. Enough already!

Do you really think endless renditions of this seasonal chestnut are going to keep today’s kids occupied on a lengthy holiday car journey to visit the relatives?

All righty then. Now that we’re back to Realsville from our brief sojourn in a winter wonderland, it’s time to consider what really will lead to a happy family car trip, 2011-style. (We’re not talking about perpetual DVDs cycling through the player or keeping everyone isolated via earbuds, either.)

Here are Hong Kong Auto Service’s top 10 picks for a fun ride:

License Plates
What a great way to reinforce your kids’ knowledge of the 50 states. Using black-and-white U.S. map printouts, each player colors in a state with a crayon after spotting its license plate. Get advanced by requiring players to name each state’s capital, too.

Counting Cows
Players count the cows on their side of the car. Pass a cemetery and call out “your cows are buried” to force the other players to lose their cows. Distracting each other is OK, too. Mix it up a bit by adding a white horse as a bonus. For older kids, settle a tie-breaker by asking players to name all the things made from cow’s milk: cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc.

Cards
Your standard deck of cards can prove amazingly versatile, whether you show your kids how to play Crazy Eights, Old Maid or Go Fish. Absolutely prohibited: 52 Pickup.

Virtual Hide and Seek
Imagine yourself in a particular place in your home. The cool thing is, unlike the real game, you can be any size (think Alice in Wonderland), so any location is fair game: the kitchen junk drawer, the garbage disposal, the toilet (remember the Ty-D-bol man?). Other players ask yes/no questions, such as “are you in the laundry room?” until your location is narrowed. Children will love this game because they can use their imaginations to create hiding places they’d never be able to use in actuality.

Books on Disc (or Tape)
OK, we’re going to rely on modern technology for this one, which is ideally suited for nighttime driving. The list of great literary works and favorite children’s stories available on CD is seemingly endless. Old-time radio shows also are great fun and encourage kids and adults alike to rely on their mind’s eye to illustrate the sounds around them.

Scavenger Hunt
Each player receives a list of items to locate along the road. The first player who spots all items on the list wins. Difficulty level can be adjusted to include kids of all ages and customized for each trip—city, suburban or rural—and feature such items as a flashing red light, dog, playground, church, statue, silo or tractor.

Tell a Tale
Talk about creativity. The first player starts telling a story to the others. At any point, the narrator stops talking (even mid-sentence) and the second player must pick up the tale. Each player continues building the story until it reaches a logical (or illogical) conclusion.

Paper Bag Mystery
Place a mystery object inside a small paper bag and secure the top with a rubber band. Each player then guesses at what’s inside. Perplexed players may shake, smell or feel the bag. The player who solves mystery item gets to put something in the mystery bag.

Sign Language Game
Need a little peace and quiet? Don’t feel guilty: Improve your children’s spelling and sharpen their concentration by teaching them some finger-spelling sign language. Tell them that during the next 10 to 15 minutes, they only can use sign language to communicate with each other.

Skeletons
One player calls out the letters on a passing car’s license plate. Other players take turns thinking up words that include those letters in the same order. For example, “HMG” might be “hamburger” or “GRD” might “grandma.” It doesn’t matter how many other letters need to be added to the original three, so long as they remain in the correct sequence. Any player who can’t think of a word within a set amount of time—such as a minute—is out.