Birthday Boardgame

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Adding Real Candy to Candyland

This is the kind of children’s activity I only do for birthdays because it requires special trips to the store. I had the idea a while ago and couldn’t believe I had never thought of it before. We finally got the chance to do it for Casey and Zach’s birthday.

Special Notes About Some Candy:

• Gingerbread Plumb Tree: I used graham crackers because gingerbread is hard to come by in autumn, but then a saw a whole bin of mini gingerbread men at the Bulk Barn!
• Candy Canes: I happened to have a bunch of candy canes from last Christmas, but you can find straight candy cane sticks at the bulk barn all year round.
• Glop the Molasses Swamp Monster: I used chocolate for the molasses mud because the picture could totally be chocolate and I don’t know many kids hankering for molasses these days. The kids suggested I could have used Nutella, since it’s more like mud.
• Peanut Brittle: You can find this at Sobey’s or Millcreak chocolate all year round.

Results

They had so much fun getting to try the candy as their pieces arrived at each character. They were allowed to sample two or three pieces of each candy (one a turn) while their character was beside the picture. After about three moves they were usually past any given candy station.

Ice cream cones were a wonderful grand finale, after arriving at the ice cream castle (They each got a small spoonful of ice cream for passing “Queen Frostine”).

I found it worked best for me to hand them the cards that would keep them all pretty close to each other in the game. That way, no one felt stressed at being left behind in either the game or the candy sampling. The kids saw me doing this and were totally fine with it.

Conclusion

This game made a birthday night at home with the family feel really special. Fun was had by all. Mere drawings of candy on the board will never quite feel the same again!