Happy Families

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Happy Families is a traditional card game, usually with a specially made set of picture cards, featuring illustrations of fictional families of four, most often based on occupation types. The object of the game is to collect complete families. The player whose turn it is asks another player for a specific card from the same family as a card that the player already has. If the asked player has the card, he gives it to the requester and the requester can then ask any player for another card. If the asked player does not have the card, it becomes his turn and he asks another player for a specific card. Play continues in this way until no families are separated among different players. The player with the most cards wins. One of the rules states that a player cannot ask for a certain card to deceive any player if he does not have a card in the set he is asking for. The game can be adapted for use with an ordinary set of playing cards (see Go Fish).

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Development

The game was devised by John Jaques Jr., who is also credited with popularizing tiddlywinks, ludo and snakes and ladders, and first published before the Great Exhibition of 1851. Cards following Jaques's original designs, with grotesque illustrations possibly by Sir John Tenniel (there was no official credit), are still being made.

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Literature

The Happy Families children's storybooks, written by Allan Ahlberg, are titled in a similar way to the names of characters in this game.

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Family members

The names of the family members are structured as follows, where X stands for a surname and Y for an occupation.

• Mr X the Y
• Mrs X the Y's Wife
• Master X the Y's Son
• Miss X the Y's Daughter

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Family names

Family names, which vary from edition to edition, include:

The eleven families indicated by Bold-&-italics are from Jaques's original edition.

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BBC series

In 1989 and 1990, BBC1 showed a children's TV series based on the Happy Families Card Game, including the characters from the game.

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Special Editions

In 1987, the town of Dartmouth in Devon, UK, produced a special version of the game to commemorate the many real business owners in the town that had names appropriate to their jobs. These were:

• The Drews (artists)
• The Hairs (vets)
• The Crews (boatsmen)
• The Pillars (builders)
• The Sleeps (B & B)
• The Nashes (dentists)
• The Carrs (car hire)
• The Measures (pharmacists)
• The Crisps (greengrocers)
• The Rains (fruit growers)
• The Legges (cobblers/shoe shop)
• The Cutmores (butchers)
• The Swindells (bankers)
• The Prices (bank managers)

Many of the businesses are still there as of 2012, but had been removed as of 2017.

In 2016, a British games company called GoForItGames.co.uk produced a contemporary series of special edition Happy Family card games that dispense with the professions. The card illustrations address the amusing aspects of day-to-day family life. These are divided into card sets such as:

• The Family with new baby
• The Family with unruly toddler
• The Family with typical teenager
• The Long Family Car Journey
• The Family dressed up at Halloween
• The Family getting through Christmas
• The Family at Easter
• The Disastrous Family Barbecue
• The Gross Cousins

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See also

• Old maid (card game)

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References

Source of article : Wikipedia