The Christmas and New Year period ends and there's a strange quality to the first week of January. The rush is over. School hasn't started. Summer is still fully present — long evenings, warm weather, nothing particularly urgent.
It's one of the best windows of the year, and it's easy to let it drift.
The families and groups who make the most of January are the ones with things available to do — not planned activities, just options. Games that are already out. A backyard that's set up for use.
Why January is underrated
Most of the attention goes to December. The lead-up to Christmas, the holiday itself, the New Year. January gets less credit, but it's often the more relaxed version of summer — kids home from school, evenings still long, no particular pressure.
It's also the month when the games you got for Christmas start to really earn their keep. The novelty has worn off. Now it's about whether the game actually gets reached for, week after week, because it's genuinely good.
Games worth having out in January
Bocce Ball is the January game. Relaxed, social, works in any outdoor setting. Players take turns rolling balls toward the pallino — the small target ball — trying to get closer than the other team.
It has the quality of getting better the more you play it — not a steep learning curve, but the way you start to appreciate the skill involved once you've had a few goes. January is the month when a casual game of Bocce played on Christmas Day becomes something people reach for deliberately.
For the afternoons when two people want something that involves actual thinking. Reversal is a flip game where each move can turn your opponent's pieces to yours — the whole board can change in a single turn. Simple rules, genuine depth, quick games.
The game for a quiet January afternoon when most of the group is doing their own thing and two people want something focused. Compact enough to stay on the coffee table.
One of those games that never wears out. Set up in the backyard and leave it out — kids will knock it down, reset it, and knock it down again. Adults will occasionally wander over and try for a perfect strike. Requires almost no setup and no facilitation.
In January when kids are in that free-range mode between activities, Skittles in the backyard becomes the anchor that keeps them outside for hours.
If you're spending time at the beach or any summer destination in January, Compact Cornhole is the version that travels. Packs into the car without taking over the boot. Same game, same mechanics, sized for portability.
January beach days and summer trips are exactly where this earns its place. It comes out on the first afternoon and doesn't go back in the bag until it's time to drive home.
Summer is still cranking
January is full summer across Australia and New Zealand, make sure you make the most of it.
