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A Second Christmas for Card Players: National Card Playing Day

Every December 28th, we celebrate something very special.

No, it’s not “Finish All of the Christmas Dinner Leftovers Before They Get Thrown Out Day” or “Plan All of the New Year’s Resolutions You Aren’t Going to Keep Day”. Those are both made up and completely hilarious.

December 28th is a special day, a national holiday that celebrates the many ways we enjoy the decks of cards hiding cozily in our game closets: National Card Playing Day!

As you can probably imagine, we’re big fans of this particular holiday. Anything that brings awareness to the wholesome fun of playing cards is a step forward in our book, and it also gives us an awesome opportunity to educate our audience!

And you just know that we have some fun card games up our sleeves.

So for today’s blog post, we are going to cover why it’s an important holiday as well as a few awesome ways you can celebrate it.

Let’s get started!

Reset Your Mind

The week after Christmas is hectic. There are gifts to be opened, items to be returned, and houses to be cleaned in preparation for an entirely new year. Who doesn’t want to start off a new year with a clean slate?

Speaking of a clean slate, most people would say that clearing your mind and giving it a good reset is just as important as making sure your sheets and baseboards are clean. Unfortunately, this is something many people ignore, and they carry their stresses and worries into the new year.

Now, I’m not sure if National Card Playing Day was designed and established as a “mind reset” day, but that’s how it works for us. The celebration of the holiday has quite a few similarities to Christmas, just without all of the stress of looking for gifts, wrapping them, and making sure the turkey doesn’t get dry before you can serve it.

On National Card Day, you can have all the fun of spending time with loved ones and bonding without needing to keep track of things in the back of your mind. And, considering it's three days after Christmas and three days before New Year's, it might also be your last chance to unwind like that before the rush of the beginning of the year happens.

But enough about that, how are you supposed to celebrate National Card Playing Day?

Cards & Camaraderie

The answer to the above question is really, “however you like!”

If you want to make some tea and play a quiet, solo game of Solitaire, that’s a completely viable way of celebrating National Card Playing Day. Sometimes, having that quiet time to reflect and let your brain unwind is just what you need.

However, our personal favorite way to celebrate is by having your favorite people come over to play some cards. Friends, siblings, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, whoever you know that has a good, positive presence and is down to play some cards is a good person to invite. And, since you don’t have to make the extra familial effort like you do on Christmas, you don’t have to invite your weird Uncle Greg. You know, the one who makes everyone uncomfortable and namedrops every chance he gets. Every family has one, even if he isn’t named Greg.

He can stay home.

Once you’re surrounded by all of your favorite people, you’re pretty much ready to get down to business. I’d recommend some drinks and snacks, maybe a charcuterie board, and - of course - decks of playing cards. Depending on how many people you have over and what kind of games you want to play, you might need several of them.

What we like to do on National Card Playing Day is dedicate at least an hour or so of that shared time to learning a new card game. It doesn’t have to be new to everyone though. If someone there is proficient in War and no one else is, they could take it upon themselves to be the teacher for the day. If you aren’t lucky enough to have a pro in your chosen card game present, there’s always YouTube!

Ultimately, National Card Playing Day is just about taking some time to enjoy playing cards in any of their many forms. You don’t need smartphones or any other kind of technology to enjoy it, and you don’t even need other people around to celebrate it properly. As long as you’re relaxing and enjoying some colorful rectangles, you’re doing just fine!

And now, we’ve lined up a few awesome games you could play to celebrate National Card Playing Day.

Solitaire

Just… take a look at where you are. Did you think you were going to get away without more than one mention of Solitaire?!? OF COURSE NOT!!!

Now, we might be more than a little biased, but Solitaire is probably the best game you could possibly play on National Card Playing Day. It’s the favorite card game of every single person on Planet Earth, and it makes you more intelligent and attractive every single time you play it.

It’s true, we asked everybody.

In all seriousness, the accessibility of solitaire as well as its general popularity make it a great game to play by yourself or with a group of people.

And, if you don’t happen to have a deck of cards handy but you still want to enjoy a game of Solitaire, we know a very special place you can play without any cards at all! Just hit the back button on your browser!

Hearts

Another awesome game you could play on National Card Playing Day is Hearts.

This one is more intended to be played in groups of three or more, so it might be better suited to party situations. Known as a trick-taking game, Hearts is also a cousin of Bridge and Spades. In stark contrast to… well basically all other games, the goal of Hearts is to be the player with the lowest score at the end of the game.

A little unorthodox, sure, but it’s also an extremely popular card game. So, if you’ve never played it before, National Card Playing Day might be the perfect excuse to learn how to play it!

Also, if you want to sharpen up your Hearts skills before National Card Playing Day so you can impress all of your friends, you can try Hearts online. Don’t say we never did nothin’ for ya!

Cribbage

Ok, yes, Cribbage is heavily associated with old people. However, getting good at playing it doesn’t make you old! In fact, it’s known as “Britain’s national card game”, so you know it’s classy and fancy.

Put a smile on your granny’s face by playing this three to four-player card game with her at your next National Card Playing Day celebration!

Now, Get to Shufflin’!

Thanks for reading this blog! We hope that the information here helps you get the most out of the next National Card Playing Day celebration and that it sets you up for an awesome New Year!