Dysfunctional Family Christmas Bingo

Per Martha’s instructions, I created blank Bingo cards on two pieces of paper, filling in the center square with the words “Free Space”. With an openness that we hadn’t experienced in a very long time, my husband and I came up with the dysfunctional, disturbing things that his family members typically did. How to Play Christmas Bingo. Give each player 1 Christmas Bingo Card. (If you like, you can also give each player 2 or more cards.) Have everyone cross out the “Free Space” square in the middle of their Christmas Bingo Cards. Alternatively, use a Bingo chip, M&M, bead, Lego, coin or any small toy to mark the square. Dysfunctional Family Bingo. November 27, 2013 November 26. We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia but this will be perfect for Christmas lunch.

Miley Cyrus has said her famous family often argue about conspiracy theories around the dinner table at Christmas.

The 28-year-old is the daughter of country music star Billy Ray Cyrus and actress Leticia “Tish” Cyrus, while her five siblings include singer singer Noah and Metro Station guitarist Trace.

Speaking on The One Show on BBC One over video call, she admitted that her experience over the festive period would be “relatable” to many of her fans.

Wouldn't it be cool to have @dollyparton as your godmother? 💖 @mileycyrus reveals what it's like to have the Queen of Dollywood to look up to! #TheOneShowpic.twitter.com/PSDfp5LWCh

— BBC The One Show (@BBCTheOneShow) December 3, 2020

She said: “Every family, when I mention the dysfunction of my family, they are like, ‘That’s what Christmas is all about’.

“In films I guess they do a good job of portraying what it is like, but most of the time it’s never what it seems like on a Hallmark card.

Christmas

“Usually someone disagrees with somebody about something. Ours are usually conspiracy theories and usually it ends up with someone storming out.

“Aliens was one of the big ones that caused quite a fight a couple of years ago. It’s always someone disagrees with someone about something and takes it too far.

“By our family being kind of a wreck it feels very relatable. I think all families do that.”

Miley Cyrus (Owen Humphreys/PA)
Bingo

Dysfunctional Family Christmas Bingo

The former Disney Channel star, who released her album Plastic Hearts last month, praised her mother for ensuring Christmas had been about spending time together as a family when she was growing up.

However, Cyrus admitted she would have preferred more gifts as a girl.

She told hosts Amol Rajan and Alex Jones: “My family, my mum, have never been as excessive as any of the children would have wanted.

“My parents always make it about what Christmas is really meant to be and about family coming together – all the boring stuff kids never look forward to.

“So my mum is very much about morals and values and unfortunately it doesn’t become quite as eccentric as we want it to be.

“But now I am an adult I really appreciate that. It takes the pressure off. My mum has made it about presence over presents – so being present and being there in the moment.

“The year normally goes so fast. It flies by. It feels like it goes faster every year and so taking that moment to spend that quality time that you don’t get throughout the year.”

Plastic Hearts is Cyrus’ first album in three years. In that time, she has married and divorced long-term partner Liam Hemsworth.

It was the week before spending Christmas with my husband’s family and I was sick to my stomach. This had become the typical response when I was anticipating spending time with them. I had been dealing with their inappropriate behavior and my husband’s denial of the situation for a very long time. Each time I had to see them I was nauseous, had major headaches and had other physical issues days before. This is how bad it had gotten.

This particular week I was reading Oprah’s magazine and found an amazing lifeline in an article written by life coach Martha Beck. She explained her experiences dealing with dysfunctional family gatherings and had come up with a way to actually look forward to them. I said out loud “NO WAY!!” but was intrigued and kept reading. She described how to make a childhood game of Bingo into a sanity saving tool when getting together with dysfunctional families. I decided it was worth a try; anything would be better than sitting in a corner until it was time to finally go home.

I explained the premise to my husband and since he didn’t want to see me physically and emotionally suffer anymore, he agreed to play “Dysfunctional Family Bingo” with me. Per Martha’s instructions, I created blank Bingo cards on two pieces of paper, filling in the center square with the words “Free Space”. With an openness that we hadn’t experienced in a very long time, my husband and I came up with the dysfunctional, disturbing things that his family members typically did. I then filled in the blank spaces on each of our cards with these anticipated acts, making sure each card had the same descriptions but in different boxes on the card. Things like “Your mother will ignore our kids” and “Your brother-in-law will announce that he is invincible and try to prove it” became squares on our Bingo cards. When we had come up with 24 things to fill in the squares on the cards we decided that we would secretly mark our cards, meeting every ½ hour in an out of the way spot at the party to review our progress and to announce “Bingo” once our cards were marked vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

Dysfunctional Family Christmas Bingo

Dysfunctional family holiday movies

Dysfunctional Family Christmas Bingo Clipart

If this seems harsh let me explain by saying this – my husband and I never had a better time at one of his family functions than we did that day. We were on the same page because we were playing a game together and more importantly the things that would have made us upset and would have put a wedge between us became things we actually looked forward to because we both wanted to win our Bingo game. We were able to turn an upsetting day into a fun, memorable moment.

That was many years ago and my husband and I have since divorced, due in large part to continuing issues with his family, however the empowerment of that simple game of Bingo has stayed with me. It wasn’t meant to be mean spirited; it was meant to begin the process of seeing difficult situations in a different light. For that one day I looked forward to the inevitable inappropriate behavior that had made me so uncomfortable in the past. For that one day I laughed when my sister-in-law ignored me and smiled when my mother-in-law made passive aggressive comments to me. For that one day I was having fun in the midst of dysfunction, enthusiastically filling out my card in order to whisper…….BINGO!

Dysfunctional Family Christmas Bingo Printables

P.S. If you can’t come up with 24 dysfunctional things to fill up a Bingo card (lucky you!), you can also play “Dysfunctional Family Tic-Tac-Toe”, filling in a Tic-Tac-Toe board with only 9 dysfunctional acts.

Dysfunctional Family Christmas Snl

  • Since this game doesn’t need to be applied to a family situation, what other dysfunctional situations do you have in your life that you could play the game?
  • At first glance does this feel like it would help in uncomfortable situations? How?
  • Who could play with you? They don’t need to be at the same gathering; you can text/call them when a dysfunctional act happens so they can fill out their pre- arranged Bingo card as well.
Comments are closed.