You might have heard of a game called “Yellow car”, in which participants say yellow car! as soon as they spot one on the road. It’s a bit silly, truth be told, but it helps pass the time on boring stretches of commute or roadtrips.
The last time we were in the UK, Michael (aka gibsonms) introduced us to a postal-themed variant of the “Yellow car” game… using postboxes! It’s brilliant for short trips and we cannot stop playing it wherever we go, so we thought we’d share it with you.
Here are the rules:
- It’s simple, really: when you see a postbox, say “postbox!” and add a point to your total.
- If you see someone posting something on that postbox, wow, how lucky is that! Two points for you!
- If someone calls a postbox but it turns out that there isn’t one there, then that person loses a point…
- And if you see the mail carrier clearing the postbox, well… you win for that journey! 😀
Lots of variations can probably be added to make it more complex and keep you and your kids entertained, like spotting a post office or a golden pillar box (if you’re in the UK) so feel free to add or suggest new rules as you discover them!
Who’s ready to play? 📮
15 comments so far
I love the illustration next to the text!
I guess in this game the driver always will loose as she has to keep an eye on the road and the traffic.
@pucky or perhaps they'll spot all of them and win, since the other passengers will be looking at their phones! 😆
What fun 😁
Great game! Very similar to over here where you have to spot the letters of the alphabet on the registration number plate. Anything that keeps kids entertained on a trip is good! ;)
I would like to play this game but here in Texas we just drive on highways for hours... not stop at a town or something.
There's a similar game that my dad taught me and my sister. But it's with horses. You don't call out HORSE!, you call out BEAVER! And if you go past a cemetery, you yell out "Bury your beavers!" and your oppent loses all their points.
We used to do the same with our children, and we included phone boxes as well. If we saw either a mailbox or a phone box we used to shout 'red fox!!'It really did get competitive :)
I am living in the UK, and I just realised we had golden boxed around the UK. Too bad there isn't one close to where I live, but this game is very very interesting :D
Better than Pokémon hunts! :D Let's try it soon? ;)
Postbox!
(there is one aside the text)
;)
When I was very little, we used to look out for pink/purple cars, but we would yell "Bubblegum!" when we saw them because of the bubblegum colours.
And on holidays we used to actually count ... whatever. Our mum would set the task, and them my brother and me would count church spires, horses, lavender fields (can you guess our favourite holiday destination?) or even sheep - that could get quite dramatic though if you passed a meadow with a huge herd. I still believe my brother cheated wildly in these games because I never won. :D
something I do not understand what is the meaning of the game .....
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@SvetlanaTatyanina No meaning — it's just a silly game to make you laugh and keep everyone on the look out during boring car rides! 😀
@siobhan yes! my brother and i used to do this with christmas trees during the holiday season! 🎄 it's funny because one side of the road always seemed to have more christmas trees than the other...