by Linda Ann Nickerson

Created on: May 30, 2007

CANDYLAND

Let's take a walk through a Lollipop Wood,
Stop at Gumdrop Pass to eat something good.
Zip through Peanut Acres to see Grandma Nutt,
And greet Mr. Mint in his red striped hut.
Look out for Gloppy, and help Queen Frostine,
As we help old King Kandy to make the scene.
Please, won't you play a game with me,
It doesn't contain one calorie!

Kids love candy, and they love Candyland. What's the perennial appeal of this oh-so-basic board game?

NO READING!

Candyland and Cooties are the first board games every kid learns to play. Attend any three year old's birthday party, and you will likely spot a long flat box in the pile of gifts.

Marketed for kids ages 3-6, Candyland is simple, colorful, and fun. Kids can play Candyland long before they have learned to read even simple words.

For more than five decades, preschoolers playing Candyland have learned to follow basic rules, practice color recognition, take turns, and play cooperatively (instead of side-by-side, as toddlers do).

A ROAD RACE

Players pick colored cards and move their gingerbread people game pieces along a twisted route to correspondingly colored squares. No logic or strategy is required. The first one to the end of the road wins. Kids can easily beat their parents at this game. What could be more fun than that?

TOGETHER TIME

Priced under $10, the game is straightforward and simple, but it draws parents and kids together. Moms and dads, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, and even grandparents hunker down on the floor to play together. And everyone is on equal turf. Anyone can win!

HISTORY OF CANDYLAND

Bedridden with polio in the 1940s, Eleanor Abbott, a gamesmith, invented Candyland to entertain herself and children she knew. When the game became popular among her youngest constituents, Abbott offered it to the Milton-Bradley Toy Company. Milton-Bradley added major marketing power, and Candyland became the top-selling preschool game ever.

While some artistic updates have been made to the game board over the years, the basic game remains unchanged. The colorful cartoonish characters still make us chuckle.

Why tinker with success?

Learn more about this author, Linda Ann Nickerson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.