Candy Land
“A sweet little game…for sweet little folks.”
Imagine that the Brothers Grimm invented a board game. Now take out the witches. Welcome to Candy Land.
Eleanor Abbott was recovering from polio herself when she decided
to create a board game for similarly-afflicted youngsters forced to
spend time in a cold, boring hospital. The fruits of her work came to
life in 1949 as Candy Land, a game that had as little to do with fruits
(or any other healthy food) as possible. The name of this game was
candy, and the sweets-filled gameboard was as tempting to wee gamers as
the thrill of the race itself.
Instead of numbers, directions, or other confusing rules and
regulations, Candy Land simplified gameplay by moving its little
Gingerbread Man characters with color-coded cards. Each space came in
one of six colors—red, purple, yellow, blue, orange or green—and the
deck of cards had small squares of the same colors. Draw a purple, move
your Gingerbread Man to the next purple square, and so on to the top of
the board and the oh-so-tasty candy house (later replaced by a candy
castle).
Also shuffled into the deck were skip-ahead cards that sent you
instantly to one of the map’s tasty sights along the way—Candy Hearts,
Peppermint Stick Forest, Gingerbread Plum Tree, Gumdrop Mountains,
Crooked Old Peanut Brittle House, Lollipop Woods and Ice Cream
Floats—but careful! One bad draw could land you in the sticky Molasses
Swamp or get you stuck on one of a few other squares, where you’d have
to wait until you drew the right color card.
With its simple rules and eye-catching (and tummy-rumbling)
gameboard, Candy Land was many a child’s first board game. An instant
success, Candy Land spawned offshoots like Candy Land Bingo, a
hand-held Candy Land game and even a “Candy Land Adventure” CD-ROM. The
original remains a kiddie favorite today, proof that (surprise) kids
still like candy.
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