Candy Land is a board game invented by Eleanor Abbott in the 1940s for hospitalized children. Milton Bradley bought the rights and released it in 1949. The game teaches turn-taking, counting, and color recognition. Players use gingerbread cookies as playing pieces and follow a path to reach the Candy Castle. It is still manufactured today by Hasbro and is a cultural icon in the US.
Candy Land® is a simple racing board game invented in the 1940s by California native Eleanor Abbott while recovering from polio. Abbot has been busy creating games and activities for hospitalized children, who are also victims of the disease.
The Candy Land® Gingerbread Man game pieces, Gum Drop Mountain, Gingerbread Plum Tree and Peppermint Stick Forest proved so popular with children that Abbot pitched his game idea to the Milton Bradley Company. Milton Bradley quickly agreed to buy the rights to the game and first offered Candy Land to the American public in 1949. The game was advertised as “a sweet little game… for sweet little people” and sold for $1.00 (US dollars).
Candy Land® is often considered a rite of passage for preschoolers as play puts them on an even level of play like their parents. Requiring no reading skills and only minimal counting skills, Candy Land® is recommended for two to four players ages three to six. Candy Land® teaches kids how to take turns, learn the rules, count, and be both good winners and losers. The board game also helps children to increase their color recognition skills.
The rules of the Candy Land® game are simple. The game is woven around a simple storyline about finding the lost king of Candy Land. The board consists of a winding path made up of 134 spaces. Most spaces are red, orange, yellow, green, purple, or blue. The rest of the spaces are characters like Gramma Nutt and Queen Frostine or places with delightful names like Gum Drop Mountain and Candy Cane Forest.
Players progress through the colorful course using plastic gingerbread cookies as playing pieces. A player draws a card, then his pawn is moved by matching the pictures and colors on the card to the corresponding spaces on the board. There are a few barriers along the way, including getting stuck in the treacle swamp or getting lost in the lollipop woods. The first to reach the Candy Castle at the end of the route is declared the winner.
Candy Land® is still manufactured and sold today by Hasbro®, Inc. and copies of the game are readily available. Candy Land® has become a cultural icon in the United States, where it is among the first board games played by children. Even parents seem to enjoy this simple yet fun game and the bonding time it gives them with their preschoolers.
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