Crackers In My Bed Board Game Rules Explained With Pictures

Objective of Crackers In My Bed

The objective of Crackers In My Bed is to be the first player to get rid of all of your cracker cards.

Setup

Place the quilt gameboard inside the bottom of the box.
Fold the headboard along the hinges. Insert it into the end of the box that is not covered up by the quilt gameboard. Place the headboard so the person is looking at the quilt gameboard.
Insert the small box behind the headboard.
Mix up the cracker top cards (has a color section at the top). Randomly place one into each slot in the quilt gameboard.
Shuffle/mix-up the cracker bottom cards. Pass them out to the players randomly so each player receives the same number of cards. Any extra cards are set aside and not used in the game.
Place the spinner where everyone can reach it.
The youngest player starts the game. Play passes left/clockwise throughout the game.

Playing Crackers In My Bed

To begin each of your turns, you will spin the spinner. What color the spinner lands on determines what you will do on your turn. If the spinner lands on a line between spaces, you will spin again.

Spinning blue on the spinner — The current player spun blue on the spinner. They will have to choose a blue card from the gameboard.

After you spin the spinner, look for a cracker top on the gameboard whose color matches the color you spun. If you spun the rainbow section of the spinner, you can choose any cracker card from the bed. Should you spin a color and there are no cracker cards left of that color, you will spin again.

Spinning the rainbow section — This player spun the rainbow section of the spinner. They can choose any one card from the bed this turn.

Comparing the Cracker to Your Cards

Take your chosen cracker card out of the bed. Let all of the players see what cracker top is pictured on the card. You will then compare the cracker you picked to the cracker cards in front of you.

Picking a cracker card in Crackers In My Bed — This player chose a blue cracker from the bed after spinning blue.

If the top half of the cracker matches any of the cards in front of you, you have found a match. Take both matching cards and feed them to the person laying on the bed.

Finding a match in Crackers In My Bed — This player chose a cracker top that matches one of their cracker bottoms. They have found a match.

Feeding cracker cards — Since the player found a match, they will place both cards in the kid’s mouth on the gameboard. This player now has one less cracker that they need to find in the game.

If the top half of the cracker does not match any of the cards in front of you, you did not find a match. You will take the cracker top card and return it to the space on the gameboard that you took it from. All of the players should try to remember what type of cracker it was and where you placed it.

Failing to find a match — The cracker top that this player chose does not match any of their cracker bottoms. Therefore they did not find a match this turn. They will return the blue card to the spot on the bed that they took it from.

Whether you found a match or not, your turn ends. Play passes to the player on your left.

Winning Crackers In My Bed

The game ends when a player matches their last cracker card to a cracker top they take from the gameboard. After feeding the last two cracker cards, they win the game.

Playing the Game With Younger Children

If you want to make the game easier to play for younger children, you can use a variant rule.

Instead of spinning the spinner, each player can take whichever cracker top they want from the gameboard on their turn. Otherwise the game is played the same as the normal game.

Crackers In My Bed FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play Crackers In My Bed, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

Quilt Gameboard
Headboard
16 Bottom Cracker Cards (two cards of each type)
32 Top Cracker Cards (four cards of each type)
Spinner
Instructions

Year: 1987 | Publisher: Parker Brothers, Winning Moves Games | Artist: Steven Strumpf

Genres: Children’s, Memory

Ages: 3-6 | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 15-20 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate-High

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.