National Scrabble Day (April 13)
Scrabble has been around for years, but it’s one of those games we keep coming back to. It’s simple, but it somehow turns into a full-on competition once you start playing.
National Scrabble Day on April 13 is a good excuse to bring it out again, whether that’s a quick game after dinner or something a bit more structured in the classroom.
If your kids enjoy word games (or just like trying to beat you), this is one of those weird holidays in April that’s actually easy to use without much prep.
When Is the Holiday?
It’s celebrated each year on April 13, which marks the birthday of the game’s inventor, Alfred Butts.
Who Invented Scrabble?
Scrabble was created by Alfred Butts, an out-of-work architect in the 1930s who was looking for a new kind of game. He combined ideas from crossword puzzles and board games, and even worked out letter values by analyzing how often each letter appears in newspapers.
It didn’t take off straight away, he struggled to get publishers interested, but once it was picked up and renamed Scrabble in the 1950s, it quickly became a household staple.
The History of Scrabble
Scrabble didn’t start out as the version we know now. In the early 1930s, Alfred Butts was experimenting with different ideas, including versions called “Lexiko” and “Criss-Cross Words.”
He even worked out the letter values by looking at how often letters appeared in newspapers, which is why some tiles are much higher scoring than others.
It took a while to go anywhere. He couldn’t get publishers interested at first, and it wasn’t until James Brunot stepped in and helped sell it in the late 1940s that things started to change. By the 1950s, it had become a regular feature in a lot of homes, and it’s never really gone away.
Fun Facts About Scrabble
Scrabble wasn’t an instant success. Alfred Butts actually struggled to get anyone interested in it at first, which makes how popular it is now feel a bit unexpected.
The name “Scrabble” didn’t come until later, when James Brunot helped refine and sell the game.
If you’ve ever played with someone competitive, you’ll know people take it seriously. Some players even memorize word lists just to improve their scores.
You might have seen “oxyphenbutazone” mentioned as one of the highest scoring words, but realistically, you’re not going to see that come up in a normal game.
It’s now played all over the world and has been adapted into more than 30 languages, which is probably why it still feels familiar no matter where you are.
Coloring Page
If you don’t feel like setting up a full game, the Scrabble coloring page below is an easy way to still tie into the theme. It works well for younger kids, or even just as something quiet to do while others are playing.
Activities to Celebrate
Starting with a simple game at home is usually the easiest option, and it doesn’t need to be anything fancy. Even just playing one round together tends to turn competitive pretty quickly.
If you don’t have a board out, using an online version works just as well, especially for older kids who already like playing games on a screen.
Something that always works surprisingly well is setting a small challenge, like who can make the longest word or who can score the most in one turn. It keeps everyone involved without needing to change the rules too much.
If you’ve got spare tiles, turning them into name art or simple displays is an easy win, especially for kids who prefer making something rather than playing.
And for younger kids, just using the tiles to build simple words or practice spelling is often enough. It feels like a game, but they’re still learning without really noticing.
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Links to Resources
If you want to extend the activity a bit further, there are a few good options worth checking out. Simple printable worksheets can reinforce spelling and basic math using Scrabble tiles, while craft ideas give you something hands-on to pair with the theme.
If you don’t already have a board, it’s still easy to pick one up, and there are also word finder tools online that can help kids understand how words are built, especially useful if they get stuck mid-game.
Related Holidays
If you like this kind of activity, there are a few similar ones worth noting.
This holiday shares the spotlight with other word-lover celebrations, such as National Puzzle Day on January 29th, a day dedicated to the fun of solving word puzzles.
If you love word games, you might also enjoy National Thesaurus Day on January 18th.
Another quirky holiday to mark on your calendar is National Word Nerd Day, a fun occasion dedicated to language enthusiasts and lovers of all things linguistic!
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