Best Christmas board game for your family

The holiday season is approaching. And when people think about spending more time with friends or family they often think about getting the best board game. The important question is what is the best Christmas board game? The challenge with that question is a game that is great fun for one family may not be fun for another family.

We all have different plans for the holidays. There will be different numbers of people, different ages, different amounts of time and levels of interest in games. Some people will be reluctant to play games as their memories are endless and cut-throat games of Monopoly, but with the large choice of board games now available, there will be something that works for your gathering.

Here are my tips on discovering what type of board game you are looking for. If you want more help on selecting an exact game, read my post How to choose a board game.

Buying board Games

Instead of linking to Amazon I’ve added links to my review or a picture of the game in play on my Instagram account. When buying games please consider supporting a specialist board game shop. They often have great prices and you can be confident you are getting a genuine version of the game (yes people sell counterfeit board games). Here are some shops I recommend:

Chaos Cards
Magic Madhouse
Thirsty Meeples (my local board game cafe)
Wayland Games
Zatu Games

Finding the best Christmas board game for your family

There are two pieces of information that will help you select the best board game:

who will be playing
when will you be playing (how will the game will fit in to your plans).

Large variety of age

It can be tricky to find games that are fair and fun for all ages. I recommend staying away from general knowledge or trivia, and if there are very young children involved avoid games which involve reading or spelling (it really slows down a game when you have to ask them to interpret their writing). Consider games like:

Taskmaster – amusing challenges e.g. drawing a cake with your eyes closed
Dixit – can you guess the correct picture card for the clue?
Codename pictures – picture association in teams
Make ‘n’ Break – a dexterity game with differentiated challenges so the children can have easier ones
Magic Maze – you work together to move characters around a shopping mall, but each person can only move them in one direction – and you can’t talk!
Tsuro – place tiles to build paths that your dragon has to follow

Highly Competitive

Some families take great pleasure in playing highly competitive games and gloating for years about their amazing wins. We don’t play a lot of these games so I have limited experience, but here are some suggestions:

Anomia – instead of saying snap when your cards match you have to give the quickest trivia answer
Staccups – who can stack all their cups the quickest?
Ice Cool – flick penguins around the school, one person trying to capture the other penguins and others trying to avoid them
Throw Throw Burrito – card game where you collect cards, but with occassional throwing of soft burritos at the other players

Games for the fun of playing

Sometimes you want to have fun without keeping score or knowing who has won. We own all these games and can rely on having a good time with any of them.

So Clover – linking random words together for others to guess
Just One – word association again, but if more than one person gives the same clue they are all removed
Telestrations / Scrawl (adult) – these are similar to Chinese Whispers / Telephone game but using drawings
Concept – a bit like charades but using a board of pictures to give the clues

Co-operative games

In co-operative games you play together and either win or lose together. These can be great if you want to keep arguments to a minimum, and if there are different levels of experience playing games.

Magic Maze – you are all moving the same pieces around the board, but each person can only move them in a certain direction – and you can’t talk
Forbidden Desert – you need to find the components of an airship so you can escape, but the land keeps moving due to sand storms
Pandemic – you need to find the cure for 4 different diseases by sharing information from around the world
Mysterium – as a group of psychics you get visions about a murder, and you need to work out which is the correct vision

Long games

If you want something that will keep you occupied for several hours. Long games are often more complex so you may want to read the rules before Christmas

Sleeping Gods – you are exploring a strange location and travel anywhere on the map so you build your own story
Terraforming Mars – develop Mars from the current lifeless planet to one that is habitable
Hogwarts Battle – the early years are quick, but they build in complexity and length as you progress through the story. Our Year 1 game took 10 minutes and Year 5 over 2 hours (we haven’t played 6 or 7 yet).
Dead of Winter – there has been a Zombie apocalypse, and you need to get food and protection for the safe colony, by exploring outside.

Quick plays

Sometimes you just want a game that will fill a spare 15 minutes, with quick set up.

Tsuro – place tiles to build paths that your dragon has to follow
Just One – word association again, but if more than one person gives the same clue they are all removed
Happy Salmon – an absolutely silly game where you are trying to find matching cards using hand gestures

Flexibility

Sometimes you want to play a game, but also know that people may need to duck out e.g. to watch children or cook dinner. These games allow people to leave (and possibly join) without impacting the on game play.

Codenames – team based word association – can you guess your words before the other team
Just One – word association again, but if more than one person gives the same clue they are all removed
Concept – a bit like charades but using a board of pictures to give the clues
Anomia – instead of saying snap when your cards match you have to give the quickest trivia answer

Problem solving games

If you want to solve a mystery, there several games you can try, some fall under the broad heading of escape room type, but all of them have a problem that needs solving. Note these are usually one time plays

Exit – escape room style game
Unlock – escape room style games with an app to check answers, give clues and time you
Adventure – choose your own adventure style game
Chronicles of Crime – explore locations and interview witnesses using the app (some of these crimes are not suitable for children)

Large groups

Over Christmas you may be looking for games that play more than the traditional 4 or 5. You can sometimes buy expansions that let you increase the number of games, but all these play at least 6 in the basic box.

Dixit – can you guess the correct picture card for the clue?
Anomia – instead of saying snap when your cards match you have to give the quickest trivia answer
Codenames – team based word association – can you guess your words before the other team
Concept – a bit like charades but using a board of pictures to give the clues
Just One – word association again, but if more than one person gives the same clue they are all removed
Telestrations – similar to Chinese Whispers / Telephone game but using drawings
Tsuro – place tiles to build paths that your dragon has to follow
Mysterium – as a group of psychics you get visions about a murder, and you need to work out which is the correct vision

Quirky games

Perhaps you want a game that is different to the usual game and will be remembered for some time.

Micro Macro Crime City – you use a large image of the city to solve crimes, where’s Wally style
Ice Cool – flick penguins around the school, one person trying to capture the other penguins and others trying to avoid them
Chronicles of Crime – explore locations and interview witnesses using an app and QR codes (some of these crimes are not suitable for children)
Potion Explosion – create potions by drawing marbles from the board and creating “explosions”
One Night Ultimum Werewolf – a game of deduction and bluffing, can you work out who is the werewolf
Mysterium – as a group of psychics you get visions about a murder, and you need to work out which is the correct vision (one of you will play the ghost giving out the visions).

Choosing your Christmas board game is the first step. The second step is to learn how to play the game and teach it to the other players. I recommend you learn it in advance. If you are giving the game as a gift so can’t open the instructions, look for details online. You will probably find the written instructions, but possibly more helpfully videos explaining how to set it up and play.

What is your favourite Christmas board game?