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?
