Everyone enjoys a good board game during the holiday season that they can play with their family and friends, and although old favourites like Monopoly never go out of style, it's always nice to try something new and exciting.
Board games are not only a great way to bring out the competitive side in family and friends, but also an excellent ice-breaker. If you're looking for the perfect family board game to play this Christmas, we've got some great suggestions to cover all ages.
Another classic, Othello* takes a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master! It's a two-player strategy game. You place disks on the board to trap and capture your opponent. You can make your opponent's disk your colour by sandwiching at least one of his or her pieces. Monopoly must be included in this list of classic board games, regardless of how you feel about it. It's fair to say that when it comes to board games, it doesn't get much more iconic than Monopoly. The cult classic game has seen many families eagerly buying up properties in some of London's most popular spots whilst avoiding the dreaded jail area. The game is available in so many versions that you are sure to find one that suits you and your family.
Everyone loves Scrabble, right? This is the most popular word game in the world, where players attempt to build combinations of words on the board using letter tiles of different score values. The goal is to get the highest score. It’s a classic game for good reason – it’s absorbing, frustrating and brilliant all in one go. Boggle used to be my favourite all time game as a child. Shake the Boggle grid to mix up the letter cubes before lifting the lid and flip the timer. Players have 90 seconds to write down as many words as they can find on the grid before time is up.
The CoOperate* team challenge is an all-or-nothing game in which you must predict within 30 seconds how many words your team will shout out that meet the Cooperate card challenge. After you have predicted your score, you have another 30 seconds to shout out the predicted number of words - but if you don't reach that number, you don't score anything.
There are four types of challenges to play in Co-Operate that is sure to bring out your competitive side. List Play which involves calling out 'things' that correspond to the challenge on the card, like capital cities or names of girls. Describe Play involves players describing the items on their cards, such as fruits or sports, where as Word Play is a challenge where teams come up with words that meet the card challenge. Lastly, Link Play is where team members call out words that are linked to the last player’s word, for example an object that is taller than the previous player’s object. You can buy CoOperate from Amazon, Argos, Smyths, The Works, ToyMaster and WHSmiths.
Linkee is another game that my family likes because it's a simple, shouty-outy family quiz game that does things a little differently than other games. Learning is easy. Just answer four questions, then work out the links between the answers, and shout, "Linkee!". Play the game correctly and you'll win a letter, and with enough letters you'll spell LINKEE and win the game. Linkee requires no trivia genius to play, and you don't need to know every answer to take part.
Games don’t get much more classic than Guess Who? My daughter bought this with her birthday money and has become quite the guess who-er? The game includes 2 game boards, 48 face cards, 24 mystery cards, 2 scorekeepers, and instructions. So each player selects a mystery character. Then, each player asks a yes or no question while attempting to guess who the mystery character is of the other player.
Hungry Hungry Hippos is a fast-paced marble-chomping game suitable for young players. There are four colourful hungry hippos on the game board trying to eat 20 marbles that are launched into the middle of the board. The aim is to gobble up as many marbles as possible by quickly pressing a lever that controls the hippo. A player whose hippo chomped down on the most marbles wins. Mouse Trap was another great game that we liked to play at Christmas. As you circle the board and collect cheese tokens, be sure not to get trapped. In the beginning, players build a mouse trap together, but once the trap is built, it's everyone for themselves. The last mouse still in play wins.
Steady hands and nerves of steel are key to winning this classic children's game Operation*. The poor patient sure has a lot going on: Writer's cramp, water on the knee, and brain freeze are just a few of his aches and pains. In this game, you get to be the doctor, and it’s your job to relieve the patient by removing parts that are causing him problems. The retrieval process can be tricky though, but lots of fun.
Speak Out helps bring your family and friends together for laugh-out-loud fun! Draw a card from the deck, pop in the mouthpiece, and try to pronounce the written phrase. Though it seems easy, with the mouthpiece in place, it is difficult to get the words out! A timer counts down as players try to say phrases. It has to be one of the funniest games that we have ever played. You spend more time laughing than actually playing.
Pie Face became a game that everyone wanted to play because it is an action game filled with fun and suspense for the whole family. Place whipped cream or a wet sponge on the handle and turn. It could go off at any moment, so cross your fingers that it is not you. Every time you turn the handle without getting pie-faced, you earn a point, and the one who scores 25 points wins. Lots of mess and lots of fun.
Which board games are you looking forward to playing this year? Will you keep to the classics like Scrabble, Othello or Monopoly? Maybe you see yourself as a mastermind under pressure with Cranium or CoOperate? Perhaps you can hold your nerve while you avoid the buzzer and help Sam with all his ailments. Let me know in the comments.
~ Some of the products featured in this post have been kindly gifted to me, but all thoughts are my own. ~
What is Christmas without board games! I absolutely love board games, but growing up my mum and sister hated them, and would only play at Christmas time. Luckily every Christmas I put a new board game on my Christmas list and we got to play that!
ReplyDeleteI think board games bring families closer together, it takes you all off sitting on your phones in the evening, and actually produces some great bonding!
Much love, Caitylis x x
So, last year, I got monopoly and my mum got cluedo. Hours and hours of fun for us adults and my teenage nephews!
ReplyDeleteWe always buy a few new board games at Christmas! This year we've got Nintendo Monopoly & Cluedo. Our all time fave is Disney Labyrinth, it's loads of fun trying to block the other player's paths! xx
ReplyDeleteI'm desperate to try LINKEE so bad! x
ReplyDeleteI love playing board games at Christmas time with my family, last year we played Jenga though and that was so much fun! xx
ReplyDeleteYasmina | The July Journal