Last Minute Shopping Ideas for Family Board Games at Christmas
When the extended family gathers this year, you’ll want to have plenty of good things to eat and drink. You’ll want to plan some activities that everyone can enjoy. There’s nothing more fun than family board games at Christmas to gather everyone from three to ninety-three and play a good, old-fashioned board game.
Depending on the ages of your participants, you can choose a fun and relatively easy game with a limited amount of strategy, and team younger with older so everyone can get in on the fun. Be sure to choose games that can allow a bit of “smack” talk and include lots of laughter.
Here are some old favorites and some new ones, too.
Old Favorites
Virtually anyone can shake five dice, so your youngest guests can play this game with an older partner. The older team member can decide which category to fill on every turn. Lots of time to talk and laugh as you play.
Whether you play the classic version of this mystery game or choose from one of the newer versions. You’ll have a ton of fun finding out who committed the crime. Choose from the Harry Potter version, the Game of Thrones, Disney Villain or the Office version for tons of family fun. “It’s Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick!
This timed make-a-word game is best played with two players or two teams of two to collaborate on finding words in a hurry. There are various sizes of the board with its 16 letter clocks in a 4 x 4 grid. It’s not only fun, it’s great for building vocabulary and reading skills, too.
Your family groans at playing Monopoly, you can assure them there are many new versions of the game. One even involves cheating and challenges players to try any under-handed trick they can get away with. But most of us will choose from Monopoly for Kids ( see photo) Fortnite, the Elf version, Goonies or Nightmare Before Christmas versions for a fun take on the familiar game of buying and building.
Trivial Pursuit has long been enjoyed as a test of knowledge in a certain field. And to date there are more than one hundred versions of the game. If you have young players amongst you, choose the Trivial Pursuit Family game that has both adult and kid cards. Then let the trivia rule the day.
Something New
This relatively new board game is played with two to four players. Pick a card and complete the word challenge to move your station wagon across the country. Watch out for bumps and potholes!
This family-friendly game will definitely keep the party going. Gather points by betting on your ability to complete wacky challenges. Comes with one hundred sixty challenge cards and eighty betting tokens.
This fast-paced card game is best played by three or four players. It involves saying the five words as you turn over cards. When one of the five words matches the turned over card everyone SLAPs it. The winner is the player able to get rid of all his or her cards. Each game lasts only ten to fifteen minutes.
This board game is a cooperative effort of all the players. It is best played with two to six people. The goal of all players is to save the dinosaur park. It involves choosing a worker in the park and then, with a bit of luck, your team will keep the dinosaurs safely inside the park boundaries.
Similar to the game Everdell, Creature Comforts tasks players with helping the residents of Maple Valley to get ready for winter. Can you create a cozy, safe living environment for all the critters of the valley. You’ll gather and harvest, use your gatherings to build crafts and you’ll also collect stories along the way for telling during those long, winter nights.
Don’t forget Scrabble… my favourite for kids over 8 years!
