Holiday Games

[lovesmurfs]

Qwirkle is a great game -- no reading -- just colors and shapes, but it's a lot of fun.

Another vote for Forbidden Island as well.

 

[stsomewhere]

Secret Hitler or what about a gaming system- Wii or switch and get Mario Kart

 

[RogueX]

This really only works if you have space to do it: when I had my nieces and nephews over for a week, we designed what might resemble a laser maze out of yarn. It xig-zagged every which way and they had to maneuver around to get through it. If ths bell attached to the yarn rang, that meant they had to start over. This kept them very entertained.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Scattergories

This is always a hit at our family gatherings, and so is "Left, Right, Center".

Puzzles - we did/do this in the mountains or beach vacation rental that we have rented in the past, you can get ones for the kiddos and the adults.. I like it as anyone can work on it whenever... I just set it out on a card table or somewhere that you don't have to clean it up so that it can be worked on the whole time... once done we put it back in the box and leave it at the cabin or beach house rental for the next guest... Another reason is that this is good to help everyone kinda wind down at the end of the day...

Great idea too!

 

[Kitty 34]

This is always a hit at our family gatherings, and so is "Left, Right, Center".



Great idea too!

What is Left, Right and Center? I know I can google but I'll ask you first.

 

[Tryxie]

Balderdash
Scrabble
Cranium

 

[clh2]

Trans America
Quixx
Dominoes and/or Mexican Train

 

[NYCgrrl]

So, we're going to have a house full of guests for the entire week of Christmas. We will have diverse ages and, well, diversity all around. I do have some touristy activities planned outside of our home, but please help me plan some games and activities for our evenings at home. In particular, I would like to purchase some board games that work well for a group. ( the game doesn't actually need to have a board. i mean games that come in a box with rules) Thank you

Our regular "board" games are:

Uno
Boggle
Scrabble
Backgammon
Chess/checker which is part of a marquetry side table that opens; so useful in many ways
Deck of cards
We take Twister and an electronic "Simon" when we go camping; can't see how it wouldn't work at home if the space exists.


If we didn't have people from different countries during large celebrations I bet Trivial Pursuit could be fun.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Scattergories is great.

Cards Against Humanity is a lot of fun, but people might get offended.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Heads Up is another fun game.

Munchkin

We Didn't Playtest This At All, We Didn't Playtest This Either, or We Didn't Playtest This Legacies are fun and quick.


Catchphrase

Five Second Rule. Gotta be quick thinking in this one

 

[PollyannaMom]

What is Left, Right and Center? I know I can google but I'll ask you first.

It's a dice game. It comes with chips, but DH's family plays for pennies or quarters, and it's fun with candy, too (if you're not worried about germs).

You start off with 3, and roll as many dice as you have chips. If you roll an "R" you pass a chip to the person on your right, an "L" to the person on your left, or a "C" to the pot in the center. The other sides are neutral - dot/star/depends on the set, and you don't do anything for those.

The last person to have chips left wins (and takes the center pot).

It comes in a little tube or tin, and is usually found with the card games.

 

[apartment j]

Wow! This is the first time that I've been back to the forum since I posted this the other night. Thank-you so much to everyone. I never expected to get so much feedback and I'm absolutely thrilled. Your responses are very helpful and I love that there's so much variety. You have made this so easy for me. Now if only I could get you all to do my menus for the week...

You're a saint.

Thank you! I do love having family time, especially during the holidays, but it would be nice if someone else took a turn hosting occasionally. I'm starting to think that's never going to happen though.

So, how weird is this....

I just read this thread & your post about Spontuneous.

I then went back to Facebook & was scrolling through my feed, and an Amazon ad for Spontuneous showed up!

That's kind of terrifying.

 

[Kitty 34]

It's a dice game. It comes with chips, but DH's family plays for pennies or quarters, and it's fun with candy, too (if you're not worried about germs).

You start off with 3, and roll as many dice as you have chips. If you roll an "R" you pass a chip to the person on your right, an "L" to the person on your left, or a "C" to the pot in the center. The other sides are neutral - dot/star/depends on the set, and you don't do anything for those.

The last person to have chips left wins (and takes the center pot).

It comes in a little tube or tin, and is usually found with the card games.

Thank you. I think we play some pig game (sister bought it) that has the same concept.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

My favorite family group game is Battle of the Sexes. It is a board game, but usually two people just sit at the board on the floor and everyone else stays seated. The questions range such an age span that it's great for the ages of family gatherings.
Last Christmas my cousin brought Relative Insanity and it was such a blast. It is like Cards Against Humanity, which I hate because I find it all stupid, but this was fun. the cards will say "when Aunt did this" and we fill in with a particular family member to make even more personalized. It is also fun for all ages and nothing "bad". There were some cards of the answers that were vomited so the kids get a laugh out of using those cards.

 

[msjprincess]

Telestrations. It's like the game of telephone but with drawing. The first person draws a picture of something, the next person guesses what it is and writes that down, the next person draws what the other person wrote, and on and on. We bought it last year when we rented a vacation house with a big group. It was a lot of fun. Usually the picture at the end wasn't even close to the first picture. As you flip through the pictures you can see where it took a wrong turn.

 

[starvenger]

Codenames. There's versions with words, and versions with pictures. There's even a Disney version!

Coup is another good game, although you might need the expansion set if there are more than 6 people.

People already mentioned Exploding Kittens, and I also give a thumbs up to that one. My 9yo loves that game. I usually bring this on trips with us.

Lastly, Sushi Go Party. Fast and fun

 

[DuskKodesh]

Big gamer house here so I'll post a few that I don't think have been mentioned. (Or maybe they have There's a lot of responses)

Fluxx is a card game about trying to assemble items based on winning conditions which can change at the drop of a hat. It's kind of a screw your neighbor over deal and comes in themed versions for a lot of popular movies. It's nice for a mixed group because it evens out the skillsets of the players.

Wits and Wagers is trivia with a twist. If you like trivia games and gambling but in a family friendly way this one is great.

Superfight is one of our faves if you have a talkative crowd. You draw and from your hand assemble a combatant and stipulations. Say you drew Paul Bunyan, with a guard dog, that can hurl boulders. You then put that combatant against the other player and argue why you think you'd win, then everyone present votes on the argument presented. It can make for some hilarious debates! I bought this as a wedding gift this year for someone and apparently the entire bachelor's party was spent playing it.

For smaller groups of players in case you need to entertain some of your guests but not all, the absolute fave is Settlers of Catan. It's 1-4 players but you can add expansions for 5-6. Also love Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride.

 

[Kitty 34]

Big gamer house here so I'll post a few that I don't think have been mentioned. (Or maybe they have There's a lot of responses)

Fluxx is a card game about trying to assemble items based on winning conditions which can change at the drop of a hat. It's kind of a screw your neighbor over deal and comes in themed versions for a lot of popular movies. It's nice for a mixed group because it evens out the skillsets of the players.

Wits and Wagers is trivia with a twist. If you like trivia games and gambling but in a family friendly way this one is great.

Superfight is one of our faves if you have a talkative crowd. You draw and from your hand assemble a combatant and stipulations. Say you drew Paul Bunyan, with a guard dog, that can hurl boulders. You then put that combatant against the other player and argue why you think you'd win, then everyone present votes on the argument presented. It can make for some hilarious debates! I bought this as a wedding gift this year for someone and apparently the entire bachelor's party was spent playing it.

For smaller groups of players in case you need to entertain some of your guests but not all, the absolute fave is Settlers of Catan. It's 1-4 players but you can add expansions for 5-6. Also love Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride.

Wits and Wagers......One of my sons bought that for me a couple of years ago. We still haven't played it.. I might bring that out this Christmas as I see it seems quite popular.

 

[ronandannette]

Scattergories is great.

Cards Against Humanity is a lot of fun, but people might get offended.

Yeah, we quietly disappear when this one comes out. Years ago when it was new and “hot” I actually bought it but ended up taking it right back - it’s just not the thing for our regular crowd. My DS laughed hard and said “you should have checked with me first”.

 

[Diznygrl]

Secret Hitler or what about a gaming system- Wii or switch and get Mario Kart

I'm sorry, what? Secret Hitler? Is that some kind of White Elephant thing?