What Board Games Should You Play With Your Family This Holiday

When you are all tuckered-out from holiday shopping and stuffing yourself with turkey, how are you planning to entertain your loved ones?

15:42 10 December 2020

Watching a Christmas movie marathon is not for everyone after all (well, unless it includes Die Hard!). This is where a board game comes into the rescue!

 

Nothing brings together the whole group like sitting around a fire and arguing about the “rules” of the game.

 

But if hearing the term “board game” fills you with trepidation brought on by years of trauma induced by Monopoly, don’t worry. In the last 5 years alone, the board game industry has introduced dozens of amazing family-friendly games that cater to every taste. Especially, it would be a surprise if you use it as gifts for grandmas to create happy family moments.

 

Here are a few board games that can help add more fun to this year’s festivities.

 

Spot It!

 

This is a perfect card game to bring with you if you’re traveling for the holidays, as it comes in a cute tin box. Since Spot It! Involves visually-based matching, it’s great for kids of all ages too. But don’t let that fool you – it’s surprisingly challenging and fun for adults as well.

 

Each player will get one stack of cards, and each stack will have several images of different sizes on them (images like eyes, ladybugs, trees, clouds, etc.)

 

The goal is to flip over your cards and try to pick out any matches. If you see a match between the images on your own stack of cards and the others’, you have to call it out (you have to call out the name of the object that’s on the matching images, like “Tree!). Place your card face up right in front of the other matching card.

 

Sounds super easy right? It’s actually a very fast-paced game, and requires your utmost attention. Don’t be surprised if your 8-year old cousin yells out matches left and right, before you’ve even finished looking the cards over!

 

Codenames

 

If your family is into cards, you will love Codenames. This is a pretty straightforward game, but it takes a lot of creativity and teamwork to play.

 

You will need two teams – Blue and Red. Each team will have a designated Spymaster. The Spymasters will lay out rows of cards that will have random words on them. The goal is to try to get their respective team to guess which “codenames” (words) hide the identity of the spy of another team. And they have to do this without revealing their own.

 

Boom Again

 

If you are going to be playing board games with a lot of older family members, specifically those who were born between 1946 and 1964, you can’t go wrong with Boom Again. This game is primarily designed for Baby Boomers, and it’s packed with questions about historical events, such as critical legislation and various major societal milestones.

 

Keep in mind that even though Boom Again sounds similar to Trivial Pursuit, it’s not. While Trivial Pursuit is all about science and history and entertainment, Boom Again covers a lot more topics, some of which are considered a bit “R-rated”, such as birth control, the controversial case such as Roe v. Wade, and the drug culture.

 

So, which game are you going to try first?