These Family Games Are Gifts That Can Help Promote Quality Time
We’ve been so busy lately that the holidays seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Offline commitments have meant we haven’t written as many overviews lately, but we’re working on finding ways to rectify that. But even busy schedules can’t keep us away from our annual gift guides and holiday promotions! As we have done for the past several years, we’ve compiled several guides to offer gift suggestions. This guide to family games is the first of several lists, focusing on games (mostly tabletop, some video), STEM, craft activities and toys. Whether you’re looking for ideas for family bonding or simply need cool gift ideas, we’re here for that. These games are a great starting point.
Of course, it’s okay to treat yourself during the holidays too. If you don’t feel right buying something, then enter one of our upcoming giveaways! We’ll have new giveaways launching daily starting today and running through… (visualize shrug here). Sometimes there will be one a day, sometimes two. You’ll need to come back again and again to see what fun goodies are up for grabs!
We hope these gift guides will help you check someone off your shopping list. Please note that these guides include our affiliate links to Amazon and sometimes other sites. If you make a purchase through one of our links, we may receive a small commission. Not always, and not very much, but we feel strongly that you know that a purchase through our link helps support our site.
Neotopia
Arcane Wonders
Neotopia is a fast paced competitive game of tile placement and pattern building. You will be building elements on the three regions of the city to complete feature cards that you have in hand. A good combination of tile placement and card management can result in very impactful turns, where several cards are completed and the city expands.
Diced Veggies
KTBG
Floating Floors
CardLords
Express Route
The Op Games
Be a part of the mail order revolution in Express Route, where ultramodern shipping technology is in your hands!
Work together to meet increasing consumer demands in this cooperative light strategy game for 1-4 players. Coordinate team actions and use your Specialist abilities to expedite Vehicles making deliveries to eager home shoppers.
Complete the delivery requirements before demand spirals out of control! Features options for solo play and 20 increasingly difficult scenarios to put your planning skills to the test.
Purrfect Match
Greater Than Games
Purrfect Match is about collecting cats, earning cat treats, and messing with your friends! Purrfect match is a set collection game for 2-4 players where players collect cats. The first player to collect two of each kind of cat wins the game! The game features more than 48 unique cats to collect with 22 unique Cat Lover cards. It’s a fun, family game that focuses on set collection, take that!, hand management, and income.
No Context
Skybound Tabletop
At the start of the game, each player will be assigned one of up to 7 target images that they are trying to get everyone else to guess to secure some sweet, SWEET points! These images are selected from some of the most unforgettable panels of Mr. Lovenstein’s catalog.
On their turn, players will select another panel from those available in the comparison row and place it in one of their section of the board’s spaces. They will place the card with the green check mark side face up to indicate their target image is like this card in some way, or with the red x side up saying that their target image is unlike this card in some way. Each player will be able to do this process 3 times to give some guidance to the other players for guessing.
However, at any point if a player feels confident they know what target image card belongs to another player, they may place their corresponding numbered bet card face down in that players bet spot. Players only have one copy for each space so make sure to bide your time or know the risks if you go sooner.
Once all bets are in, players will take turns revealing the guesses made about their card and what card was actually theirs. Correct bets get points in the order they were placed so those who wait too long may miss out on points even if they were correct. Be ready to explain yourself after the round is done as hearing the thoughts behind why your friends made the connections they did is the funniest part of the game!
Memo Rush
FoxMind Toys and Games
Robot Quest Arena
Wise Wizard Games
Robot Quest Arena is a deckbuilding board game where 2-4 players battle to the best Robot Tech in the world. Control, protect, and upgrade your bot as you fight to know other competitors from the arena! Your battery cards give you the energy to move, power your weapons, and buy powerful new cards for your deck. Navigate around the hazards of the arena and blast your opponents to score points.
Flashback: Zombie Kidz
Scorpion Masque
Dive deeper into the #1 children’s game on the BoardGameGeek website and discover a new way to play with your favorite characters! Crack the case together by piecing together memories, jumping from one character’s point of view to another! Discover the story by observing the immersive illustrations, deciding which paths to follow, and using analog tools unlocked throughout the game. Exploring and investigate all the scenarios to understand the past and change the future, thwarting the zombies’ dastardly plan! Replay all three scenarios in a completely different way each time using gizmos that will enrich the overall gameplay experience.
Dragonkeepers
Thames & Kosmos
Even dragons start small. Before they can fly and breathe fire, they need to be well protected. As experienced dragonkeepers, this is exactly your task. To do this, you use the “magic book”. The two open pages show you which dragons, and how many, you can take under your protection. It goes without saying you have a few clever tricks up your sleeve in order to manipulate the book in your favor.
The best dragonkeeper wins this fantastic contest!
Chomp
Allplay
Blind Business
Devir Games
There’s festivity in the air! Ricky is also in the air, the 10-foot-tall donkey-shaped piñata that is the mascot and symbol of the town. The mayor has announced a contest to take down Ricky, and the whole town is invited to participate.
Rewrite the Phrase, while following the Rule, to meet the Goal!
Glom, from the hosts of Nice Games Club, is a fast-paced, quick-witted game of ridiculously reworded remarks. Each round, a common phrase is revealed that players will have to rewrite, according to a random rule, in order to achieve a random goal.
Clever 4Ever
Stronghold Games
Choose dice, then place the numbers into the matching colored area, put together tricky chain-scoring opportunities, and rack up the points. The dice you don’t use are as important as what you do because every die that’s smaller than the chosen one can be used by the other players, keeping everyone in the game at all times.
Mind Space
Allplay
Mind Space is a thoughtful game in which players are trying to achieve serenity by adding emotions to their Brain Board.
Each emotion is represented by a polyomino shape. Five of the possible Seventeen emotion cards will be available each round, and five rolled dice will determine which colors can be used to add those shapes to a Brain Board.
With prior gift guides, we would include our logo as a magic portal to a more detailed write-up about the game or product. You won’t see those this year as we’ve included a lot of items that we’ve never written about. Lots of new choices from what you’ve already read about on our site!
Who in your family do you shop for first?
I’d love to receive Purrfect Match as a gift. It looks really fun!
Several games here I have never heard of. Thanks for a great list. Now to check them out further…
I am surprised by the number of games I haven’t heard of on this list. I will have to check them out.
Chomp is a game that I am most excited about.
Chomp looks fun
more than a couple I’ve missed, have to check Santa’s list.
Several games my kids (and I) are interested in trying! Especially Robot Quest Arena, Flashback: Zombie Kidz, Dragonkeepers and Chomp!
Glom sounds like one we would love to receive!
I’d love to receive Diced Veggies for me and my family to play together!
Dragonkeepers looks cool
My grandson would love Chomp! I really enjoy finding the perfect gift for my people, so its all about giving for me!
Look like family friendly games.
Chomp and Diced Veggies look like fun!
I would love to try them all; however, I’m probably most excited about Chomp, because the game looks like so much fun for me to play with my grandchildren!
so many great ideas
I have not played any of these but they look like fun choices to play with my grandkids
nice list
They all look good, but prrrfect match maybe.
I would love to receive Express Route as a gift.
I would like to win Purrfect Match.
I would like to win Purrfect Match. I think it would be so much fun!!
No Context sounds the most fun. (though Diced Veggies has the funniest name)
Robot Quest Arena looks good.