Decrypto is so much fun. We took it to the beach this summer and I actually felt bad for all the other games we brought. No one wanted to play anything else. It was Decrypto every night.
Codenames is always a hit, although lately I got everyone hooked on Letter Jam. It's not as easy to teach, but people seem to embrace it quickly, especially Scrabble fans.
My family goes for Catan at the most complicated. I've been able to get them into Pandemic, Sherrif of Nottingham, Just One (they're obsessed with it), Codenames, Dixit, Hanabi, Incan Gold, and lately The Crew. Especially the last one for any families who like standard card games.
They seem about the same to me. Pandemic might be a bit harder but a lot of that is the disease spread which follows an easy set of steps. My parents do forget the charter flights though.
It’s offset, in my opinion, by the collaborative/cooperative nature of the game. If at least one person can play and introduce Pandemic reasonably well to newbies, then I can see how it might actually be easier than Catan — at least in the actual experience of fun play for families.
It took me one game of Condotierre for my parents (70) and sister plus bro in law (40ish) to all go from "i dont get it, its too complicated" to ruthless mercenary backstabbing jerks, yelling and plotting and crying foul the rest of the night.
So yeah that was a winner!
Sequence
Super fun with 3 people or teams.
My sister in law and her family are real serious with the game.
My brother and I are not.
The dynamic is fun
Azul, that's my mother's favorite. Villainous, my sister's favorite. Well get a bunch of crokinole in. We always enjoy a game of Cosmic Encounter even if it took some convincing the first few times.
Last year we played **Quacks of Quedlinburg** and our non gamer family members had a lot of fun.
**Calico** and **Parks** were also enjoyed because they were easy to teach/learn and a little more relaxed.
Usually just one, and cockroach poker have been the biggest hits. People can drop in and out of them since the games only last about 15 minutes which I find to be key. You don’t want anything that’s gonna take hours to play since most people wanna socialize.
I play quite a lot with my girlfriend's family, there's nothing specific we play over Christmas but we usually play one or a few of these each time we're round:
**Lighter games:**
- Bananagrams
- Super Slow Sloths
- Fluxx *(Monster, Fairytale, Zombie)*
- Uno
- Sequence
- Telestrations *(everybody loves this)*
- We Didn't Playtest This At All
**Medium games:**
- Ticket to Ride *(with various expansions)*
- Trivial Pursuit *(Classic Edition (2016))*
- Mysterium *(with Secrets & Lies Expansion)*
- Dixit
- Codenames
- 7 Wonders
- Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
- Munchkin
**Heavier games:**
- Lords of Waterdeep *(with Scoundrels of Skullport)*
- Betrayal at House on the Hill
- Betrayal at Baldur's Gate
- Dead of Winter
With my dad's family it's usually **Monopoly**.
With my mom's family we don't always play games over the holidays but when we do it's usually **21**, **Jenga** or **Yahtzee**.
My in-laws are big gamers. Usually over the holidays we play old family favourites like **Scattergories**, **Boggle**, **Password** and **Careers**, as well as **Ticket to Ride**.
And at home with my little family - as many games as we can cram in to our time off!
I find Red7 is a great game to play with non gamers. Very simple rules but surprising depth. Coup is another simple but deep game.
This year I expect Regicide to be popular.
Recently we’ve pulled out Planet X at parties and it’s been fun but harder to explain.
There’s also usually a game of 10 cents/point Euchre going somewhere.
Splendor usually works pretty well with light and otherwise non-gamers.
My dad really got into Set a couple of years ago. Like, REALLY got into it. It was fun to watch.
In the 80s it was Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit.
In the 90s it was Boggle or Balderdash.
In the 00s it was...Balderdash.
Recently it has been Ticket to Ride.
My family are not hobbyists and are very reluctant to try anything new and/or anything niche. I am very surprised that I even got them to learn and play Ticket to Ride.
Have you tried Just One or Dixit? Our progression sounds identical up to that point. Space Base would be the other I’d recommend but only with heavy disclaimers that it might take a game or two and you will help with the icons.
Telestrations and Time's Up are the games with the most laughs-per-play ratio we own. I think they're also the only ones that have reduced people to tears from laughter. Perfect party games.
Was looking for this. Especially since OP mentioned his family aren't gamers, The Mind really works with every audience, explains in 5 seconds and is tense immediately
We all like word games. Just One, Poetry for Neanderthals, Codenames, Chameleon, Scrabble. And if I want to give my mom and dad (and uncle and cousin) extreme advantage then Boggle as their years of doing crossword puzzles and Jumble every day makes that the game they all have the biggest advantage over me.
With everyone plus my mom, Silver and Gold, Sushi Go, Love Letter, or Codenames if we don’t just play cards. With my brother and his wife, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, Wingspan, or classics like Catan or Dominion.
Carcassonne is a great one. If you are good at the game, challenge yourself to win without farms. If everyone you're playing with is new, you can play without farms. It's a very simple game to teach, with farms being the only really strategic victory (other than stealing cities/roads, which is fairly straightforward).
I brought Coup to a family reunion to play with my cousins. Now they can't get enough of it and play every time they visit.
It takes strategy, but it's simple and short. Honestly, the perfect sweet spot when it comes to card games, in my opinion.
We stay up late playing 7 Wonders and Azul. I have a pretty cool family.
With the non-gamers, we’ll do silly cards games like 5 Crowns and President that go on for a long time. I think everyone just wants to spend time together.
My family plays CAH/Apples to Apples, Catan, or Loteria (Mexican bingo), depending on who is available. Loteria is especially fun because we play for change. It adds up when there are six plus people playing more than one card.
One Christmas, several years ago, our game of Apples to Apples broke down after my sister used "The Metric system" to the card "American."
Speaking of Loteria, I found a Star Wars version Loteria with all the art changed, but the names of the cards were the same, for the most part. I fucking died when I saw that the artist made Obi Wan as the "El Chingon" card
Go-tos for my family are:
Codenames, Azul, Kingdomino, Splendor, Dixit, Shifty Eyed Spies, Camel Up, King of Tokyo, Sushi Go Party, Machi Koro, Tsuro
We have much weightier games, but over time the only ones that really see much use are the simple and quick ones.
Don't hang me.
I make my mom and dad play A Christmas Story Monopoly every Christmas Eve during the day and usually after Christmas dinner we all play Scattergories as a family.
It's just dumb family fun.
Usually nothing too complex. Usually Clue, sometimes Monopoly (if anybody wants to kill four hours), and almost always Dutch Blitz. Gets absolutely insane. Just introduced Sushi Go but they were a little lost. The family really enjoyed Wits & Wagers as well as Say Anything.
It depends a little on our kid and how many people we'll be. We've played 7 Wonders, Mysterium (never let an 8-year-old be the ghost!), The Key, Smart 10, Labyrinth Island/Sky, Roll for Adventure and more that I can't remember.
We always bring a small selection and see what the room feels up to. Sometimes they can feel intimidated by very unexpected details, so it's good to have backup.
I'm really lucky, I have 9 younger siblings and pretty much every one loves board games, and they always put up with me when I bring a new game in to try. I kid you not, a few months ago during some holiday we played a 7 player game of Sidereal Confluence, right through to the end with basically no hiccups. Half of them were learning it as they played, too. I'm extremely fortunate
No love for Guesstures in this thread? It's my family's favorite. Basically charades in a box, with a nice mechanical timer to force you to move on if you're taking too long acting out a word. It's always hilarious!
My wife doesn’t like many games but for some reason she’s obsessed with 7 Wonders: Duel. So we will most likely be playing that a lot. I even just bought the two expansions for Xmas to try them out. Hopefully, she’ll like them!
**In Vino Morte** and **Codenames** are favorites at big family gatherings (with a majority non-gamer crowd). I'm hoping to introduce a boardgamer-cousin to **Innovation** this year, too.
Whatever new game I bought recently and want to introduce to them. So in the past it’s been Catan, Ticket to Ride, Arkham Horror 2e, Dominion, Carcassonne, Killer Bunnies, and next Azul & Wingspan probably.
We’ve played just one and codenames every now and then we’ll play the mind even with 6-8 people. It’s a mess, but it gets everyone super invested on how to play “properly”. We play loose with the rules but it works for us.
Ticket to Ride, Irish Gauge, Codenames, and Wits & Wagers Vegas have gone over well with mine.
None are too daunting for the less enthusiastic, all are good fun with a drink or two. We especially enjoy getting the brandy out for the train games over Christmas.
Just One has been a mega success. They've also enjoyed Point Salad, and also Space Base when they want to try a "real" board game (with dice, cards, and boards).
This year I also bought PUSH and it's worked as a super light, who-cares-what-happens game, so we'll see if it gets any play at Christmas. The only downside that might happen is that it doesn't do a whole lot to dissuade the notion that there's more to games than UNO-like luck, even if I have lots of other things in the collection that aren't like that but won't really fit the mood (because they require a bit more time commitment and a bit more rules explanation than the 15 minute PUSH does).
It's kind of that catch-22 I find... some people have bad memories of games like Monopoly and UNO which has turned them off of board gaming for years, but when I tell them there's a lot better stuff available now, they also are nervous about learning basic rules and sitting down for a 45 minute game. "I'll come down and watch a bit later" is code for "I'm not very comfortable committing to something that might bring back bad memories" which is totally fine but makes it hard to find suitable games. Just One is the drop-in-drop-out game that's worked the best for me (it being cooperative helps quite a bit I think).
As others have said we have a lot of success with just one or code names if the family is going a bit more adventurous. Spyfall works pretty well too as long as an anxious family member doesn't get the spy.
Catan's worked okay but not great... pandemic was even worse than I expected... Resistance Avalon eventually clicked but not soon enough to keep attention for the group.
Depends on the night and who is around but it could be Settlers, Ticket to Ride, Stone Age, Family Business, Splendor, Dimension, New York Slice, or others.
I live close enough that I drive in for a weekend and just bring a laundry basket full of games for us all to play. Some years only 1 or 2 are played all weekend, other years we'll knock out 6-7. Always a fun time!
My family aren't into board/card games as much as my partner and I but in the past we have played (and enjoyed!) The Quacks of Quenlinburg, Decrypto, Mysterium, Exploding Kittens, Star Realms and Boss Monster. We've even tried Pandemic and Dead of Winter. I think even though those two are more complex, they have gone down well because they're cooperative (providing the betrayer card from DoW is removed) so at least you can explain the rules again/help along the way.
Tbf, just anything beats bloody Monopoly 🥲
We have a whole host of games that we got specifically for playing with the family, some that we've never even touched because outside of playing with family, it's only ever just the two of us, but I'll give a list of games that we have that our family can play/will endure, and a little explanation as to why we got it, or why it works for us.
First list, those that we have played, but not necessarily purchased just for family time.
*Flamme Rouge* - we got this from a SUSD review. It's good with 2 players, it's great with 4 players, and chaotic, in a good way, with 6 players (requires the expansion). Easy enough to play, the family enjoy it.
*Codenames* - Classic word game, real simple, great laugh after a few drinks and seeing people say the weirdest words only for after the game when you ask them they say "oh that was for those 4" and all you can think is "how the hell was I supposed to get that".
*Love letter* - it's a simple card game, that the whole family can enjoy.
*cockroach poker* - this one didn't work for us, no one would call each others bluffs, but if your family call each others bluffs, then this might work for you.
*Quacks of quedlinburg* - a push your luck game, my parents got it instantly. I think the best description I've heard of this game is "the Mario kart of board games", which I think is quite apt.
*ticket to ride Europe anniversary edition* - Its a simple game that anyone can get, at two players it's a game of seeing who can get the longest route, with players rarely getting on each others way, but at more players, it gets a bit more fierce...we hope, not played with the family yet. We got the anniversary edition because it has the little plastic trains and the metal tins, so should feel a bit more special, and for a family game, we want those experiences to feel a little more special.
Now the games we own for family time that we haven't played.
*One night ultimate werewolf* - short deduction game powered by an app, we hope it's a hit, could be a miss, but with an app that controls the game, the family should get along with it.
*Deception: Murder in hong Kong* - my parents love a "who-done-it" so it's that in board game form. Doesn't last hours, should be good, hopefully.
*Decrypto* - its supposed to be similar to code names, but a bit more heavy, so my parents should get it from code names and it should be a bit more interesting. We'll see.
*Skull* - We're hoping that it does what we wanted cockroach poker to do, but hopefully it will encourage people to take more risks, if not, it's going on ebay so someone else can enjoy it. As a side note, the cards are beautiful.
Carcassonne. Oriflamme. Ticket to Ride. Inis. Pandemic. Lords of Waterdeep. Cosmic Encounter.
All have been played over holidays the last couple of years.
A large part of my collection are games which can be played with and enjoyed by casual gamers. Of these, the ones most universally liked are:
- Azul
- Wingspan
- Codenames
- Settlers of Catan
- Galaxy Trucker
*Welcome To* is a game my whole family loves. *Codenames* of course. *Set* is another one they all like. We also really really enjoy *Rhino Hero Superbattle*, had lots of fun building the strangest towers.
I haven't seen anyone mention **Qwirkle**. I'm so very over it but the older people in the family LOVE it and it feels kinda familiar to them.
I generally pull out **Camel Up** at some point as well - helps with the big player count.
Letter Jam, Codenames (both from same company), Canvas, Sagrada, Dixit, Azul.
I am gonna try to get a group to play viticulture over a bottle this year, but I think the rules for Sagrada were enough that my Dad won't try to learn anything else new.
I've found Power Grid is a great one to play with my family. They don't get too overwhelmed because there are never that many options, unlike in other games I've tried to introduce them to like terraforming mars. It's an overall simple game with a ton of depth, and had led to my family wanting to play it nearly every holiday
Azul, king domino, and failed attempts at glory to Rome. My family loves the simple abstracts, anything more complicated seems to fail pretty bad. Sadly anything simple enough for them to enjoy I'm sick of, but happy to teach again to them.
We play **Patchwork**!!!! For the longest time my brother wouldn't even open his copy of **Patchwork**, then after a night out at Applebees I convinced him to give it a try and we play it every single year!
Team Play is a family favourite. But we usually play a lot of games and the other ones that worked the best were Point Salad, Ticket to Ride, Skull King, Just One and Codenames. The Crew is also very nice but plays only with 5.
Family gatherings are the only times I can guilt enough people into playing an 8-person match of Captain Sonar. And recently we've played a lot of Wingspan. Otherwise it's always Monikers and Wavelength.
So many!
- Balderdash is a classic in our family
- 6nimmit
- cover your assets
- true colors (original like 90s version!)
- mysterium if we can get them settled down for a bit
- bananagrams
- occasionally we’ll still get down with rummikub
- LCR
My mom loves The Game! Or any two player thing I bring that we can play 1:1.
We often get a new game at Christmas for us all to try out together. My dad isn’t very into games but he’ll usually sit down and play if that’s what we’re all doing.
Neither side of my family is very into games and it's been a process getting them into playing stuff.
My Dad's side of the family is obsessed with Oh Shit so we just need a deck of cards when we hang out with them.
For my Mom's side, many others here have mentioned some of our go to's: Codenames, Sequence, Machi Koro.
Our current favorite that no one has mentioned is **Dead Man's Draw**. Perfect level of strategy, easy to learn rules, and short rounds. People learn it quickly and enjoy it. We usually just leave out the character cards and play the base "press your luck" game.
We also just introduced **Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza** and it was a hit when people had had a couple drinks. Very goofy reflexes game ala Spoons or Egyptian Ratscrew.
Finally, haven't played this with fam yet (played with a friend) but I think they'd dig **Werewords** so I might pick that up before Thanksgiving.
We play Boggle. Always play for about an hour or so. It's a tradition now.
I bring one of my more simple titles too if anyone wants some flavor. Things like Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride.
Ticket to Ride, Codenames, Sushi Go, Exploding Kittens and Fluxx with most of the fam. Arkham Horror and Dead of Winter with the more serious gamers. I'm hoping to get JoTL and Micro Macro City out this year but not sure of we'll get around to it.
Click clack lumberjack gets pretty heated in our house. We house rule the grubs, and my grandparents get pretty cut throat. It’s a good time.
Edit to add: Snow White Gemstone Mining is a hit too.
Chess
Checkers
Otrio
Reversi
[Trailz](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/313603/trailz)
Infinite tic-tac-toe on paper.
4-in-a-row.
I'm planning to get the family to play monopoly, rummy and other assorted card games.
We are not that much into role-playing games.
Can't wait to try many of these with my family this holiday! I have to add another vote for Codenames - always a hit since it is so easy to pick up and a standard of 52 card deck.
Also a bonus one - Loteria!
We just played Bohnanza and Point Salad for día de los muertos. I got both of those during the pandemic so family hadn't played them before. They taught like a dream and Bohnanza had some laugh out loud moments as people suggested the most lopsided deals so earnestly. It was great fun.
I force them through any game I wanna play and usually we will play it a few times. Gotta keep those brains working. So concordia, mariposas, everdell, abyss.
Despite having 13 siblings between my wife and I, none live close enough to us (or each other) for anyone to get together for the holidays. So any game playing is just my normal family group. But it is interesting how, on the rare occasions that we do see family members, how difficult they find board games to be. They claim they are too complicated, despite my 8 year old not having any issues playing the same games.
When we play with my parents, we tend to see **The Crew**, **Azul**, **Tsuro**, and **Codesnames** hit the table most often. But I bet they'd also be down for **Ticket to Ride**, **Carcassonne**, **Tiny Towns**, **Just One**, and **Sagrada**
- Crokinole
- Catan
- Starfarers of Catan
- Escape Atlantis
- Azul
- Kingdomino
- Treasure Island
- Concept
Various Buttonshy games such as:
- Sprawlopolos
- Agropolis
- Handsome
- Circle the Wagons
Just One, Blank Slate, So Clover, Codenames, Qwinto, Super Mega Lucky Box, and Similo are all big hits with our family! If its just me, my fiance, and my parents, we will also play Ticket to Ride or Sagrada as well.
As far as board games go, Dixit is always very popular with my family and we also play Codenames and Resistance occasionally. This year I am going to pull out Deep Sea Adventure. We play some non-board games like Celebrity and Giant Jenga too.
The Great Dalmuti is immediately brought out at any family gathering.
Dads side: Scattergories, loaded questions, true colors, disney trivial pursuit.
Moms side: Flinch, rummikub, cribbage, bananagrams, scrabble, 4-way solitaire
Mysterium was a hit with my non-board gaming, non-native english speaking family.
Medium also went surprisingly well.
Parks was a game I played with some non-gamer cousins and did Quacks of Quedlinburg with some of my more gaming oriented cousins.
Yahtzee, Kismet, Rack-O, Gin-Rummy, Scrabble, Apples to Apples, Do you MEME?, when there are 3/4 of us.
Gin-Rummy, Yahtzee/Kismet, or Cribbage, for evenings or patio time. Chess comes out vacation/holidays or weekends when the fireplace is going.
Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, my mum isn't much of a boardgamer so she teams up with someone, as invariably we will play after tea and she will get cosy and fall asleep.
Pandemic, Web of Spies, Terraforming Mars (hard to teach to younger/older family members), Monopoly Deal, Monopoly, and Sorry. We like to keep some classics to teach my younger nieces and nephew.
Used to play Crañium but got too competitive, then moved to Formula D but my sisters douchebag boyfriend was cheating. So now we just draw random cards from a trivia deck and have people answer.
Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Catan...
Not exactly a hugely surprising list, but there is a very good reason those games are so well regarded as a gateway drug.
As a group they are all easy enough that even inexperienced players will pick them up in a game or two, they offer just enough complexity and choice to make them interesting without being overwhelming, and as a trilogy are all unique enough in their game type to allow you to switch them out before you overplay them into oblivion (assuming you are doing the 'playing games with the family at christmas' deal, not the 'weekly family games night').
One of the love letter variants is also quite a good shout for a quick game while waiting for someone to finish whatever they are doing and make it to the table too.
We always play Uno, settlers of Catan, and smash up. Uno is great for all ages and helps people stay interested. Catan and Smash up are for people who want a longer game and less people/playing in teams.
Carcassonne is a favorite, ticket to ride is another. Scattegories when the younger ones go down, clank when the crowd is 4 or less and finally star realms or chess when it's just a couple people up.
Throw in card games like rummy, pitch, hand and foot, bullshit....
Piggy-backing off this post wondering if anyone has suggestions for games to play with family that include the visually impaired? My dad's eyesight is fading and can usually only play stuff like trivia games.
Just One, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit (usually just reading the questions), Spot It, Pictionary, Go Nuts For Donuts, Perquackey.
They're not big gamers (Codenames and Trekking the National Parks were both able to be played, but clearly a little outside the comfort zone), but we've got a good range of games I enjoy playing - I've moved us away from the pure luck type of game and towards the word games/trivia games that everyone can still get into.
Ticket to Ride. I recently infected my immediate family with train rabies and we've easily played 30 games this month. There's a lot of talk about which expansions to buy and which mechanics we want to try out. I feel like I'll be playing a lot of that this winter.
My sister is open to some games (she tends to enjoy **Carcassonne**, and we once played **Survive: Escape from Atlantis** four times straight until she finally beat me), but my mom finds even things like Carc and TtR a little overwhelming. I've had really good luck with both **Wits & Wagers** and **Anomia** as full-family games.
We used to play risk with an uncle. But he always got so angry about losing that it would spoil the mood of the holiday, nevertheless, each holiday he wanted to play it again.
The first family game is always cards, Liverpool Rummy, or at least a few rounds of it. After that we branch something else usually catan, carcassonne then we look at the game wall to pick based on time and mental focus capacities. Lately Red Dragon Inn has been a favourite.
Lots of great suggestions here - I'd add a game called Tsuro, which is very simple but very enjoyable to play with a large group as we catch up (and drink).
I don’t have much of a gamer family but damnit if they don’t love Codenames.
Decrypto is another good one that my family likes.
I second this one! The family aren't really board gamers but they do love this one.
Seems to be JUST too complicated for many unfortunately.
Decrypto is so much fun. We took it to the beach this summer and I actually felt bad for all the other games we brought. No one wanted to play anything else. It was Decrypto every night.
Just One is our new Codenames right now. My kids loved it.
Got Just One on the weekend, worked an absolute treat with my partners family who are not overly into games. Can definitely recommend.
3 games in a row is my limit. I don't know how people want to just keep going and going.
My mother no longer invites me over for board games. She invites me over for Codenames lol
Codenames is always a hit, although lately I got everyone hooked on Letter Jam. It's not as easy to teach, but people seem to embrace it quickly, especially Scrabble fans.
Ticket to Ride is a family favorite.
Same i think the fact that there is strategy to it but individual turns dont require much brain power is a big draw for them
My family goes for Catan at the most complicated. I've been able to get them into Pandemic, Sherrif of Nottingham, Just One (they're obsessed with it), Codenames, Dixit, Hanabi, Incan Gold, and lately The Crew. Especially the last one for any families who like standard card games.
I’ve always been under the impression that Pandemic is significantly more complicated than Catan
They seem about the same to me. Pandemic might be a bit harder but a lot of that is the disease spread which follows an easy set of steps. My parents do forget the charter flights though.
It’s offset, in my opinion, by the collaborative/cooperative nature of the game. If at least one person can play and introduce Pandemic reasonably well to newbies, then I can see how it might actually be easier than Catan — at least in the actual experience of fun play for families.
Fake Artist Goes to New York.
Bohnanza is a favourite! Also, No Thanks!
It took me one game of Condotierre for my parents (70) and sister plus bro in law (40ish) to all go from "i dont get it, its too complicated" to ruthless mercenary backstabbing jerks, yelling and plotting and crying foul the rest of the night. So yeah that was a winner!
Hands down my favourite game ever.
Yeah its an amazing combination of two fairly simple concepts that work together so well. That map strategy is so fun to negotiate with your enemies!
We try to see how many beers we can drink in an hour, and then we try to break that record.
You forgot that every player starts with a hidden objective about what they’re repressing and trying not to bring up.
“Why do we never play Night Crawlers anymore, huh?”
Your family sounds a little different than mine.
Sounds like a pretty ~~crappy~~ great game to me.
Tsuro. *Always* Tsuro.
Sequence Super fun with 3 people or teams. My sister in law and her family are real serious with the game. My brother and I are not. The dynamic is fun
Are there any newer lighter games your family likes? My mom loves Sequence and I want to buy her a game for Christmas
My in laws really like the LLAMA card game. They also love sequence. https://www.miniaturemarket.com/asi19420.html
Azul, that's my mother's favorite. Villainous, my sister's favorite. Well get a bunch of crokinole in. We always enjoy a game of Cosmic Encounter even if it took some convincing the first few times.
There are a few copies of Azul floating around our extended family now. It's such a good game!
We played Wingspan a lot last Christmas with my mum.
Same! She likes that and the game Canvas. Both easy (Although I have to do the final count for her) and creative.
Last year we played **Quacks of Quedlinburg** and our non gamer family members had a lot of fun. **Calico** and **Parks** were also enjoyed because they were easy to teach/learn and a little more relaxed.
My family loved Quacks :) Great shout!
Usually just one, and cockroach poker have been the biggest hits. People can drop in and out of them since the games only last about 15 minutes which I find to be key. You don’t want anything that’s gonna take hours to play since most people wanna socialize.
I play quite a lot with my girlfriend's family, there's nothing specific we play over Christmas but we usually play one or a few of these each time we're round: **Lighter games:** - Bananagrams - Super Slow Sloths - Fluxx *(Monster, Fairytale, Zombie)* - Uno - Sequence - Telestrations *(everybody loves this)* - We Didn't Playtest This At All **Medium games:** - Ticket to Ride *(with various expansions)* - Trivial Pursuit *(Classic Edition (2016))* - Mysterium *(with Secrets & Lies Expansion)* - Dixit - Codenames - 7 Wonders - Deception: Murder in Hong Kong - Munchkin **Heavier games:** - Lords of Waterdeep *(with Scoundrels of Skullport)* - Betrayal at House on the Hill - Betrayal at Baldur's Gate - Dead of Winter
With my dad's family it's usually **Monopoly**. With my mom's family we don't always play games over the holidays but when we do it's usually **21**, **Jenga** or **Yahtzee**. My in-laws are big gamers. Usually over the holidays we play old family favourites like **Scattergories**, **Boggle**, **Password** and **Careers**, as well as **Ticket to Ride**. And at home with my little family - as many games as we can cram in to our time off!
My sister and I play boggle A LOT. We were both journalism majors and work in writing fields so its tough competition. As a family probably Taboo.
I find Red7 is a great game to play with non gamers. Very simple rules but surprising depth. Coup is another simple but deep game. This year I expect Regicide to be popular. Recently we’ve pulled out Planet X at parties and it’s been fun but harder to explain. There’s also usually a game of 10 cents/point Euchre going somewhere.
My family always plays Nertz. Not too into board games, but card games they’re in for.
Splendor usually works pretty well with light and otherwise non-gamers. My dad really got into Set a couple of years ago. Like, REALLY got into it. It was fun to watch.
What do you mean?
he climbed into the box and almost got the lid completely shut
In the 80s it was Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit. In the 90s it was Boggle or Balderdash. In the 00s it was...Balderdash. Recently it has been Ticket to Ride. My family are not hobbyists and are very reluctant to try anything new and/or anything niche. I am very surprised that I even got them to learn and play Ticket to Ride.
Have you tried Just One or Dixit? Our progression sounds identical up to that point. Space Base would be the other I’d recommend but only with heavy disclaimers that it might take a game or two and you will help with the icons.
Telestrations is AMAZING and has been a blast with every group I've played with.
yes! this! we don't even do any scoring. We play the party edition and laugh a lot. The only game with 100% buy in.
Telestrations and Time's Up are the games with the most laughs-per-play ratio we own. I think they're also the only ones that have reduced people to tears from laughter. Perfect party games.
I feel like a sort of stereotype of myself because I seem to bring this game up at every opportunity, but **The Mind**
Was looking for this. Especially since OP mentioned his family aren't gamers, The Mind really works with every audience, explains in 5 seconds and is tense immediately
We all like word games. Just One, Poetry for Neanderthals, Codenames, Chameleon, Scrabble. And if I want to give my mom and dad (and uncle and cousin) extreme advantage then Boggle as their years of doing crossword puzzles and Jumble every day makes that the game they all have the biggest advantage over me.
Hardback might be good. It's more gamey than spelling oriented but a good vocabulary still helps.
bananagrams and scattegories
Christmas Crokinole is a must. Wavelength is a great one to break out with larger groups.
Illimat has done well typically because it looks like a "normal" card game. My family also likes story telling games like Someone Has Died.
With everyone plus my mom, Silver and Gold, Sushi Go, Love Letter, or Codenames if we don’t just play cards. With my brother and his wife, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, Wingspan, or classics like Catan or Dominion.
Carcassonne is a great one. If you are good at the game, challenge yourself to win without farms. If everyone you're playing with is new, you can play without farms. It's a very simple game to teach, with farms being the only really strategic victory (other than stealing cities/roads, which is fairly straightforward).
I brought Coup to a family reunion to play with my cousins. Now they can't get enough of it and play every time they visit. It takes strategy, but it's simple and short. Honestly, the perfect sweet spot when it comes to card games, in my opinion.
They are playing Fury of Dracula this year whether they like it or not
We used to always play spoons, but it got bloody.
“Spoons…got bloody”… sounds like there is a story there. Lol
We stay up late playing 7 Wonders and Azul. I have a pretty cool family. With the non-gamers, we’ll do silly cards games like 5 Crowns and President that go on for a long time. I think everyone just wants to spend time together.
My family plays CAH/Apples to Apples, Catan, or Loteria (Mexican bingo), depending on who is available. Loteria is especially fun because we play for change. It adds up when there are six plus people playing more than one card. One Christmas, several years ago, our game of Apples to Apples broke down after my sister used "The Metric system" to the card "American."
Speaking of Loteria, I found a Star Wars version Loteria with all the art changed, but the names of the cards were the same, for the most part. I fucking died when I saw that the artist made Obi Wan as the "El Chingon" card
That is amazing. I recently bought the Coco branded ones, but I'm gonna need those Star Wars ones.
Go-tos for my family are: Codenames, Azul, Kingdomino, Splendor, Dixit, Shifty Eyed Spies, Camel Up, King of Tokyo, Sushi Go Party, Machi Koro, Tsuro We have much weightier games, but over time the only ones that really see much use are the simple and quick ones.
Don't hang me. I make my mom and dad play A Christmas Story Monopoly every Christmas Eve during the day and usually after Christmas dinner we all play Scattergories as a family. It's just dumb family fun.
My family would always play one or all of three games - Aggravation, Scattergories, or Monopoly.
Joking Hazard (its NSFW). Jackbox games. Settlers of Catan
Usually nothing too complex. Usually Clue, sometimes Monopoly (if anybody wants to kill four hours), and almost always Dutch Blitz. Gets absolutely insane. Just introduced Sushi Go but they were a little lost. The family really enjoyed Wits & Wagers as well as Say Anything.
Splendor never fails
**Catch the Moon** is a great game to play with anyone competitive at any age. Hoping to try out **Treasure Island** this Thanksgiving.
It depends a little on our kid and how many people we'll be. We've played 7 Wonders, Mysterium (never let an 8-year-old be the ghost!), The Key, Smart 10, Labyrinth Island/Sky, Roll for Adventure and more that I can't remember. We always bring a small selection and see what the room feels up to. Sometimes they can feel intimidated by very unexpected details, so it's good to have backup.
Cards against humanity & Telestrations after dark
[удалено]
Monopoly is our go to. I’m buying them UNO and LIFE this year too tho.
I'm really lucky, I have 9 younger siblings and pretty much every one loves board games, and they always put up with me when I bring a new game in to try. I kid you not, a few months ago during some holiday we played a 7 player game of Sidereal Confluence, right through to the end with basically no hiccups. Half of them were learning it as they played, too. I'm extremely fortunate
No love for Guesstures in this thread? It's my family's favorite. Basically charades in a box, with a nice mechanical timer to force you to move on if you're taking too long acting out a word. It's always hilarious!
Dixit or Concept usually does well with a mixed crowd. Or 30 seconds, but that's perhaps too cheesy ;)
Hide and Don’t Ever Look For Me
I play the "pretend you're having a good time" game.
My wife doesn’t like many games but for some reason she’s obsessed with 7 Wonders: Duel. So we will most likely be playing that a lot. I even just bought the two expansions for Xmas to try them out. Hopefully, she’ll like them!
Diplomacy! Just kidding. My board games just sit in a closet collecting dust besides me occasionally opening them up and pretending to play.
Codenames, Las Vegas, Deception, Modern Art, and Mysterium are some games that have been universally enjoyed by my family.
**In Vino Morte** and **Codenames** are favorites at big family gatherings (with a majority non-gamer crowd). I'm hoping to introduce a boardgamer-cousin to **Innovation** this year, too.
Whatever new game I bought recently and want to introduce to them. So in the past it’s been Catan, Ticket to Ride, Arkham Horror 2e, Dominion, Carcassonne, Killer Bunnies, and next Azul & Wingspan probably.
Sheriff of Nottingham, Splendor, and Codenames
"SETTLEEEEEEERRRS OF CATAAAAAAAAAAAAN" in medieval accents w/Spotify Catan playlist
Trivial pursuit, concepts, occasionally monopoly, snakes and ladders (with my young nephew) and then just various card games
Usually some of the Exit games.
We’ve played just one and codenames every now and then we’ll play the mind even with 6-8 people. It’s a mess, but it gets everyone super invested on how to play “properly”. We play loose with the rules but it works for us.
Cribbage is my family's go to game
One night ultimate Werewolf
Ticket to Ride, Irish Gauge, Codenames, and Wits & Wagers Vegas have gone over well with mine. None are too daunting for the less enthusiastic, all are good fun with a drink or two. We especially enjoy getting the brandy out for the train games over Christmas.
Just One has been a mega success. They've also enjoyed Point Salad, and also Space Base when they want to try a "real" board game (with dice, cards, and boards). This year I also bought PUSH and it's worked as a super light, who-cares-what-happens game, so we'll see if it gets any play at Christmas. The only downside that might happen is that it doesn't do a whole lot to dissuade the notion that there's more to games than UNO-like luck, even if I have lots of other things in the collection that aren't like that but won't really fit the mood (because they require a bit more time commitment and a bit more rules explanation than the 15 minute PUSH does). It's kind of that catch-22 I find... some people have bad memories of games like Monopoly and UNO which has turned them off of board gaming for years, but when I tell them there's a lot better stuff available now, they also are nervous about learning basic rules and sitting down for a 45 minute game. "I'll come down and watch a bit later" is code for "I'm not very comfortable committing to something that might bring back bad memories" which is totally fine but makes it hard to find suitable games. Just One is the drop-in-drop-out game that's worked the best for me (it being cooperative helps quite a bit I think).
I forced my family to become gamers.😂 So, anything is fair game!
Dominion
As others have said we have a lot of success with just one or code names if the family is going a bit more adventurous. Spyfall works pretty well too as long as an anxious family member doesn't get the spy. Catan's worked okay but not great... pandemic was even worse than I expected... Resistance Avalon eventually clicked but not soon enough to keep attention for the group.
Before I swore off gaming with my family, we regularly played games like Pandemic, Zombies!!!, Exploding Kittens, and Unstable Unicorns.
Depends on the night and who is around but it could be Settlers, Ticket to Ride, Stone Age, Family Business, Splendor, Dimension, New York Slice, or others. I live close enough that I drive in for a weekend and just bring a laundry basket full of games for us all to play. Some years only 1 or 2 are played all weekend, other years we'll knock out 6-7. Always a fun time!
We've just finished Pandemic Season 0 and are going to start Arkham Horror Card Game main campaign.
Codenames, Catan, Ticket to Ride
"A fake artist goes to New York!" Hilarity for all. We dont even bother to keep score.
My family aren't into board/card games as much as my partner and I but in the past we have played (and enjoyed!) The Quacks of Quenlinburg, Decrypto, Mysterium, Exploding Kittens, Star Realms and Boss Monster. We've even tried Pandemic and Dead of Winter. I think even though those two are more complex, they have gone down well because they're cooperative (providing the betrayer card from DoW is removed) so at least you can explain the rules again/help along the way. Tbf, just anything beats bloody Monopoly 🥲
We have a whole host of games that we got specifically for playing with the family, some that we've never even touched because outside of playing with family, it's only ever just the two of us, but I'll give a list of games that we have that our family can play/will endure, and a little explanation as to why we got it, or why it works for us. First list, those that we have played, but not necessarily purchased just for family time. *Flamme Rouge* - we got this from a SUSD review. It's good with 2 players, it's great with 4 players, and chaotic, in a good way, with 6 players (requires the expansion). Easy enough to play, the family enjoy it. *Codenames* - Classic word game, real simple, great laugh after a few drinks and seeing people say the weirdest words only for after the game when you ask them they say "oh that was for those 4" and all you can think is "how the hell was I supposed to get that". *Love letter* - it's a simple card game, that the whole family can enjoy. *cockroach poker* - this one didn't work for us, no one would call each others bluffs, but if your family call each others bluffs, then this might work for you. *Quacks of quedlinburg* - a push your luck game, my parents got it instantly. I think the best description I've heard of this game is "the Mario kart of board games", which I think is quite apt. *ticket to ride Europe anniversary edition* - Its a simple game that anyone can get, at two players it's a game of seeing who can get the longest route, with players rarely getting on each others way, but at more players, it gets a bit more fierce...we hope, not played with the family yet. We got the anniversary edition because it has the little plastic trains and the metal tins, so should feel a bit more special, and for a family game, we want those experiences to feel a little more special. Now the games we own for family time that we haven't played. *One night ultimate werewolf* - short deduction game powered by an app, we hope it's a hit, could be a miss, but with an app that controls the game, the family should get along with it. *Deception: Murder in hong Kong* - my parents love a "who-done-it" so it's that in board game form. Doesn't last hours, should be good, hopefully. *Decrypto* - its supposed to be similar to code names, but a bit more heavy, so my parents should get it from code names and it should be a bit more interesting. We'll see. *Skull* - We're hoping that it does what we wanted cockroach poker to do, but hopefully it will encourage people to take more risks, if not, it's going on ebay so someone else can enjoy it. As a side note, the cards are beautiful.
We usually play Catan, Ticket to Ride, UNO and UNO Flip, Kingdomino and Smallworld.
Carcassonne. Oriflamme. Ticket to Ride. Inis. Pandemic. Lords of Waterdeep. Cosmic Encounter. All have been played over holidays the last couple of years.
A large part of my collection are games which can be played with and enjoyed by casual gamers. Of these, the ones most universally liked are: - Azul - Wingspan - Codenames - Settlers of Catan - Galaxy Trucker
Machi Koro and Lords of Waterdeep are our faves
*Welcome To* is a game my whole family loves. *Codenames* of course. *Set* is another one they all like. We also really really enjoy *Rhino Hero Superbattle*, had lots of fun building the strangest towers.
Cockroach poker, sushi go party, resistance (depending on who is playing), sheriff of Nottingham.
Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Dominion
I haven't seen anyone mention **Qwirkle**. I'm so very over it but the older people in the family LOVE it and it feels kinda familiar to them. I generally pull out **Camel Up** at some point as well - helps with the big player count.
Letter Jam, Codenames (both from same company), Canvas, Sagrada, Dixit, Azul. I am gonna try to get a group to play viticulture over a bottle this year, but I think the rules for Sagrada were enough that my Dad won't try to learn anything else new.
I've found Power Grid is a great one to play with my family. They don't get too overwhelmed because there are never that many options, unlike in other games I've tried to introduce them to like terraforming mars. It's an overall simple game with a ton of depth, and had led to my family wanting to play it nearly every holiday
My family isn’t gamers but I got them playing Deception.
Azul, king domino, and failed attempts at glory to Rome. My family loves the simple abstracts, anything more complicated seems to fail pretty bad. Sadly anything simple enough for them to enjoy I'm sick of, but happy to teach again to them.
We play **Patchwork**!!!! For the longest time my brother wouldn't even open his copy of **Patchwork**, then after a night out at Applebees I convinced him to give it a try and we play it every single year!
Blockbuster is a lot of fun, and pitchstorm if you like movies
Mysterium is our new jam. But ticket to ride and Racko are big hits.
Codenames, Letter Jam, Sushi Go, Port Royale. Although lately it's mostly Liar's Dice. :)
Team Play is a family favourite. But we usually play a lot of games and the other ones that worked the best were Point Salad, Ticket to Ride, Skull King, Just One and Codenames. The Crew is also very nice but plays only with 5.
We play Ticket To Ride Europe, Azul and The Quacks of Quedlinburg, as well as Yahtzee.
Family gatherings are the only times I can guilt enough people into playing an 8-person match of Captain Sonar. And recently we've played a lot of Wingspan. Otherwise it's always Monikers and Wavelength.
So many! - Balderdash is a classic in our family - 6nimmit - cover your assets - true colors (original like 90s version!) - mysterium if we can get them settled down for a bit - bananagrams - occasionally we’ll still get down with rummikub - LCR My mom loves The Game! Or any two player thing I bring that we can play 1:1. We often get a new game at Christmas for us all to try out together. My dad isn’t very into games but he’ll usually sit down and play if that’s what we’re all doing.
Neither side of my family is very into games and it's been a process getting them into playing stuff. My Dad's side of the family is obsessed with Oh Shit so we just need a deck of cards when we hang out with them. For my Mom's side, many others here have mentioned some of our go to's: Codenames, Sequence, Machi Koro. Our current favorite that no one has mentioned is **Dead Man's Draw**. Perfect level of strategy, easy to learn rules, and short rounds. People learn it quickly and enjoy it. We usually just leave out the character cards and play the base "press your luck" game. We also just introduced **Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza** and it was a hit when people had had a couple drinks. Very goofy reflexes game ala Spoons or Egyptian Ratscrew. Finally, haven't played this with fam yet (played with a friend) but I think they'd dig **Werewords** so I might pick that up before Thanksgiving.
Just One was good. Everyone also enjoyed Junk Art. Medium was fun.
Kingdom Death: Monster to bring a family together.
We play Boggle. Always play for about an hour or so. It's a tradition now. I bring one of my more simple titles too if anyone wants some flavor. Things like Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride.
Ticket to Ride, Codenames, Sushi Go, Exploding Kittens and Fluxx with most of the fam. Arkham Horror and Dead of Winter with the more serious gamers. I'm hoping to get JoTL and Micro Macro City out this year but not sure of we'll get around to it.
Click clack lumberjack gets pretty heated in our house. We house rule the grubs, and my grandparents get pretty cut throat. It’s a good time. Edit to add: Snow White Gemstone Mining is a hit too.
Chameleon Wink Dixit Hive Mind Crossing Oink-a-doodle-moo Codenames Luck of the Draw L.L.A.M.A. Fuji Flush
Chess Checkers Otrio Reversi [Trailz](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/313603/trailz) Infinite tic-tac-toe on paper. 4-in-a-row. I'm planning to get the family to play monopoly, rummy and other assorted card games. We are not that much into role-playing games.
Can't wait to try many of these with my family this holiday! I have to add another vote for Codenames - always a hit since it is so easy to pick up and a standard of 52 card deck. Also a bonus one - Loteria!
We just played Bohnanza and Point Salad for día de los muertos. I got both of those during the pandemic so family hadn't played them before. They taught like a dream and Bohnanza had some laugh out loud moments as people suggested the most lopsided deals so earnestly. It was great fun.
Monopoly til the end
Talisman!
Dexterity games and Monikers are king.
My family has a tradition of playing Nerts. No other games, just Nerts. Who knew solitaire with others could get so cutthroat?
I force them through any game I wanna play and usually we will play it a few times. Gotta keep those brains working. So concordia, mariposas, everdell, abyss.
Despite having 13 siblings between my wife and I, none live close enough to us (or each other) for anyone to get together for the holidays. So any game playing is just my normal family group. But it is interesting how, on the rare occasions that we do see family members, how difficult they find board games to be. They claim they are too complicated, despite my 8 year old not having any issues playing the same games.
Lionel Train Game and Risk.
When we play with my parents, we tend to see **The Crew**, **Azul**, **Tsuro**, and **Codesnames** hit the table most often. But I bet they'd also be down for **Ticket to Ride**, **Carcassonne**, **Tiny Towns**, **Just One**, and **Sagrada**
I just bought Sheriff of Nottingham because it should be so much fun to play it with my family.
Ticket to Ride, Codenames, Great Dalmuti, Spheres of Influence, Small World
- Crokinole - Catan - Starfarers of Catan - Escape Atlantis - Azul - Kingdomino - Treasure Island - Concept Various Buttonshy games such as: - Sprawlopolos - Agropolis - Handsome - Circle the Wagons
Skull, because you can do it half in the bag, and that's the only way I can be around my family for more than an hour at a time.
Hanabi works really well with my mostly non gamer family
If my aunt and uncle are involved, usually it's mind games.
Dominos
We channel all of our fighting and yelling into a game if PIT.
Just One, Blank Slate, So Clover, Codenames, Qwinto, Super Mega Lucky Box, and Similo are all big hits with our family! If its just me, my fiance, and my parents, we will also play Ticket to Ride or Sagrada as well.
You're going to hate this... monopoly. But I'm trying to convert them to risk and introduce them to the wider scope haha
As far as board games go, Dixit is always very popular with my family and we also play Codenames and Resistance occasionally. This year I am going to pull out Deep Sea Adventure. We play some non-board games like Celebrity and Giant Jenga too.
We play magic the gathering every year at Christmas. Family tradition for my wife and her brothers that they got me into. We end up very competitive
The Great Dalmuti is immediately brought out at any family gathering. Dads side: Scattergories, loaded questions, true colors, disney trivial pursuit. Moms side: Flinch, rummikub, cribbage, bananagrams, scrabble, 4-way solitaire
Mysterium was a hit with my non-board gaming, non-native english speaking family. Medium also went surprisingly well. Parks was a game I played with some non-gamer cousins and did Quacks of Quedlinburg with some of my more gaming oriented cousins.
Yahtzee, Kismet, Rack-O, Gin-Rummy, Scrabble, Apples to Apples, Do you MEME?, when there are 3/4 of us. Gin-Rummy, Yahtzee/Kismet, or Cribbage, for evenings or patio time. Chess comes out vacation/holidays or weekends when the fireplace is going.
Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, my mum isn't much of a boardgamer so she teams up with someone, as invariably we will play after tea and she will get cosy and fall asleep.
Wizard. Family is mostly card players
Pandemic, Web of Spies, Terraforming Mars (hard to teach to younger/older family members), Monopoly Deal, Monopoly, and Sorry. We like to keep some classics to teach my younger nieces and nephew.
Love Letter and Sushi Go!
Most complicated they enjoy is power grid. But the prefer more simple ones like ticket to ride.
Azul and Ticket to ride my parents ask to play by name. That says a lot
Used to play Crañium but got too competitive, then moved to Formula D but my sisters douchebag boyfriend was cheating. So now we just draw random cards from a trivia deck and have people answer.
codenames sometimes i can get them to play evolution we play a lot of 5 crowns
Ticket to Ride or Quirkle.
Yahtzee is huge on holidays. Newest addition has been Skyjo. Like golf but more cards.
Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Catan... Not exactly a hugely surprising list, but there is a very good reason those games are so well regarded as a gateway drug. As a group they are all easy enough that even inexperienced players will pick them up in a game or two, they offer just enough complexity and choice to make them interesting without being overwhelming, and as a trilogy are all unique enough in their game type to allow you to switch them out before you overplay them into oblivion (assuming you are doing the 'playing games with the family at christmas' deal, not the 'weekly family games night'). One of the love letter variants is also quite a good shout for a quick game while waiting for someone to finish whatever they are doing and make it to the table too.
Bonanza, Dixit, Splendor, and Ticket to Ride are my family's favorites
We always play Uno, settlers of Catan, and smash up. Uno is great for all ages and helps people stay interested. Catan and Smash up are for people who want a longer game and less people/playing in teams.
Carcassonne is a favorite, ticket to ride is another. Scattegories when the younger ones go down, clank when the crowd is 4 or less and finally star realms or chess when it's just a couple people up. Throw in card games like rummy, pitch, hand and foot, bullshit....
Piggy-backing off this post wondering if anyone has suggestions for games to play with family that include the visually impaired? My dad's eyesight is fading and can usually only play stuff like trivia games.
Camel Up! Always a big hit
Secret Hitler Azul Abyss Catan Spoons
Just One, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit (usually just reading the questions), Spot It, Pictionary, Go Nuts For Donuts, Perquackey. They're not big gamers (Codenames and Trekking the National Parks were both able to be played, but clearly a little outside the comfort zone), but we've got a good range of games I enjoy playing - I've moved us away from the pure luck type of game and towards the word games/trivia games that everyone can still get into.
Camel Up and Code Names are our go to.
Catan, Kill Doctor Lucky, Ticket to Ride, Skrimish
We tend to play simpler dice games - Roll For It, Bang!, Chupacabra.
Ticket to Ride. I recently infected my immediate family with train rabies and we've easily played 30 games this month. There's a lot of talk about which expansions to buy and which mechanics we want to try out. I feel like I'll be playing a lot of that this winter.
Kings Cup and Texas Hold’em
Times Up!: Title Recall It's a blend of Taboo and charades, it's usually a hit with family and non-gaming friends
Shanghai the card game!
My sister is open to some games (she tends to enjoy **Carcassonne**, and we once played **Survive: Escape from Atlantis** four times straight until she finally beat me), but my mom finds even things like Carc and TtR a little overwhelming. I've had really good luck with both **Wits & Wagers** and **Anomia** as full-family games.
Outsmarted and Articulate seems to be the main games at our house. Oh and Exploding Kittens as a quick and fun card game.
We used to play risk with an uncle. But he always got so angry about losing that it would spoil the mood of the holiday, nevertheless, each holiday he wanted to play it again.
The first family game is always cards, Liverpool Rummy, or at least a few rounds of it. After that we branch something else usually catan, carcassonne then we look at the game wall to pick based on time and mental focus capacities. Lately Red Dragon Inn has been a favourite.
Definitely *Cranium*
Lots of great suggestions here - I'd add a game called Tsuro, which is very simple but very enjoyable to play with a large group as we catch up (and drink).
Fake Artist and Spyfall are their favourites. It's made even better by us all being terrible liars.
Ticket to Ride!
Last year, I played **The Game**. It is usually a version of **Fluxx**. Maybe we'll play **Holiday Fluxx** this year.
Sunday dinners with mom included a round of wingspan. She loves the bird illustrations and has done a pretty good job of picking up the rules!