The Ultimate Board Game Christmas Gift Guide

so you want to buy someone a board game for christmas but you're not sure which one you've clicked on the right video i have over 50 great gift ideas to recommend and i've devised a system to help you find the right one if you do find a game that you want there are links to buy them in the description below to save you time i've put them into categories so you can skip straight to that section of the video here's what all the categories mean easy pleases are games that anyone could play they're easy to understand don't have many rules and take around 20 minutes to play if you're not sure what type of game to get these are the safest bet on this list i would buy these as gifts for anyone except avid board gamers who probably want something a bit more involved and easy pleasers are great to have around at christmas time to play with parents or grandparents party games are designed for big groups so if you're expecting a big family get together this is the perfect category to find a game that everyone can join in on if you're buying for a big family a student someone who hosts a lot of dinner parties anyone that likes playing games with six or more people buy them a party game gateway games are the perfect first board games if you have a friend or family member who doesn't play modern board games but you think they'd like them these are the best places to start them off they're the best modern alternatives to games like monopoly and pluto and the sort of game you can play over and over again next step games a great gift for someone who is already into board games and can handle a bit more of a challenge if they already have a few gateway games then this is the right category for them couples games are ones that work best for two players so make a great gift for anyone who enjoys playing games as a date night stocking stuffers are smaller more affordable games that make good gifts if you're on a budget or just want an extra little present but they're still really fun in their own right finally we have kids games that are suitable for ages 5 and up but if you're buying for someone a bit older then most of the gateway games and easy pleasers would work for kids 8 and above i've made 6 christmas gift videos over the last six years and this is a medley of all of them a christmas mega mix if you want to watch the old videos there are links below and if you find this video useful please click the like button up first are easy pleasers games you can give to almost anyone [Music] cat lady is an adorable card game that is great to play with parents or anyone who finds games too complicated as a cat lady you want to collect lots of cats and cat toys and even costumes for your cat you need to watch out what other players are collecting to see if you can compete with them and you have to feed your cats or they'll run away so make sure to collect the fish milk or chicken that they want picking cards is easy you just select a row or column of cards to take since all the cards are out in the open it makes cat lady a really easy game to teach and for players to understand cat lady is for two to four players and is a great present for cat lovers parents or non-gamers cockroach poker a game of looking your loved ones in the eye and lying to them what could be more perfect for this time of year oh wow i love it how did you know i wanted a tiny jug in cockroach poker you have a hand of cards with creatures on them on your turn you give a card face down to another player announcing what creature it is this is a cockroach no word of a lie it's up to you whether you tell the truth or not and that's what the other player has to work out they can either agree or disagree with your statement if they're right your bluff has failed and the card goes in front of you yes you are a cockroach sorry it is a cockroach was right if they're wrong you've succeeded in fooling them and the card goes in front of them no it's not a cockroach ha yes it is i love how simple this game is it strips out all the unnecessary bits of other bluffing games and leaves the best bit can you lie to your family can you tell when your family are lying to you i didn't eat the last mince pie i brought my teeth every night i respect you as a person you're all liars a lot of you the aim of the game is to get four creatures of the same kind in front of another player and that's when the game ends that player loses because in cockroach poker there are no winners codenames pictures and its older brother code names are games that everyone should be playing with their family at christmas you play in two teams one person has to get their teammates to guess the right pictures from the ones on the table they do this by giving a one word clue followed by a number of how many pictures the clue relates to christmas two the joy of this game is talking through with your teammates what you think the clue means and i love the challenge of coming up with the perfect clue because you have to avoid accidentally leading them to choose the other team's pictures and there's a real race feeling to it because you want to be the first team to find all of your pictures i've played codenames more than any other board game and it never gets old it's as simple as all the christmas games of our childhood but with just enough of a modern twist to make it ten times better just one is the world's simplest party game and one you can play on the couch so it's perfect for the post-christmas dinner slump and it brings the family together because you're working with each other to win the game one player has to guess a word every other player will write down a one-word clue for them in private but before you reveal them you show each other and if any of the clues match you have to wipe them both out they won't be used you show the ones that are left to the guesser and they have one guess to get it right so your clues have to be good but also quirky enough so that the other players won't have written it just one is for three to seven players and it's just the sort of game that can handle your auntie's constant questions your drunk uncle and even grandma falling asleep halfway through if she wants to i'd recommend this game to anyone it's a modern classic las vegas a brilliantly simple and addictive dice game there are six casinos offering different amounts of cash on your turn you roll all of your dice and decide which number to play for example if you rolled four threes you could put all of them on the number three casino the player with the most dice on a casino wins that money but if two or more players have the same number of dice on a casino they cancel each other out and the money goes to the next highest this game is aptly named because at any point every player has the feeling that they can still win this is mine i can do this all i need are two ones damn it llama is the ultimate casual card game it's the modern alternative to uno you're trying to get rid of all of your cards but if you can't play a card on your turn you have to pick up another or you can cut your losses on this round and bow out you get minus points for your leftover cards but sometimes it's worth it to fold if you keep drawing you could end up with a llama which will cost you 10 minus points but you're encouraged to stay in and be brave because if you win a round you can discard 10 minus points llama feels like a classic it's simple addictive fun it's perfect for non-gamers it has the cosy familiarity of uno with an imperceptible sprinkling of magic that makes it so much more if you're looking for a quirky gift that's unlike anything they'll have in their collection get micro macro crime city it's like where's wally turned into a board game micro macro is a huge piece of paper with a detailed illustration of crime city full of delightful characters that you just want to explore and that's the game to solve cases by finding the characters and working out what's going on in the introductory case you have to find this man at a pub then follow his movements through the city to find out how his top hat was stolen each case is a deck of cards with each new card asking a question for you to answer how was the top hat stolen if you follow his route you'll spot a kid in a tree with a fishing rod and then find that kid with the hat on a nearby bench the cases get harder and more intricate as you go through them there are 16 in total then once you're done you can give the game to someone else micro macro crime city is such a fun shared experience and one you could play with anybody there's basically no rules just unfold the paper and you're started making it a great gift for non-gamers in mysterium park you have to solve the murder of someone at the table they play as the ghost giving you cryptic clues from beyond mummy are goes blind the ghost must help the other players eliminate certain suspects secretly assigned to each player they do that by giving each player vision cards as clues mother if i die i've decided i will haunt your dreams huh that's nice the players will look at them and grasp for meaning in these surreal images picking out objects shapes or colors that could connect to the suspects what's wrong with this game all the cards look like my mum's disappointed face it's a fun unique experience that gets everyone discussing theories and making wild interpretations meanwhile the ghost dies all over again having to listen to their nonsense as they all misunderstand their bleedingly obvious clues well the cello is on fire so i believe the ghost is telling me to disregard the musician and these red petals are the same colour as this popcorn packet it wasn't sharon that broke your vars mum it was me i'm sorry mysterium park is a great dinner party game that gets everyone involved and talking it's flexible too you can play it with just two people or up to six sushi go is a card game with adorable cartoon sushi your job is to eat the best meal everyone plays at the same time pick a sushi then pass the rest of your cards to the next player you're trying to collect sets of sushi to get points so watch out for what everyone else is eating is there going to be enough sashimi left for you when it gets around the table timeline a trivia game of guessing dates when i was a kid trivia game meant trivial pursuit and trivial pursuit meant misery who was the prime minister of great britain in 1966 um what's a prime minister wrong trivial pursuit is an unforgiving game if you don't know the answer tough luck timeline levels are playing field by encouraging guessing on your turn you have to add one of your event cards to the timeline in the center keeping it in chronological order well star wars must have been released before i met your father because i remember feeling happy when i saw it you turn over the card to reveal the date if you're right the card stays if you're wrong it's removed and you have to pick up a new card the first person to get rid of their cards wins if asked most people wouldn't know exactly when the barometer was invented but you might have a rough idea in relation to other events if you really don't know you can play a card earlier when the gaps in the timeline are much bigger i don't know when the barometer was invented but i'm fairly certain it was after the taming of fire and before 50 cent released his seminal classic candy shop timeline still captures the best thing about trivia games that great feeling you get when you get it right whether you're a trivia genius and you can pinpoint it exactly or you went with a hunch and it paid off next are party games that need five or more players to play blockbuster is a fun party game for movie fans and a great gift for anyone that rented vhs tapes in the 90s you play on teams and first off two players go head to head to name movies in a category against a timer for example movies with bears in them you shout one out then hit the timer and go back and forth until one player can't think of one the jungle book paddington whoever wins the head-to-head gets to pick which movie cards they will have to get their teammates to guess and which they pass to the other team then in 30 seconds they give their clues one of them they can only give a one-word clue for another they must say a quote from that movie and the third they will act out do a charade blockbuster is a fun twist on games like time's up and monikers for groups from 4 to 10 players you don't need to be a movie buff to be good at it you just need to have heard of some famous movies in color brain the answer to every question is a color what are the colors of the olympic rings to answer you have a hand of color cards to pick from and because there's only 11 colors it means you've always got a chance of getting it right even if you have no idea color brain taps into that classic pub quiz feeling of oh i know this one what is it you've seen the streets on a monopoly board in the google logo hundreds of times but can you rack your brain hard enough to remember at christmas with a million distractions you need games that you can jump straight into color brain is good old-fashioned trivia no explanation required and if you want more sofa friendly trivia fun there's mr lister's quiz shootout which is basically a game of listing things the 10 biggest cats on earth list them lion garfield now this wouldn't be a christmas games list without at least one guessing game you know the drill one person is trying to communicate something to everyone else pictionary time's up charades concept is a new twist on the genre in this game you have to communicate using the board of concepts which contains loads of descriptive icons representing things like man woman building vehicles at first it might seem impossible but if you get creative you can use the board to describe almost anything from taylor swift to quidditch to phrases such as every cloud has a silver lining all the weather is grey lots of wayne is metally don't be stupid it must be a common phrase clouds can be happy i think concept is great for christmas because it's a more relaxed guessing game instead of just rabid shouting you've got to take some time to think through the clues it's a man he's old and angry hitler close you've connected christmas with sadness scrooge the grinch no and he wears blue clothing on his torso daddy it's daddy yes well done tiny tim oh that's what you think of me is it an angry man who hates christmas crosstalk is a game of cryptic communication you're trying to give info to your team without helping your rivals both teams are trying to guess the same thing for example needle in the haystack the twist is when you give a clue it's public and the other team's turn to guess the clue is farmyard chicken run then the other team's clue giver will give a clue and it's your teammate's turn to guess you have to be cagey with your clues because if you're too obvious you'll hand victory to the other team syringe needle in a hate that yes that's where the secret word comes in you give your team one clue that the other team don't know it's the code they need to decipher the clues that you're saying out loud that make no sense to the other team i love the challenge of crosstalk how can you give information to your team whilst the other team listens to everything you say the more you play the more clandestine and unintelligible your clues will become as you're desperate not to give too much away stark dog tears child you sure you're not just picking random words timmy i don't want to give it away john and then suddenly all these disparate words just click together in your mind the boy that cried wolf yay breth brothers ever the crypto is a team game where you're trying to crack each other's code each team has four words assigned one to four every round one player has to communicate a three-digit code to their team by using three words that connect to their code words but you want your clue to be vague because the other team will hear it and build up information about what your code words might be if they know too much they'll use that info to crack your code and win if your family's been enjoying code names for the last few christmases this is a great next step the ultimate christmas gift is a game that the whole family can play together no matter how many there are of you and one that can handle people dipping in and out to check whether the turkey's dry enough yet this year that game is herd mentality which asks you to think like your family what's the best pizza topping you all write down your answer then reveal at the same time the goal is to think like the herd cheese cheese pepperoni ah are you feeling pepper lonely good one mummy if the most people said cheese then everyone who said cheese gets a point it doesn't matter if you think caramelized artichokes are better you were being too much of a maverick and this is why no one ever wants to share a pizza with you there's no right answer you just have to match with one of your family cat i've got cat tea that's not a job it's an animal yes i suppose you're right we still get the points though don't we yes if you ever give an answer that no one else says you're given the pink cow daddy you're the pink cow yeah well you're a little yellow weasel that ruined my marriage and stole my happiness ugh barry it's in the game for as long as you have it you can't win the game so you wait with relish for someone else to slip up herd mentality taps into something primal it feels good to be one of the pack the beetles yes oh i only want it to fit in you see that mum it's not only sharon that's a winner and for a brief moment at christmas you'll agree with your family for once linky is a trivia game that doesn't require you to be a mastermind the questions are pretty easy for example where do bees live a hive and what food do you eat on the cob corn and what's the first name of miss salt the girl in charlie and the chocolate factory the rooker the challenge is in finding the link between those answers hive corn veruca they're all skin conditions older trivia games like trivial pursuit are only fun for people who know pointless facts linky gives everyone a chance to have fun in mafia to cuba you have to decide do you want to be a loyal henchman or do you want to betray the godfather and steal some diamonds the cigar box gets passed around the circle and you secretly take something out when it gets back to the godfather they must quiz the other players on how many diamonds they saw in the box trying to catch people lying there was only nine diamonds in the box when i had it okay timmy how many diamonds did you see in the box i didn't see any diamonds i did see these plastic gems that i took some of for the good guys to win the godfather must correctly identify the thieves it's great fun trying to convince them that you can be trusted whether you're good or bad mum you've got to stop trusting barry he's a thieving lying scumbag but barry's not in this game what game the original christmas party game is the hat game or celebrity where you all write famous names on strips of paper throw them in a hat and then you have a minute to get your team to guess as many names as possible but what always happens is that no one can think of any names so you scan the room looking for inspiration and everyone writes down jamie oliver then you spend christmas doing mimes of having a tongue too big for your mouth monikers takes out all the faff by filling the hat for you with cards how on earth do you get your teammates to guess the fish that eat your foot skin as a pedicure as quickly as possible remember sally that used to cut my hair and she had that sister deborah who we bumped into at waitrose one time she was buying four cauliflowers well she did what's on the card sandra i have no idea who any of these people are yes you do sally was the one that always wore that purple raincoat even when it wasn't raining and her dad was in the army and they used to live together out on the london road in that bungalow time's up barry you don't listen to a word i say the game gets even better and harder in round two all the same cards are used again but this time you can only use one word to describe them so you're relying on your teammates to remember the clues from the previous round so the fifth you eat your foot skin is a pedicure in the third round you can't use any words you have to do a charade and what's great about monikers is the cards are way more interesting than a hat full of tv chefs so you get to watch as your friend tries to mime the long piece from tetris in scroll everyone is given a different phrase to draw for example lost in ikea then you pass your drawing to your left and they have to guess what the hell you were drawing unhappy furniture man it passes again and the next person has to draw from their ridiculous interpretation your phrase will go on a wonderful journey of misunderstanding the funniest part of this game is seeing the end result if you know telestrations this is the same game but instead of prompting you to draw something easy and boring like tennis you have to illustrate joyless sex mum that's just a drawing of barry yes telestrations is my favorite game to play with family at christmas but with adults scroll is even better top of the pops or mtv if you're in the states is a fun party game for music lovers you play on teams and first two of you go head to head trying to name songs that for example mention a city you shout one out then hit the timer we built this city london bridge is falling down you go back and forth until one player runs out of time thinking of one the winner of the head-to-head gets to pick the famous artist they will have to get their teammate to guess then each team has 30 seconds to give their clues for one of them you can only give a single word clue creep oh uh robbie williams moby louis ck for the next you must say or sing a lyric from one of their songs i'll take you to the candy shop i'll let you lick the lollipop go ahead girl don't you stop keep going till you hit the spot whoa yeah oh for goodness sake barry it's 50 cent have you been living under a rock and for the final one you have to play a song on the kazoo in the mtv game you have to hum or bring your own kazoos [Music] they're a great alternative to a trivia game because you don't need to know obscure facts just remember who phil collins is and in the words of jack donaghy you've got two ears and a heart don't you unusual suspects is one of my favorite party games it's like guess who but more judgmental there's a lineup of faces one player knows which one is the criminal and they have to answer yes or no questions about that person such as have they had an affair or are they a vegetarian based on their answers the other players have to eliminate suspects from the lineup until they catch the criminal what i love about this game is arguing with your friends when you're convinced that somebody looks like a vegetarian and they're convinced that they don't you end up creating entire backstories for these cartoon people yeah she's smiling but look at her eyes decades spent in a loveless marriage he says he'll take her on holiday but he always spends it down the bookies instead and that's why i think she does have a good singing voice in word slam family you split up into two teams one person on each team is trying to get their team to guess something say jurassic park both teams are racing to guess the same thing first and they can only communicate with their team using these word cards that contain simple nouns adjectives and verbs dinosaur and park won't be available so you have to get creative playing old big animal green plant location bumblebee ladybird ladybird it's one of my favorite party games i love the frantic tension of hearing the other team guess and trying to get it right before them up next are gateway games which are the best board games to start a collection in camelot players make money by betting on the camel that comes first or second in a stage of the race each camel moves based on their matching die where the game gets interesting is that if a camel ends its turn on the same space as another one it sits on that camel's back mummy why is the white camel on top of the blue camel because they love each other very much the camel on top is considered further ahead on a future turn if blue was to move first blue would carry white with it this game is full of exciting moments where the camels will stack on top of each other and you can't predict which one will move first it captures gambling perfectly because you don't know which one will win and you just have to take a risk celestia is a game of taking risks and asking yourself do you trust your friends it's a great example of how simple but entertaining modern ball games can be you're all aboard an airship flying through the clouds trying to reach far away cities but the further you go the more you'll face obstacles like storms and pirates each turn you have to decide if the captain can get you safely to the next city or if you think the ship will crash and you want to get out the joy of this game is in the bluffing if the captain says we'll be fine i can handle these pirates is he telling the truth or lying knowing the ship is going to crash and he wants to take you down with him whereas other times he might say we're going to crash i haven't got the cards on him in a bid to get you out the ship so that he can carry on by himself and get more points than you the excitement and frustration of taking risks is palpable and creates wonderful moments celestia is a great game for a friend who would enjoy the bluffing and social aspect detective season one is the perfect entry into crime solving games this is a great gift for murder mystery fans you play as detectives working together to solve the cases you don't have time to follow all the leads so you must decide which ones are worth following should we chase up the dna test or visit the family the game will reveal key bits of information to you through phone records videos and interrogations using the game's online police database you have to spot the clues take notes and discuss your theories it really makes you feel like a detective as you piece it all together it's the husband it's always the husband no barry i can assure you sometimes it's the wife there are three cases to solve which take about 90 minutes each for one to five players these sorts of games are such a fun group experience like doing an escape room together start here and when you're finished you can graduate to chronicles of crime and sherlock holmes consulting detective in forbidden desert you play as indiana jones adventurers trapped in a desert in the middle of a sandstorm you work together as a team to collect the missing parts of your aircraft before you die of thirst it's a nail-biting experience as you desperately tried to keep everyone alive and complete your mission and it's rare to get such a well-produced complete board game for the price kokoro avenue of the kadama is the best board game in the world that you can play lying on your back they flip a card that tells everyone what shape of road to draw on their map but where do you draw it three up and right turn you're trying to create a path of caterpillars and flowers that connects to the current sanctuary everyone is playing at the same time and using the same roads it's how you use them that decides who will win the game the paths won't come out when you need them so do you fudge something together quickly or do you hold out for paving perfection risking going bust that round i love the shared frustration that kokoro creates three no oh for god's sake timmy tinny if you turn over one more three you're going to bed with no supper it's quick it's devilishly simple and it's great with any number of players there's a hell of a game packed in this little box paranormal detectives is a murder mystery game that everyone should be playing instead of cludo one person will play as the ghost and they're trying to tell the other players who killed them how and why they did it where it happened and what the murder weapon was but they can only communicate through typical ghostly ways the detectives will ask a question then play a card that tells the ghost how to give their answer it could be by arranging two bits of string by using a ouija board by making a noise or by drawing on the detective's back the detectives will make notes on what they've learned and they're racing to piece together the mystery before everyone else paranormal detectives plays from two to six players it's got the fun of trying to solve a classic whodunit but with a good dose of silliness too in railroad inc you're trying to connect up railways and highways to create the best transport network and get the most points but you can only draw on your board what comes up on the dice each round it's an engrossing puzzle as you try to make it all fit and desperately hope for the routes you need to come up to save your plans it plays well from one to six players and comes in a gorgeous package the dice in the game are little sushi rolls and you have to decide which one to eat as they go around the conveyor belt you win points by eating matching sets of sushi so you can decide whether to play it safe and get two points from sam and nigiri or hold out to try and get three sashimi for 13 points you can see which dice are coming up on the conveyor belt so you know which colors you'll get but when they get here you have to roll them and it's always exciting to see if you get the sushi you want sushi roll plays really well from two to five players so you can even buy it for the family who had one too many kids it's fun quick to play and for ages 8 and up in ticket to ride players are competing to build train lines across a map you each have secret objectives ticket cards this card means if by the end of the game i have a route running from london to athens i get 16 points if you don't complete that route you get minus 16 points this game is super simple on your turn you can do one of two things you can either pick up two train cards or you can play train cards to put trains down on the map the challenge is knowing when to do what it might be tempting to spend lots of rounds collecting all the cards you need but if you do that someone else might steal your route it's got that tasty bit of strategy that hooks you in your decisions feel important it's competitive without feeling overtly mean now we have next step games for people who already love board games and need a new challenge hi john of christmas present to add in another idea for this one it can be a nightmare buying a game for an avid gamer because they will have very specific games they want you could end up buying something they already have or don't like so instead of buying them a game you could buy them a gold membership to board game arena a website where you can play hundreds of games online board game arena has become my favorite way to play games online because of how easy to use it is this isn't sponsored and this last year i've become addicted to playing their turn-based games on my phone so whenever i've got a spare five minutes i catch up on my turns in azul or splendor or patchwork which is better than doom-scrolling twitter you don't need a gold membership to use the site but it lets you access a wider selection of games and it's pretty good value for only 30 for the year overbooked is for players who like a puzzle to solve your job is to seat passengers on a plane and keep them all happy you pick a card which gives you a group of passengers and how they want to sit you need to fit that shape onto your plane to score points you're trying to put all the lovebirds in pairs all the rugby players in one big group and make sure the kids are surrounded on all sides by an adult empty seats will cost you points but the shapes are tricky to fit in and if you double book an existing customer you kick them off the plane and lose a point it's a really enjoyable challenge to get lost in overbooked plays well from one to four players it's a great present for the thinkers in the family or anyone who is fed up with how mean some board games can be in overbooked you're in charge of your own destiny pandemic iberia gives you the feeling of being a hero trying to save the world in a race against time you're working together to defeat the game it's the 1800s and you're a team of experts sent to research the diseases ravaging spain and portugal this is a puzzle to solve when is the best time to plan for the future by building railways to get around when must you treat the diseases to prevent an outbreak and how will you find the time in between all of that to actually work together and win the game it's a tough game to beat it will taunt you into coming back to try again and again making that first victory all the sweeter and iberia is the perfect gift for someone who already loves the original pandemic parks is a beautiful gift to receive with its stunning artwork of the us national parks and it's a really fun game to boot the game revolves around a hiking trail you're stopping off at beautiful sites to collect tokens to get the ones you need to gain park cards but as in nature it's ruined when there are other people around and the other players are getting in the way you can race ahead of them to get in first but you can't ever go backwards so is it worth missing out on other spots there are incentives to finish the trail first such as claiming a park card before someone else but the hiker who takes it nice and slow will see more of the trail you have to strike a balance between being highly strung and impatient or being laid back and disorganized i will be laid back when christmas is over and everyone's happy with tactical decisions at every turn parks is the perfect next step for someone who has recently got into board games quest for eldorado is a race you use your cars to send your adventurous through the jungle and down rivers to get to el dorado before anyone else as you go you can recruit better helpers to help you get through tougher regions and move faster but don't take too long recruiting people because if other players get in front they'll block your path and hold you back there's plenty to think about next is couples games two player games for couples arboretum is a card game in which you're trying to collect sets of trees then plant them in a way that will score you the most points but be careful if your opponent has the trees you need in their hand you could score nothing so you have to pay attention it's gorgeous to look at but don't be deceived this is one of the best card games money can buy hive pocket is a two player game made of lovely durable bakelite pieces and comes in a bag so you can take it and play on your next holiday the goal is to surround your opponent's queen bee whilst protecting your own it's like a shorter simpler alternative to chess because each insect piece moves in a different way and you'll need to plan your moves ahead so not to get caught out class is basically air hockey you can play at home but with a few touches that make it even more fun the goal is to get it in the goal by hitting the ball around the pitch with your playing piece which you're controlling via a magnetized stick underneath the table you'll be trying to bounce it off the sides and hit it as fast as possible so that your opponent can't block it but be careful if you're too reckless and you lose control of your piece or it ends up in your goal you can see the point and you have to watch out for the three little magnets in the middle of the pitch if you get too close to them and two of them get stuck to your wand your opponent gets a point class is brilliant energetic fun for two players that anyone can enjoy it's full of big moments nail-biting finishes and fluky goals onitama is the kind of game that feels like it's been around for thousands of years it seems timeless like chess or mahjong but without the stuffiness in this two-player game you have to take your opponent's king or get your king to their side it's all about planning ahead and out-thinking your opponent it gets your brain going like a game of chess but it only takes 20 minutes and it's a lot more fun instead of needing to know lots of rules or strategies the game uses cards that tell you how the pieces move and make the game different every time you play it onotama is a great gift for your partner or anyone who has someone they can play against again and again it's addictive and it's also a beautiful present to receive very few board games look as sophisticated as this in santorini you're collaboratively building the greek island of santorini with these stunning plastic blocks the challenge is to get your person into a winning position without being stopped by your opponent just like the last two games you can learn the rules in 30 seconds but it will take a lifetime to master and each game you play with different god cards which twists the dynamic meaning it's always a refreshing challenge shot and totten 2 is the game to give to couples this christmas a simple head-to-head two-player card game you play as scottish clans at war one of you is the attacker laying siege to the other's castle you take it in turns to play a card on your side of the wall you're trying to create sets that are stronger than your opponent they're like mini poker hands a straight flush being the best the trouble is you only have six cards in your hand and so you're forced to commit to a strategy before you know whether you'll draw the cards you need to finish a set it's agonizing in a brilliant way which gamble do you persevere with and which do you give up on the defending player needs to hold the attacker off and stop them from destroying the castle wall in four places to help they have three buckets of boiling oil to wipe out an attack so the attacker won't want to show their strength too soon shot in totten 2 is small affordable and plays in 30 minutes this is a great gift for both new and seasoned gaming couples i have dreams of going away at christmas staying in a cottage with it snowing outside and a fire blazing indoors as i cozy up on the sofa with my girlfriend of course it wouldn't be one of my dreams without a board game and sherlock holmes consulting detective is the only game that can complete that hygge ideal you're in victorian london which everyone knows is the christmassiest epoch there's been an adorably quaint jewel robbery or throat slitting and you've got to work together to solve it let's go to the jewelers to interrogate the owner the proprietor of radford jones and co is caught between a natural reticence to talk about his clients financial affairs in general it's like reading from a sherlock holmes novel as you meet with witnesses your job is to make notes and piece them together to solve the crime not by rolling dice or playing cards but using your own powers of deduction it's like jonathan creek or hercule puerto or some reference americans will get have invited you to do their big final reveal he let everyone think that his arm was broken when in fact it was his twin brother archibald that fell off the horse there won't be many horses where he's going jail it works on the sofa because it's essentially just reading books that's what sofas were invented for before that people just lay on the floor waiting for dinner you'll pour over the day's newspapers verify alibis with the map and go back over your clues until finally something clicks and it's a feeling better than christmas itself we did it jonathan jonathan wake up it's to call the midwife christmas special i wonder what heartbreaking pregnancy complications will happen this year next are the stocking stuffers which are the most affordable and small gift options anomia is a game of shouting out words faster than the other players you flip a card if it matches with someone else's you shout out a thing that fits their card before they shout out one for yours so if their card says breakfast cereal you'd shout cornflakes cornflakes you'll be amazed how hard it is to think of one when you're trying to be as quick as possible it's fast and loud and hilarious when your friends blurt out made-up words bonanza is the ultimate trading game you're planting beans in your fields to harvest them for points the more you get the better so you need to make deals with the other players trying to get what you need um do you have you got any um felb beans the these ones you don't have enough room to plan everything so you have to make tough decisions about when to cash out on a field don't be put off by the artwork this game is one of a kind it's been around for 20 years and nothing has come close to replacing it in high society you're bidding on expensive status symbols to make all your posh friends jealous but at the end of the game the person with the least money left is out they can't win everyone's on tenterhooks at the end when you find out who spent too much cash every auction and every bid matters but what is the right price to pay this is another modern classic card game in one night ultimate werewolf there's a secret werewolf hidden in your midst who is telling the truth the werewolves are desperately claiming their innocence and so were the good guys i'm not a werewolf i i said everyone will be lying and accusing each other and after 10 minutes someone gets killed and a team wins and then you play again similar is the perfect stocking stuffer secret santa present or gift for someone who you don't want to spend too much money on because what they got you last year was rubbish it's a deck of cards with famous historical people on and the game is to identify the secret character let's say it's marie curie one player will give clues about the secret character by playing another historical figure either by saying they're similar to the secret character or not similar so you might play isaac newton as similar because they're both scientists the other players will discuss the clues and they have to eliminate more and more cards each round until the final round when there's only two left if they pick the right one you all win the game similar works well for two players upwards it's great for getting everyone talking as you try and interpret the clues i like the history set the best but you can also get fables with fairy tale characters skull king is a card game where you're trying to win tricks like whist or hearts each round you bet on how many tricks you think will win based on what cards you have then you've got to meet that bet time when to play your good cards if you bet on winning nothing you can get a lot of points but if you're wrong you'll get minus points the game has big moments when the pirate cards appear and if someone manages to catch them with the skull king it's full of big risks for big rewards spicy is brilliant twist on the classic bluffing game cheat you take it in turns to play a card face down announcing what you've played the number and the spice pepper chili or wasabi four chili you're supposed to play the same type as the last one but higher if you don't have that you can play whatever you like and lie about it five chile anyone can call you out and challenge what you said but they have to decide do they think you were lying about the number of the card or the type of spice he's lying about the spice if they say spice and you didn't lie about that you win no matter what the number was it was a chili i win if you win the challenge you take the stack as points if you lose you have to add more cards to your hand which you don't want because if you ever get rid of your hand you score 10 points spicy has the feel of a classic game it's simple elegant and loads of fun if you like bluffing games you have to try this one the mind is a one of a kind experience that is a great gift for your couple's friends for you to all play together it's a game of trying to read each other's mind you each have a hand of numbered cards and the goal is for everyone to play their cards in numerical order but without talking so you have to somehow sense when to play your numbers without knowing what numbers other people have and if anyone makes a mistake you all lose a life it sounds nonsense but it works and the more you play with the same people you develop an understanding it's so much fun just sitting in silence staring at each other hoping for a sign of when to play your card the game is full of suspense the mind is great for two to four players or five and six if you want to make it really hard it's not just a great gift it's one of my favorite games of all time it's a wonderful social experience that everyone should try at least once finally we have kids games suitable for ages 5 and up coconuts comes with these plastic monkeys that catapult your coconuts you're trying to get them into these plastic cups to win them if you get one in someone else's cup you steal it it's full of fluky bounce shots and you'll always get something dragon's breath is the best kids game you can buy this christmas and one that parents will enjoy playing as well one player will be the dragon each round and melt the ice surrounding these gems they take the top ring from the stack and some of the gems will fall out but before they do the other players have to bet which color of gems will fall out the most so everyone is watching in anticipation hoping the dragon knocks out theirs meanwhile the dragon is trying to carefully remove the ring to keep everyone else's colours from falling out but they can only fight gravity so much dragon's breath plays from two to five players in ages 5 and up give your kids the childhood we never had with a board game that's proper fun and doesn't last forever happy salmon is an energetic silly game that plays in just two minutes and will have you laughing shouting and running around the room you're all stood around the table turning over cards and shouting out what your card tells you to do pound it pound it when you find someone shouting the same thing as you you do the action with them you get rid of the card and you're on to the next looking for people to fist bumps swap places with and do the happy salmon the first person to get rid of their cards wins salmon is a wonderful burst of energy competitiveness and excitement that i've played again and again in ice cool you're flicking your penguins through this maze of classrooms trying to collect points and run away from the penguin that's chasing you it feels great when you accidentally pull off a really good shot the penguins are really fun to flick they can bend round corners and if you get really good you can make them jump if you already have ice cool you can double your ice rink with ice cool 2. junker takes family favorite jenga and blows it out of the water this is actually 10 games in one box you're trying to stack these weird shaped wooden pieces without them falling over in one game you might be trying to do it the fastest in another you're choosing pieces for the player on your left or you might be trying to build the tallest tower there's a lot of variety it's full of tense funny moments where you're watching each other trying to pull off ridiculous moves i love the way the pieces fit together to create audacious towers and they're so colorful that each creation looks like a little bit of modern art there's lots of games out there like this but junk art does it better than all of them it retains all the immediate fun of jenga but adds an extra layer of decision making which makes it that bit more entertaining rhino hero is like reverse jenga you take it in turns to add a card to this tower without making it fall over then move the wooden rhino hero it's easy for kids to be good at and it always ends with an impressive destruction and that's it if you want to buy any of the games in this video there are links in the description below if you found this video helpful please click the like button so that more people will see it and this video was made possible by viewers who support the channel on patreon pledge at patreon.com forward slash actual i'm john perkis thanks for watching and happy christmas [Music] you

Channel: Actualol

Views: 97,556

Keywords: Board games, Board game, family board games, board games for couples, popular board games, top board games, best board games, new board games, new games, tabletop gaming, party games, shut up and sit down, Family Games, board games for 2 people, board games for 3 people, 2021 board games, Board Game Christmas Gifts, Top 10 Board Game Christmas Gifts, Xmas Gifts, Board Game Christmas Presents, Gift Ideas, Gaming Gift Guide, Ultimate Board Game Christmas Gift Guide

Id: QWcknGPezYk

Length: 49min 17sec (2957 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 08 2021