What games are you giving this holiday season? What games do you hope to receive?

[Seeking Squirrels]

My Forbidden Island/Desert loving son (he's 7) also loves Scotland Yard, Dragonwood (he got this for Thanksgiving and we've played it a million times already), Ticket to Ride, Machi Koro,CLUE, Labyrinth and Catan Jr (we don't own the full version so I don't know the difference).

 

She loves Clue, Labyrinth, and Catan Jr., and wants to play Ticket to Ride with us (we just haven't had a chance to break it out without 4yo) so I will definitely check out the others!  Thank you!

[Lucy the Valiant]

Adding to this list: Chicago Express

 

We are huge strategy-game lovers (Catan & Ticket to Ride Europe being our 2 favorites), and this game is "Ticket to Ride meets Monopoly" - AWESOME!

 

Inexpensive ($20-25), complicated enough to be a challenge, but not so complicated my kids can't learn it. Good stuff, and 2 thumbs up!

[Janeway]

I gave the kids "Qwirkle" hoping we would all play it together but no one wants to play with me. Well, no one old enough to get the game wants to play with me. I can still play games like Hoot Owl Hoot. 

 

The kids did love, however, all the video games. 

[happypamama]

I'm adding to this thread to say thanks for the recommendations!

 

My 5yo loves Qwirkle! We haven't played it with the whole group yet though. The travel sized set is a little tiny but not terrible.

 

My 8, 11, and 14yo all loved Dragon Wood too. It's a great game and easy to learn to play.

 

We didn't get to play the new games right away due to extenuating life circumstances, so we just opened Sheriff of Nottingham this week. What a scream! It took a while to learn the rules but was so worth it. The bluffing and all gives my natural actors (including my 8yo) an outlet for performance, and people keep throwing in hilarious history, literature, and pop culture references, which keep the rounds interesting. We have laughed and laughed. And there are a bunch of strategies to try too, which appeals to my 11yo. Highly recommend. (Well, I'd recommend Qwirkle and Dragon Wood too.)

 

We haven't gotten to try Code Names yet.

[UCF612]

I bought myself Sleeping Queens for Christmas and it is a big hit! My 7yo loves it!

[alisoncooks]

We've been enjoying our Christmas games, too!

 

I went to the thrift store this week and found 4-way Countdown for $2!  We're pumped over that!  We've been including it during our math time. :)

[busymama7]

We received bananagrams and have been totally obsessed with it. It is so much fun! Give it a try even if you don't like scrabble (I don't). I assumed it would be similar but it's really not.

 

Has anyone tried my first bananagrams? My 6 and. 8 year olds want to play and have tried but they can't really since they can only spell really simple words. I stumbled on this jr version and have been debating getting it.

[Kareni]

I'm adding to this thread to say thanks for the recommendations!...

 

Thanks for reactivating the thread to share successes!

 

I received the two player game Morels for Christmas, and my husband and I have enjoyed playing it. 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Seeking Squirrels]

My DD8 loves Dragonwood though we've only pulled it out a couple of times.

 

The biggest success for the kids this year was Too Many Monkeys. A very simple game but they absolutely love it. It's been great for number sense for DD4. 

 

They also got Enchanted Forest and Cauldron Quest and they really like both.

 

The only flop this year was twister! haha We picked it up thinking it would be fun and a challenge for SPD child, but she'd played it before apparently and neither were too interested. 

 

DH and I got Escape and Kingdom Builder. We really like Escape and play that one any time we get a small group together. We just played KB for the first time last night and liked it.