Best family game this holiday.

That’s Not a Hat is brilliant!

Oh My Pigeons is much fun!

My DS bought Forbidden Islands. He is very into cooperative games and once we stopped fighting each other and hiding our cards the game worked well. 🤣. The object of the game is to collect 4 treasures before the islands (small cardboard cards) flood. Deceptively simple at first but has the potential to become more involved the more times you play.

He also bought the younger DGC another cooperative game called Outfoxed. They, and we, enjoyed playing it although the older DGD took every opportunity to try and make it competitive 🤭

We discovered No Thanks! over the holidays and it went down really well with everyone. Super simple rules, but way more tense than it looks, especially once people start getting a bit too competitive

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When my very large grandson was staying with me recently I asked him to go into the top of my wardrobe looking for a photo album. There are games stored up there and he found Build a Beetle - his favourite game as a pre teen. We found the photo album, and after tea, played Build a Beetle. I won! Better with more than two but fun all the same.

My GCs all seem to like Contraband or Smuggle, basically the same game.

It teaches them to make it difficult to tell if they are lying or not, which I gather is useful when playing poker.

My lot have always loved a very noisy game called Pit, where you trade commodities and the first one to get a full set of one commodity rings a bell (the bell is very popular it’s younger players!). We also play a lot of Uno which can get a bit cutthroat!

Some new games for me to investigate, thanks you! We love our board games when the AC come here at Christmas, but it has to be one where you can chat as you play. Rummikub is a favourite for that reason. There certainly is a rise in popularity for board games, our AC have games evenings with friends which I find (quietly) rather sweet.

Thanks Kittylester. I’ll make sure it’s cared for.

GC 22, 19 and 18 still love the board game Buccaneer and there is serious competition over who will inherit it.

Hang on to your old Sorry teabag. We bought a new one and it has all changed - not for the better.

I have an ancient set of Sorry, it must be at least 50 years old. Always very popular as it combines the right amount of skill and luck. My dgd, aged 10, is also getting good at Monopoly.

Clever Words is a free app that is not called Scrabble, but is Scrabble! You play against the 'computer' and set the level of difficulty that you enjoy best. I recommend it. There are a few of us on here that play it.

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Rummikub

My grandchildren’s modern version of Yahtzee has broken. I lent my older version, but their brains had to work harder and make choices, so it was less popular.
I played a game at my son’s house which took 30 minutes to understand. Even then, we hadn’t learnt all the refinements. It was based on journeys across the USA. I forget its name.
I prefer games involving words.
Can anyone tell me how I play Scrabble online? Is an opponent provided or do I need to find one?

We have played Family trivial pursuit and scattergories both of which the 10 and 5 year old enjoyed.

Great suggestions above and I second Magnetic Chess. It's also an excellent addition to the small bag I always take if we're having a meal out with grandchildren.

Our most memorable this year was the Marshmallow Game.
For each player you need a paper cup and a drinking straw ( I found re-usable plastic straws in the pound shop) Then simply throw a whole bag of mini marshmallows down the centre of the table and each player has to pick up as many marshmallows as they can using ONLY the straw and putting them in the cup. It was loved by young and old alike. Use a timer, whoever has the most marshmallows wins.

We played Charades on Christmas day with much hilarity, and continued at other GP's house on Boxing Day!
The GC are aged 7 to 17.
The youngest possibly enjoyed it best.

We played Horrible History and a newer version of UNO.

At Christmas we play a memory game (nothing needed except pen and paper or a phone to make a list of names). We call it Celebrities. One independent person is appointed to keep the list and each participant chooses a secret random celebrity/historical figure/fiction character, etc. The list keeper adds some of his/her own names to add some confusion! The tactic is not to choose a celebrity, etc. who you’re known to like or be familiar with. The list is read out, then each person randomly asks another if they chose that name. If their guess is correct, they form a team and then work together. If not, the person who answered then asks someone else. The last person who hasn’t been guessed correctly is the winner.

Good Game is called Paniku - Panic. Questions are in Maltese ad English, so you can answer in which language you want [the same question on each card]. You have to reply within 10 seconds of a buzzer being pressed, and that's what causes the panic, because some of the questions are simple, and yet the tick tick tick sets you on edge. If the answer is correct, you keep the card, if not, you give it to the person who questioned you. The cards have colours along the edges, and so you build a grid with them, so the colours touch [not in the same order on each car, four colours]. You take out cards at random from a box. modelshop.com.mt/shop/toys/board-games/paniku/

Wow, so many games I haven’t heard of. I think I’ll have to visit the board game cafe in a village near here to try some of these out.

Canadiangran our Gchn loved snakes and ladders and ludo when they were smaller. Now 14 year old Gson was poorly recently and there was a feeble voice asking for a ‘gingerbread man and a game of ludo please’ when I asked what would help him to feel better!
Coppit was another favourite.