Twelve Wishlists of Christmas: Board Games
My family are like Mary Poppins; practically perfect in every way. 99% dreamboats in fact. That final 1% lies in their resolute refusal to play board games with me. Which is a real shame, based on how patient, sporting, and humble in victory I am. If you’re looking for gifts for a competitor like myself, or just something for family fun Christmas afternoon, here’s the best you can get!
1. The Monopoly / Cluedo Compendium. Also contains cards, cribbage, dominoes, chess and draughts. Bloody excellent value and great if you have a big gathering coming. However, I did lose my first ever game of Monopoly on this board so I still have mixed feelings towards it!
2. Combining my love of Sharks and high adrenaline board games, we have Shark Chase. Basically a mechanical shark makes his way around the board attempting to eat each players counter whilst someone roles the dice, deciding who gets to move out the path of the sharks gnashers. 12 out of 10 for me, would also make an excellent drinking game provided someone didn’t have a panic attack half way through!
3. If you’re in it for the long haul, a poker set is an excellent idea. Make sure everyone knows the rules before hand or you’ll be in for a super long night explaining why a flush beats a straight and could probably end a friendship!
4. Tell me you’ve never played Operation and I'll have to wonder how you’ve got through life on a day-to-day basis so far. A fantastic way of teaching anatomy at a young age and testing how drunk someone really is with their steady hand. That buzzer has put me on edge for life!
5. Another corker for a drinking game, Twister! However whenever I watch films with people in compromising positions during the game I have to wonder how one has so many friends who are quite that limber. Anyway, either play with a full team who are sober, or a full team who are drunk. Half and half just doesn’t work.
6. The Game of Life is probably my most yearned after game. It will literally take an entire afternoon and is the only game out there that will make you competitively recycle to earn more points for good behaviour. It’s just not a proper Game of Life if someone doesn’t tip the board upside and storm out of the house for at least an hour!
7. Call me a nana but I don’t care, I absolutely love a jigsaw. The harder the better and I don’t get out of bed for less than 1000 pieces. Fantastic if you have the space to leave it out somewhere and people can add to it over the course of the holidays. Great if the family can’t be trusted not to throw a tantrum!
8. For the Sherlock fans out there, 221b Baker Street is a mystery game based on tricky conundrums Sherlock and Watson solve. It’s basically a convoluted game of Cluedo so not really one for the kids!
9. How about taking time out to learn Chess over the holidays! Obviously, you need someone who is also learning, or someone who is super patient to help you learn, but it’ll make you feel terribly sophisticated to know that the horse is actually called a Knight and that the King is actually nothing without a Queen!
10. A simple one but an absolute classic, Connect Four! We played this so much in our house that we had to cellotape one of the legs on to hold the frame together, but nothing would stop us. Great to have as back up for when you’re hung over and in charge of a small child, as you need very little concentration!
11. Fancy screaming at a loved one because they guessed what the Ferreror Rocher logo is before you?! Then that’s The Logo Board Game for you! Probably more addictive than crack and one for groups of people who are equally competitive!
12. For the brianiacs in your life, Trivial Pursuit. Have some cheese on the side ready as you’ll weirdly get a hankering for it, and spend your entire night hoping, wishing and praying that you land on the “entertainments and the arts” square, because I'll be buggered if I know the answers to anything else!