The best new family board games for Christmas

Monopoly Deal

The world’s favourite family board game brings you another exciting edition of Monopoly. Choose your favourite token, tour your favourite sites and accumulate fortunes, but watch out for taxes, jail and bankruptcy.

Advance to Downing Street, Savile Row, Knightsbridge – will you owe rent or reap the rewards? Invest in houses, hotels, skyscrapers and depots and trade your way to success. The huge gameboard has 12 extra spaces, including eight new streets – one for every colour group.

The Fast-Dealing Property Trading Game is fun for the whole family.

£29.99 from amazon.co.uk

Monopoly Deal

Monopoly Deal is a quick-playing card game with all the fun of the traditional Monopoly game. It comes with 110 cards including property cards, rent cards, house and hotel cards, and wild property cards.

Each player gets five cards and picks up two from the pack when it’s their turn, and can play three cards onto the table at a time. The winner is the first player to have three full property sets in front of them.

Action cards let players charge rent and make tricky deals with debts paid for with money cards. The first player to collect 3 complete property card sets in different colours wins.

Sounds complicated? It really isn’t once you get going. This fast-dealing property trading game can be played in as little as 15 minutes.

£4.49 from amazon.co.uk

Articulate – The Fast Talking Description Board Game

Articulate is a great option if you’re in a house full of people (ideally aged 12+) and are at a loss about what to do.

Bring everyone together – split into teams which can be pairs – with this fast-talking description board game as players try to describe as many card entries as possible within 30 seconds.

To play, one person from each team must describe the word in the given category on their card without actually saying the word. Then they have to repeat this as many times as possible, within the time frame.

No “rhymes with” or “sounds like” allowed. And be prepared to be heckled at mercilessly by the other team.

£22.99 from amazon.co.uk

Uno Card Game

UNO is the classic card game of matching colours and numbers that is easy to pick up…impossible to put down and now comes with customizable Wild Cards for added excitement.

Players take turns racing to get rid of all their cards by matching a card in their hand with the current card shown on top of the deck either by colour or number. If you can’t make a match, you must draw from the central pile.

A mixture of skill and chance is needed to play Uno, which can be played with two to ten players. And Special Action cards deliver game-changing moments and help defeat opponents.

The player to rid themselves of all the cards in their hand scores points for any cards their opponents are left holding. The winner is the first player to score 500 points.

Don’t forget to shout “UNO” when you only have one card remaining.

£4.99 from amazon.co.uk

Rummikub Classic Game

Rummikub is a classic board game based around numbers and strategy. Played with 106 tiles (1 to 13 in four different colours), the object of the game is to be the first player to place all the tiles from their rack onto the table.

Lay down sets of groups (three or four tiles in the same number but different colour) or runs (three or more consecutive numbers of the same colour).

Bring excitement to your game by manipulating the tiles already on the table to a player’s advantage, rearrange or add to existing sets in or to use up a tile from their rack.

Rummikub – The numbers strategy game that is never the same!

£24.99 from amazon.co.uk

Game For Fame – The hilarious party board game

No complicated rules or boring instructions.

Get into teams, pick up a Money Maker card and start the fight for fame and fortune. Race your friends and family through Hollywood to become the worlds wealthiest celebrity.

The huge variety of funny and original challenges will have everyone laughing. And just like the real world of showbiz, you don’t need any talent to win.

Loved by families, adults, teenagers and children, Fame Fans range from ages 10-100 making it the perfect board game for Christmas!

£22.99 from amazon.co.uk

The Crystal Maze Board Game

Packed with an assortment of mental, mystery, skill and physical games, The Crystal Maze Board Game is sure to challenge and excite even the bravest of adventurers with success rewarded in the shape of precious time crystals just like in the hit Channel 4 show.

Teamwork is paramount as players voyage through the four themed time zones in one of two teams competing against each other. Each crystal won means more time to spend scrambling for gold tokens in the game’s furious finale.

In this family board games for Christmas, who will pit their wits against the mind-bending mental puzzles and who is plucky enough to tackle the fiendish physical trials?

Let the games begin!

£28.99 from amazon.co.uk

Tension: The Top 10 Naming Game

Can you name 10 Famous Artists in 30 seconds? What about 10 Skylanders Characters? You’ll find the answers on the tip of your tongue but can you shout them quickly enough? With 200 different naming challenges, Tension Family offers hours of family fun.

It doesn’t matter if you’re 8 or 80, the gameplay is the same – correctly name as many of the examples on the card before the timer runs out, then use your score to progress around the board.

Tension Family features categories that will appeal to all members of the family and tap in to their specific interests and areas of expertise – so no one feels left out.

The handy slide scorer records correct answers and prevents ‘I said that’ arguments during the game.

Suitable from age 8 and played in two teams.

£17.99 from amazon.co.uk

Love Island The Game

You’ve seen the TV series, now play the game. Love Island The Game allows you to experience a taste of Islander life with this collection of fun and flirty challenges.

Pair up with a friend or lover to compete in Sexy Charades, the Sexiest Pub Quiz Ever, Physical Challenges, the Couples Quiz and Secret Challenges.

Simply spin the bottle to choose your challenge: Do you know how long people spend kissing during their lifetime. How about who your partner’s celebrity crush is.

With 115 hot challenges and 5 blank cards for you to make up your own, the fun just keeps on coming.

Do you have what it takes to be crowned the winning couple?

£5.99 from amazon.co.uk

5 Second Rule, Family Game

Can you name three things in 5 seconds?

It should be easy to name 3 breeds of dogs — but can you do it under the pressure of 5 seconds twisting down, with the other players staring at you, waiting for you to get flustered?

Time’s not on your side, so just say what comes to mind and risk ridiculous answers slipping out as time twirls down on the unique twisted timer.

It’s all in good fun with this fast-paced game where you have to Just Say It Out Loud.

For ages 10 years +

£12.99 from amazon.co.uk

Scrabble Orginal Board Game

Scrabble is the classic board game that always spells fun.

Consisting of interlocking words, crossword fashion, onto a playing board, scrabble game challenges players to spell out words using letter tiles with various score values. The object of the game is to get the highest score and scores are given for letter values and boosted by premium squares on the grid.

Each player competes by using their tiles in combinations and locations that take the best advantage of letter values and premium squares on the board. Words can read either across, or down. And your word must use a letter tile already in play on the board.

More than just a game, scrabble actually improves your vocabulary as you are introduced to new words each time you play.

This game is ideal for two to four players, ages 10 and older.

£15.99 from amazon.co.uk

Monopoly Stranger Things Edition Board Game

The game of Monopoly… turned upside down. Nothing interesting ever happened in Hawkins, Indiana. Until November 6, 1983. Now, Will Byers has gone missing, and it’s up to you to find him.

Search the town, travel through the locations of Hawkins, and avoid getting trapped in the upside-down. Time is running out – and the Monster is out there, somewhere, looking for you…

Rediscover the fun of greedily buying every property you can get your filthy capitalist hands on, with a spooky ‘80s twist.

Based upon the Stranger Things Netflix series, this game is ideal for 2 to 4 players ages 14+.

£23.99 from amazon.co.uk

Monopoly Friends Edition Board Game

How you doin’?

It’s time to join the legendary Friends, from one of TV’s best-loved sitcoms in the Friends edition of MONOPOLY.

Play as either Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Joey or Chandler by choosing one of the exclusive tokens which are iconic to the gang.

Choose your favourite exclusive character token – will it be Rachel’s handbag, Ross’ dinosaur, Chandler’s sweater vest or even Phoebe’s acoustic guitar?

As you pivot around the board you will take a trip down memory lane and discover the best Friends’ moments, from the unmistakable Holiday Armadillo, to the hilarious Giant Poking Device and Monica and Chandler’s eventful, yet unforgettable wedding.

This fast-dealing property trading game is fun for the whole family

£25.00 from amazon.co.uk

Get a Grip Game

The Get a Grip game is Hasbro’s twist on the “no thumbs challenge” in which players compete head-to-head in challenges without using their thumbs!

First, players wrap their thumbs (or for greater challenges, tuck in additional fingers) in the included hand bands so that they can’t use them.

Then a player picks a card that will tell them to Draw it, Sculpt it, or Do it…all without the use of these vital body parts. Earn cards by completing challenges. The first person to collect 3 cards wins the game.

This game seems utterly ridiculous, and that’s what makes it on of the perfect family board games for Christmas.

£5.99 from amazon.co.uk

Concept Game

In Concept, your goal is to guess words through the association of icons.

A team of two players – neighbours at the table – choose a word or phrase that the other players need to guess. Acting together, this team places pieces judiciously on the available icons on the game board.

To get others to guess “milk”, for example, the team might place the question mark icon (which signifies the main concept) on the liquid icon, then cubes of this colour on the icons for “food/drink” and “white”.

The first player to discover the word or phrase receives 2 victory points, the team receives points as well, and the player who ends up with the most points wins.

£23.99 from amazon.co.uk

Pandemonio

This is a frantic card swapping board game!

Race your friends up and down the board by swapping and gaining as many of your cards as you can before the timer runs out. Eight cards, up to eight players, all trading wildly, all at the same time. Never has a game been more aptly named than Pandemonio!

Add in the fact that this is all presided over by a walking coffee cup, and you’ll start to appreciate that Pandemonio’s no ordinary board game. Colin – the convivial cup – acts as an official timer; your task is to match as many cards as you can before he totters to a halt.

The first player to the end of the board and back wins; you’ll need to get your swaps in quickly, and being shy is not an option. Pandemonio works brilliantly for big families or groups of friends.

£19.99 from amazon.co.uk

“Game of Thrones” Monopoly Board Game

The race for control of Westeros is on with this brand new special Monopoly game.

With artwork from the hit TV series and beautifully crafted playing pieces and villages and keeps, it’s a game for any connoisseur of the seven kingdoms.

Choose your favourite token from; The Iron Throne, Crown, Direwolf, Three-Eyed Raven, Dragon Egg and White Walker, adventure to your favourite sites and accumulate fortunes, but watch out for taxes, jail and bankruptcy.

This limited edition copy is one of our favourite family board games for Christmas.

£23.99 from amazon.co.uk