Family Gift Ideas for Christmas – Bring The Family Together with These Classics of All Time [PART 2]

The holidays are all about spending time with the people you love. And that includes your closest family friends. Give them a family gift for Christmas that everyone can take part in every part of the year. So what better pick than a classic board game that is a family must-have for hours of entertainment and laughter!

Well, in the spirit of Christmas and cold winter days, board family game is the perfect idea that will bring a good mood not only for the children but for their parents, too. And most of all – they all will be spending hours together, having fun together, being cheerful together, laughing straight from their hearts. Yes, the board game the perfect family gifts for Christmas!

In Part 1  I presented you 4 of my suggestions for family gift ideas – CoMotion, What?, Twister, and Charades. Now check out the next 5 Christmas gifts for the entire family and choose the best classic board game for your family friends.

# 5 Beat the Parents

If your friends like trivia and ‘Q-A’ activities, then Parents is the game for your choice! It’s a fun-filled game that brings kids and parents together for a head-to-head challenge.

The concept is simple – the adults answer questions about kids’ stuff and vice versa. A right answer equals to a move forward. When you have all your pieces on the other side of the board, you win! There are special wild cards that could send someone reeling back to the start or skipping ahead to the finish. Whoever crosses the board first, wins the game and proves who’s the boss.

The set includes 101 question cards, 32 parent wild and 32 children wild cards, 4 mover pieces, a board, and a guide.  There are tons of cards so there are always new questions to answer. Even if the questions finish, you can think of new ones so that the game never ends. The original Qs are actually very “pop culture”. Unless you are an expert in  Star Wars, Disney movies, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, sports, and music, you may be out of luck on the “parent” side of the answering process.

Although the game is recommended for 6 +, I personally think that 6 is definitely too young. At the same time, late teens are probably too old because the game could be too easy for them.  However, you can modify the game by giving hints or leaving out details to make them harder to answer.

Apart from that, the game is very educational. It will probably not withstand the test of time unless you add extra questions in the future. Anyway, the game is really fast-moving – the player can hop across the board to win in no time. Kids love it!

# 6 Pictionary

That’s the beloved classic game of quick sketches and hilarious guesses that gather the entire family and it is kids’ favorite. One of the best family gifts for Christmas for sure. Year after year since 1985 Pictionary proves itself to be the ultimate party game. In this quick-draw classic, the sketches draw a lot of laughs and the guesses can be even more hilarious. The game has 2 levels of clues – 1200 adults and 800 junior so everyone can play easily. It is suitable for 3 or more players. The rules are actually really simple – watch how Megan Fox, Jenifer Aniston, Lenny Kravitz, and more celebrities are playing Pictionary.

The favorite game of quick sketches and hilarious guesses has different levels and this is a good advantage. Well, some of the junior questions are pretty easy – they work well for even 3-4 years old children to play – but some can be a little too difficult even for older kids. The game circles are quick – maybe less than 30 minutes – so that is nice in order to keep children’s attention. Kids love to draw and guess and participate and it’s easy to keep all ages involved. If the family who you’re searching present for has younger kids, you can choose the easier version. The mission to bring all of them down is done!

# 7 Googly Eyes

Funny, interactive game for everyone! A simple formula for fun: take an ordinary object; add googly eyes, enjoy the zaniness!

A player draws a card, and depending on which color box he’s landing on, he has to draw an object. But not an easy one. No trees, clouds or suns. To be even crazier, the player has to draw it while wearing large wacky glasses altering 3 different-difficulty lenses that mess-up the vision. Then for 15-45 sec. the object should be drawn and people on the player’s team have to guess what it should be. It’s really not simple with all the doodling that appears on the white sheet of paper. The point here is no matter how complicated are the objects, to get fun, to laugh loud to the ridiculous and insane pieces of art.

Googly Eyes (by Goliath games) is s hilarious family-friendly game that challenges vision and leaves the players googly for more. It’s extremely appropriate for children aged 7 + and their parents, for 4 to 16 player at the same time. The set comes with a snazzy notepad to make beautiful drawings, glasses with 3 lenses, a large vividly colored board, 162 challenge cards divided into 3 themes: Objects, Places and Entertainment, pawns, dice, paper, pencil, timer, and instructions. Talking about instructions, this game is proper for people who are not fond of reading complicated rules.

An option to play this game (apart from the official rules) is to divide players into 3 groups according to the lenses difficulty. For example “hard” lenses for mom & dad, “medium” for the teenagers and “easy” for the youngest kids.

Comparing to the similar Pictionary game, Googly Eyes is much easier. So probably the better choice for your Christmas family gifts list.  Don’t pass this Googly Eyes suggestion for a fun family Christmas gift!

# 8 The All-Time Classic Monopoly

Classics are typically those that stand the test of time. Monopoly is a classic family board game of luck, chance, strategies, wheeling and dealing while buy and sell properties. You can build hotels, houses until someone takes the monopole of the city. I promise you hours of fun with this well-known board family!

It’s a pleasure that this recommended classic version of Monopoly is released exactly in the style that it used to appear in the ’70s. This means bi-fold board (folds in half, not in quarters), no Rich Uncle Pennybags (Monopoly man) in the center of the game’s name, and only the original tokens.

Although there are new modern editions of the game, I recommend sticking to the classic. The price is not that much higher, but the quality – believe me – is much better. Gift enjoy to your friends forever!

# 9 Scrabble of All Time

There’s no need to explain too much what is Scrabble. I may introduce it as one of the perfect family gifts for Christmas– with or without children on board. Now UPGRADED.

The advantages of the new Delux Scrabble Edition are the new features. Like the wheeled board that turns to each player; the non-slip grid that keeps tiles in place; the carry case for easy storage of the 100 wooden letter tiles. The players will no longer read the board upside down because whole board rotates. This is possible because instead of the usual rubber stoppers, the four corners of the table have mini-rollers. Honestly, it’s worth the money that cost this Scrabble with the wheeled board. Get ready to word up!

Final Thoughts

If you are ready with the family gifts for Christmas, you can move on to the next challenge – a Christmas gift that is fancy and tech enough to be honored by your relatives and friends as a real hit this Christmas – the smart gadgets for Christmas.

What’s your favorite family board game?