Hanukkah has arrived, Christmas is just a week away and Kwanza soon after. As the weather cools and the holidays roll-in, I am thinking about cozy games our family will enjoy over the coming cold months. In the spirit of this season, I am sharing favorite games our family loves and a few I am looking forward to giving as gifts. Please enjoy this list of our 10 (with a few bonus asides) favorite family games for screen-free fun.
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Cooperative Games for All Ages
We are grateful for the sheer number of cooperative games available today. We think this makes playing games with mixed ages a lot easier and more enjoyable, and more than that, we love promoting cooperative skills. There are lots of cooperative family games to choose from, and we are sharing the best of our favorite family card games below.
- Outfoxed: Outstanding cooperative game we have gifted and played over and over again. We cannot say enough good things about the game Outfoxed “A Cooperative Whodunit Game.” It is accessible to preschoolers and even toddlers while still being fun for older kids and the adults playing with them. It is a cooperative mystery game that can be played over and over again (and we have). Plus, it is wonderful for helping kids develop reasoning skills. We love this game, and we often give it as a gift to spread the love. If you have young kids and plan to get just one game on this list, make it Outfoxed.
- Monkey Around: Our favorite game for families with babies and toddlers. We have had Monkey Around since our oldest was a very young toddler. It is one of the first games we played together as a new family, and it remains one of our favorites. It is well made: the materials hold up well to toddlers, and there are no small pieces. This game is really meant for very little kids, but it can be fun for older kids and adults to play with them, because it really gets everyone giggling. There is just something irresistible about a banana beanbag…
- Peaceable Kingdom makes Monkey Around and lots of really nice cooperative games for young families. We also like Count Your Chickens and our friends like Mermaid Island for their family.
- Eye Found It: Fun eye-spy cooperative games. We have both Busytown and Disney editions of Eye Found It, and we like that they can be fun and challenging for preschool pre-readers all the way up to adults. The Busytown version was a thrift store find, and it no longer seems to be available, but you can find other themes (like this fantasy one). Just be aware that this game is big: we often play Eye Found It on the floor for that reason and so that we can move around the board when looking for elements. If you want something more compact, try their card game variations.
- Bonus: So maybe they are not technically games, but we love doing puzzles as a family, and they sure are cooperative! We have had good experiences with Ravensburger puzzles.
Family Card Games, Great for Travel
We love playing card games together, and we appreciate how compact and travel friendly card games can be. We take the following card games with us on planes, in the car, when staying at hotels and when visiting family and friends. As we write this, many are discounted for Prime Big Deals Days. These are, in my opinion, the best card games for young families.
- Rat A Tat Cat: One of our favorite games for travel. It is quick to play, has sweetly humorous artwork and helps young kids develop math skills. This is a great travel game and one we also play at home often. GameWright recommend this one for ages 6 and up.
- Sushi Go: a fun card-passing game that grows with you. We really like Sushi Go, because it is just fun to play, and also because your strategy can develop over many rounds of game play. With some family games, you can get burnt out, or realize that the game is more about luck than strategy. With Sushi Go, you can start out knowing very little, and still enjoy the game, and then challenge yourself by improving your strategy over time.
- We have tried Sushi Go Party, and we felt it was a little overly complicated. The sheer number of customizable options was novel, but we actually found they got in the way of developing well-reasoned strategies and made the game much less portable. It was fun, but we will stick with the original. That said, we did like the score tracking pieces and if you end up really loving Sushi Go, go ahead and give this a try too.
- Spot It! has become a new classic card game. We like that gameplay is quick, fairly active and totally accessible to kids who cannot yet read. We also like the easy portability of this game, and we like to keep it in the car or diaper bag for screen-free entertainment.
- Another neat thing about Spot It! is that there are numerous variations on gameplay within one deck, AND you can also purchase alternative decks themed to your interests. We think this makes it a nice personalized gift. Examples include this Bluey deck, decks for your favorite sports teams and a Disney and Pixar edition.
- Sleeping Queens: A fun card game calling on math and memory skills. We really like Sleeping Queens, but this card game seems to mysteriously come and go from Amazon. We are still listing it here, because we like playing it so much, and hopefully you can grab one. And here is a link to the sequel, Sleeping Queens 2 we plan to try next.
- Uno: A classic for a reason. Our kids love Uno, and we have several versions of it so that we always have a deck on hand at home or on the road. It remains reasonable priced and easy to learn.
Travel Friendly Card Game Case
As much as we like all of the above card games, we do find that the boxes they come in can get ragged and fall apart. Or, some of the sturdier boxes still have trouble staying closed and together in a backpack. That is why we have hardy zipper cases like this one for storing our cards games. (You can see it holding our Uno game in the photo above.)
A Classic Team Play Game
I have fond memories of playing Sequence as a kid, and I have been enjoying introducing it to my own kids. We like that there is the option to play as teams, and this is our kids favorite way to play Sequence. If you find the classic card look a little mundane or hard for younger kids to decipher, you can opt for a junior version like this one.
No matter the version, three generations of our family love this game, and we think it is one of the best classic games for families.
And a Fresh Favorite: A New Game We Enjoy
We recently discovered this board game, and we love it for its beautiful artwork and engrossing gameplay. This family game is best for older kids and adults. Its theme may particularly appeal to folks who live in or love the Pacific Northwest.
For similar kind of game with what looks like a very cool format with 3D game pieces, I have my eye on Planet. I am planning to grab that and place it under the tree at Christmas time.
Well, that takes us to ten of our best and favorite family games and beyond (we snuck a few bonus references in there) so…
Thanks for reading this post on our 10 (plus) favorite family games for screen-free and travel fun.
We hope you have found this post helpful and that you have some enjoyable family game nights ahead. In addition to this list, you may want to take a look at our post on more screen free gifts that have remained popular in our house year after year. For that, see Our Kids Still Play With These Toys; Gifts That Hold Up Over Time.
For more on games, toys and other travel essentials we like for keeping kids busy on the road, rails, water or in the sky, see Travel Fun for Kids on the Road and in the Sky, Travel Essentials. And if that travel takes you to Disneyland, be sure to check-out our free and complete Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep and consider subscribing to our free newsletter below.
For family fun of a different sort, please take a look at our favorite series on this site: Disney Sunday Night Movies. Those family movie night guides have suggestions for super simple activities and snacks, but our favorite part is the discussion guides we included to help your family grow closer through sharing a movie night. We have guides like Inside Out Disney Movie Night: Emotion Sharing Guide and Luca Movie Night: Discussion, Food and Activity Guide and more. Thanks again for reading!
