Whether you’re looking for ways to educate and inform your little ones, or just spend some time away from the screen - board games are a great way of spending a few quality hours with the family.
Board Games have come a long way from our childhood - and some of the most popular board games are still those we remember playing with our Dads - Monopoly, Cluedo… The Game of Life! - are still going strong and waiting for that new generation to create some fond memories.
One of the oldest known board-games comes from (who else!) the Ancient Egyptians. Believed to have originated in 3100BC, ‘Senet’ was at its heart, a race to the end - but as with many board-games it evolved into something much more advanced and interlaced with meaning. Indeed, many Egyptians believed the game was a foreshadowing of their future, both while alive and in the afterlife.
What may surprise you is quite how many new options there are for you (and your children!), whether they’re learning how to roll dice for the first time, or beginning to understand the intricacies of Pictionary, we’ve searched high and low to find our best suggestions for each age group.
The best boardgames for the family - in summary
If you don't want to read our full reviews, and just want to jump to purchase then if we had to pick one in each age range they would be these:
Why board games are great for us and the kids
Apart from the obvious benefits of spending time together as a family, creating further bonds boosting self-confidence, and teaching your children how to control that anger when they land on Mayfair, board-games provide an excellent opportunity to improve our brain - whether you’re 5 or 55.
From a young age, our brains are clued into the world around us, and board-games can help develop basic skills such as colours and hand-eye coordination, improve attention span, develop language skills and help them understand how to deal with losing…!
As you head more towards countdown than counting, alongside other well-known brain-sharpeners such as Soduku and the Crossword - board-games can be a contributing factor towards mental sharpness in later life - an Edinburgh University Study has shown that people who increased game playing as they get older experience less of a decline in thinking skills.
Here are our selection of the best games to play all year round - whether at Christmas, Easter, or just a fun weekend family evening.
Best board games for toddlers / kindergarteners
Editors Review
"Each game lasts about 15 minutes and there’s nearly endless replay value. The play-area is quite large, so you need a bit of space and it will be popular with 3 year olds and upwards."
Richard Scarry’s creations are a firm favourite in house-holds across the land and this version of ‘Eye Found it!, set firmly within his Busy Town, is a sure-fire hit with fans of the books. The basic aim is to get your character to the picnic spot before the hungry piggies devour all your food. In order to do this, you take turns to find hidden items to solve a mystery on the area of play. It’s a collaborative game - all the players have to work together to make sure they all reach the picnic area before the pigs have eaten their fill. Oink!
Suitable for 2-4 players.
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Editors Review
"A wonderful way of introducing children to describing feelings and emotions, while encouraging them to think about helping those around them!"
As the player moves around the board they encounter people with problems. Picking a token that may provide a solution for someone on the board - they can learn empathy with situations they’ll know - being scared of the dark for example.
Suitable for ages 3 and up, and for 1-4 players.
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Editors Review
"The great thing about games like this is that it can teach skills without being obvious about it - kids will learn addition and subtraction while playing. This is a simple idea executed well."
Slightly more ‘classic’ than the previous two - ‘Hi-Hi Cherry-O’ is a great game to help children learn the basics of maths. The aim is to collect 10 cherries on your ‘tree’ by spinning a spinner to give you 1 to 4 cherries each time. If you spin the dog, or bucket - you lose some cherries. Pop!
Suitable for ages 3+ , and 2-4 players.
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Editors Review
"Bingo with a Zing! This delightful take on Bingo helps with teaching matching, pattern recognition, memory building and eventually word recognition."
Each player gets a card, and has to match the symbol that pops out of the dispenser (‘Zinger’) with what’s on their card. The first player to match everything on their card yells ‘Zingo!’. Bingo! A simple, joyous way to spend time and learn at the same time.
Best played with Age 3+ , and up to 6 players.
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Editors Review
"This is a great game for motor-skills, and to add a fun competitive element to their burgeoning block-building skills. Each game lasts no more than 15 minutes."
Every toddler loves an animal, and stacking blocks; in this enjoyable game of skill, players take turns to place their delightfully carved wooden animals on top of each other - imagine Jenga but backwards. At the beginning, each player gets 7 animal tokens and then take it in turns to roll the dice and either add to the stack, or pass their animal. Roar!
Suitable for 4+ , and 2-4 players.
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Best board games for 5-10 year olds
Editors Review
"Hungry Hungry Hippos for [the millennial] generation’ - Exploding Kittens is an obscenely fun way to spend an hour or so."
The aim of the game is to get all your balls through the cat’s mouth (in the middle of the play area) before your opponent.This is done by using the magnetic cats paw like a catapult - and lends itself to fast, frenetic play! Miaow!
It’s easy to pick up (literally, it’s very portable) and something that could be played with younger ones just to entertain (as long as you keep an eye on the balls).
Mainly suitable for 3+ , and 2 players - although they do have a tournament mode on their website to allow for greater numbers.
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7. Sorry!
Editors Review
"The hugely frustrating but immensely fun game that infuriated you as a child is most certainly one of the best board-games you should play with your kids."
The aim is to get your three pawns from start to finish - but the journey to get them there is fraught with peril. Each turn players draw a card to discover what lays in wait for them - moving their pawn, swapping with another one on the board or utilising the fire/ice power-ups (added to the new version of the game) which power forward movement or freeze you in place. No two pawns can be on the same square so if someone lands on yours, back to the beginning you go. Sorry!
As fun as it was in 1972 when Sorry! first graced our tables, it is suitable for ages 6+ , and 2 to 4 players.
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8. Operation
Editors Review
"A great game to play competitively or even test yourself solo."
Another classic - the aim of Operation is to remove body-parts from the patient without touching the tweezers to the edges of the opening. If you touch the edge and the buzzer goes off - you lose any points from that round. It’s a very skill-led game - another excellent opportunity to improve hand-eye coordination - and as with all the best board games for children - it’s simple and easy to pick up. Nurse!
Operation is suitable for ages 5 and over, and for 1 to 6 players.
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Editors Review
"Dobble takes the basic concept of ‘spotting something’ and makes it much more interesting."
There are 55 cards - and each one has a symbol in common with every other card. The symbols are all designed to play tricks on your brain (they’re different sizes, for example) making them not as immediately obvious to identify. There are various ways of playing, provided in the pack which helps ensure the gameplay doesn’t ever get stale. Snap!
Aimed at 6+ - (there is also a Dobble Junior) - and suitable for 2 to 8 players. This is a fresh take on a game we all know how to play.
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Editors Review
"A fantastic take on a classic genre that’s sure to get the whole family roaring with laughter."
Pick a card: do a challenge. A familiar concept to fans of Pictionary, Cranium and their ilk. The ingenious addition here is glasses which turn your vision upside down. Giving a high-five is easy(ish) in normal circumstances - now try attempting it the wrong way up! Leading to some hilarious situations, the aim is to get to 6 points. You can win and lose points by finishing the tasks within time limits on the cards. This game really tests various skills along the way. Bonza!
The Upside Down Challenge Game is suitable for ages 8+ , and 2 for or more players.
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Best board games for Tweens / Teens
11. Ticket to Ride
Editors Review
"A game that encourages strategic thinking (once you’ve got the hang of it)."
A modern classic, the aim of Ticket to Ride is to build a transport link between two cities. You do this buy placing train carriages on the board - trying to complete your route ahead of your competitors. The original was based in America, but there are now many variations to buy, including a European and Junior version.
It creates a wonderful environment to test your skills: should you go for the bigger points by creating the longer track, and risk someone else sneaking onto your planned route or play it safe and watch as someone else steams their way to victory because they’ve been bold. Passage!
Suitable for ages 8+ , and for 2 - 5 players.
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12. Articulate: Fame
Editors Review
"Zany, creative and makes you think of people in a very new way. Descriptive!"
Articulate is already a firm family-favourite , but as it can be quite varied in subject matter -the ‘Fame’ edition is a great introduction for children, to the entertaining description game as it focuses purely on celebrities. For the uninitiated - players separate into teams and then take turns to pick up cards - which have names on. They then have 30 seconds to describe as many people as they can without using their name.
Suitable for ages 8+ (although it lends itself to older players due to wider knowledge), and for 4 to 20 players.
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13. Monopoly
Editors Review
"You’d be doing your children a disservice if they didn’t play it. Go!"
What is there to say about Monopoly that hasn’t been said before? Buy property, build houses and hotels and try to get as much money as possible. A game that has been infuriating and engrossing players since its inception, Monopoly now has over 1,500 variants to try - including the recent additions of the 'boardless version' (for increased portability) and the 'life-sized' version in London - where you can run around the board as your very own 'you' shaped piece! For our money, the classic one is the one to get. Roll the dice, collect $200, and lose it to council tax immediately. Ah, Monopoly.
Suitable for ages 8 and up - but really you need to be older to deal with the constant frustration - and for 2 to 6 players.
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14. Bananagrams
Editors Review
"It’s fast paced, and the constant addition of new letters means you continually need to adjust the board to fit the new additions into play."
Word games are a great way of having fun and increasing vocabulary. The well known example is Scrabble, but Bananagrams is jostling for attention. Encased in a banana skin, there is no board as such, just letter tiles ala Scrabble. The aim of the game is to put your letters out as quickly as possible, with words able to be made in any direction at all. When this is achieved, you yell ‘peel’ and everyone takes another letter - this continues until all the letters are taken. First Class!
Suitable for 7+ , and for 2 to 8 players.
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Editors Review
"The more you play, the deeper your understanding, and you learn more ways to approach the game."
No list of the best board-games would be complete without Settlers of Catan. The aim is to colonise an Island, via gaining resources and building roads and cities and developing their settlements. There’s a lot of luck and strategy involved in getting the 10 points needed to win.
There’s plenty of interaction meaning that everyone can learn from each other and feel involved until the end. It’s easy to learn - with lots of variety in how the island looks thanks to the modular approach.
Suitable for ages 10+ , and for 3-4 players.
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So what is the best board game to play as a family?
We have barely touched the sides when it comes to the huge variety of games available to play with the family. What is nice is that there is something to suit everyone.
The 15 chosen here are what we think you would have the most fun with this Christmas and over the coming months to keep you and the kids entertained.
To recap what we said at the beginning if we had to pick one in each age range:
Toddler: Animal on Animal (Runner up: Hi-Ho, Cherry-O).
5-10: Dobble (Runner up: Exploding Cats).
Teens/Tweens: Ticket to Ride (Runner up: Monopoly).
Let us know your favourite on the socials and tell us if we’ve missed any of your family favourites!
