Best Family Games to Put Under the Tree (2023)

Looking for a new family board game this holiday season? Check out these fun games that are perfect for all ages to play together!

Like many families, it is one of our Christmas traditions to put a new family game under the tree each year. We look forward to playing the new game together later in the day, and a few times during the Christmas break. Now that I’m pretty close to being an empty nester, I look forward to our new family board game for Christmas even more!

Here is a list of some fun family games that you may not have heard of or played yet.

Fun Family Games for the Holidays

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Outsmarted! The Live Family Quiz Show Board Game

This is one of two games I purchased for my family this year, and I cannot wait to play it. Outsmarted! is a trivia game for families that can handle up to 24 players, making it a great choice for large family holiday celebrations. It is played with phones/tablets and is constantly updated. This means that questions can appear about events that happened yesterday!

The game also adjusts difficulty level based on age, making it much easier for kids and adults to play together.

Buy it here: Outsmarted Board Game

Poetry for Neanderthals

Poetry for Neanderthals is the second game that will be under the tree at our house. We have played it several times with others and we always get a huge kick out of it.

The premise is to give clues so your team can guess a word. The catch is that you can only use one syllable words. If you mess up someone will be standing by to bop you on the head with a neanderthal club. Don’t worry, the club is an inflatable and is included in the game.

Buy it here: Poetry for Neanderthals Game

Hues and Cues

This is a fun game we bought this summer and have really enjoyed. We are a family of artists and creatives, so it was especially appealing to us. Hues and Cues is a board full of colors and you have to give hints to each other with one and two-word clues. You can’t use obvious color names, so you do have to get pretty creative sometimes.

It’s really fun to see how different people interpret the clues, and who is closest to the right color! It can also bring about some pretty energetic conversations about what color Barney the Dinosaur actually is!

Buy it here: Hues and Cues Board Game

Secret Hitler

If your family likes games of strategy and misdirection, you’ll love this one. Secret Hitler divides the group up into fascists and liberals, and nobody knows who is on which side. The point is to vote out everyone on the other side before your own side is voted out.

This is one we have played often with another family. A couple of my cousins recently brought it on a girls’ trip and we had a great time playing it there, too.

Buy it here: Secret Hitler Board Game

Dorf Romantik

This game won Game of the Year for 2023. It is based on the popular video game by the same name.

Dorf Romantik is a cooperative tile laying game. It is reviewed as having beautiful artwork and rules that are interesting enough to keep everyone’s focus.

Buy it here: Dorf Romantik Board Game

Really Loud Librarians

If your family loves chaotic, loud, and laughter-filled games, you’ll love this one. It’s a twist on Scattergories (another one of our family favorites), but it’s fast paced and crazy. Really Loud Librarians has teams competing against each other by yelling words that match both the category and the letter on the gameboard to move ahead of their opponents.

Buy it here: Really Loud Librarians Game

Azul

Azul is another strategic, tile-laying game. Not only do you work to create beautiful tile mosaics, you also try to disrupt your opponents’ mosaics. This game is for 2-4 players only, so it is perfect for smaller gatherings.

Buy it here: Azul Board Game

Spoof

If your family enjoys bluffing games like Balderdash, you’ll love Spoof. Instead of making up definitions for words, you make up answers for all kinds of random trivia.
Whoever’s answers soud the most real wins.

Buy it here: Spoof Bluffing Game

Sounds Fishy

Similar to Spoof, Sounds Fishy is a bluffing game where you have to make up answers to a question. One player has the correct answer, and all players are trying to make a case that their answers are the truth.

You may have seen this one played on TikTok!

Buy it here: Sounds Fishy

All of Us

All of Us is a trivia game the whole family can play because it pits the generations against each other. Each trivia card has five questions on it, and the player answering can choose which one to answer. There are four different types of cards: one each for Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and GenZ.

Buy it here: All of Us Family Trivia Game

There’s Been a Murder

Similar to Clue, There’s Been a Murder is a card game that uses deductive reasoning to figure out which player is the murderer. Instead of working against each other, you work together and hope to find the murderer before he eliminates other players.

Buy it here: There’s Been a Murder Card Game

Hopefully, you’re able to find a really fun game on this list that is perfect for your family!

Happy Holidays!