Christmas Board Game Tips for Kids

In today's golden age of board games, you'll find titles suitable for players of all ages. The selection of games for younger players or small children is constantly growing. Some games are purely for fun, while others teach cooperation or planning. We put our heads together and picked the best ones we've had our hands on recently.

Kroniky Avelu

While reading the rules for Kroniky Avelu, I felt like the author created the game with a child on their lap. It's a cooperative game, so there's no crying or arguing about who won, whether a sister cheated, and so on. Either everyone wins, or no one does. If you think the game is too easy, just turn up the difficulty. Is it too hard and the kids aren't having fun? Just lower the difficulty.

Want to prepare mentally for the game? Give your kid the hero sheets to color, let them name each hero, and draw their coat of arms. There, you've just bought yourself time to brew some tea or mix a refreshing drink. Don't know what to name the hero? No problem, just roll the dice and the game generates an interesting and fun name. Does the kid need to count while pulling loot from the bag but can't count yet? No worries, the rules thought of that too—just learn a short rhyme and recite it instead of counting. The whole game is woven with little details like this. Thanks to the clever packaging, setup and cleanup are quick, and when you run out of ideas, just grab the equally great expansion and dive into another adventure.

Cascadia

Cascadia is a game that hides its depth; in the basic mode, it's a pleasant game with simple rules. But it can be a real challenge even for experienced players once you start strategizing, watching other players, and calculating which animal to take or which environment to focus on. At that point, many a hardcore gamer has started to smoke from their ears.

The huge surprise is the family mode, where the game suddenly turns into a beautiful, simple logic puzzle that you can play with a 4-year-old rascal. You'll just stare at your watch in disbelief that the restless little imp has been sitting at the game for 20 minutes and is still enjoying it. Cascadia is a beautiful game where you'll discover the animals and nature of the Pacific Northwest.

Creature Comforts

A very beautiful and cute game from the world of animals, where you play as a creature trying to furnish your den to be the coziest of them all. And you have to do it before winter arrives. How? With "pleasures" and "gadgets." The game is a pleasant worker-placement where you use dice to pay for your home improvements. The game contains a nice amount of luck and risk, which you can always influence in your favor, even changing a die roll value. Think the game is too cutesy and not for real gamers? Heh, you couldn't be more wrong!

We played Creature Comforts with 4 players for over 4 hours, and our heads were smoking so much after we finished that we stared in disbelief at the box, where the creators claim the game takes 45 minutes and is for children aged 8 and up. How can it be a family game for kids if it challenged adults like that? We gamers are afflicted by counting and strategizing to such a degree that we often don't enjoy the game and its theme as such. Kids aren't like that. Kids play the game with a different style: "Oh look, apples…" — "But you don't need apples…" — "BUT I AM A HEDGEHOG AND THE HEDGEHOG WANTS APPLES!!!"

SMART: IQ Mini

Want to drink your coffee in peace and entertain your little treasure for a few minutes? Here is SMART: IQ Mini! Open the box, dump the contents on the table, and that's it. Did they finish before you finished your coffee? No problem, move the white pegs around, again and again… Add a notepad and a stopwatch, and voilà—you have motivation to keep playing, the kid will be proud of breaking records, and you'll have peace. Anywhere, anytime.

The game is so small that it fits in every pocket and every tiny backpack, so you can take it with you on vacation, on trips, to visits, or on the train.

Creature Comforts: My Little Everdell

My Little Everdell is a game based on the very popular Everdell. My Little Everdell is a simplified version that keeps the most important mechanics, designed for 1-4 players aged 6 and up, lasting about 30-60 minutes. Watch out for the age recommendation, because personally, I think the complexity is ideal for children aged 7-8. The shorter playtime is a benefit, as kids won't get bored. The main priority is the unique theme and beautiful illustrations of forest creatures.

During the game, players will collect resources and gain new cards that they can play to build combinations, bringing benefits or victory points. No need to worry about losing the main charm of the big Everdell; the game is just simplified so that younger, beginner players can enjoy it too. My Little Everdell is an ideal entry-level game into the world of board games that parents will also have a great time playing.

Stuffed Fables

Your charge, a little girl, has just received an adult bed without rails. Besides more room to sprawl out, several hardships come with it. She is no longer protected and must face all the pitfalls of the night alone. Not quite alone, though—she has her toys. A band of brave stuffed animals who will protect her at night.

That's how this amazing cooperative adventure board game with a story pulls you into the action. Stuffed Fables is designed for 2-4 players aged 7 and up, lasting about 60-90 minutes per scenario. It's a dungeon crawler set in a child's bedroom. In the game, you take on the role of a band of stuffed animals tasked with protecting the sleeping girl from the insidious Lord Nightmare and his horrors.

The principle is a story book that serves simultaneously as a rulebook, a story guide, and a game board. The story in the game is strong, fairytale-like, and will entertain parents too. It includes plastic figures, which are a staple of the board game world today. So, you can paint them together with your kids and enhance the already perfect atmosphere. Stuffed Fables is scary at times, and you need to be prepared for that. The game has several branching scenarios, so you'll spend many story-filled hours playing. And if that's still not enough, just get an expansion.

Elephant Trunk

Elephants are fun. Especially when they decide to become pirates and steal treasure from Captain Giraffe's chest. He, of course, doesn't like that, and the theft carries a well-deserved punishment—a walk on the plank. The planks in the game Elephant Trunk are magnetic.

Players play treasure cards, add weight to their teammates' planks, and when someone plays a card that has already been played, they must move forward on the plank toward a fall. It's about risk, tension, and laughter rather than tactics and planning. And that's what this category of games is all about!

My First Adventure

The My First Adventure series isn't a board game, but a gamebook series. Nevertheless, it deserves a place in our selection because it represents an ideal gateway into the world of social gaming. The books are designed for children from 4 years old, although they require reading skills. Therefore, an informed adult or older sibling will be needed during play. Each book contains a separate story that takes you on a fantasy quest for a dragon, among pirates, or into the underwater world of the lost Atlantis. Thanks to the clever design, they can withstand rougher handling.

author Pavel Mlejneský and Daniel Korčák