Giving games and puzzles as Christmas gifts is a time-honored tradition in our family. This is why I’ve found the best new games for 2021 that my kids and yours will love to play.
From card games to board games and dice games, you’ll also discover the best games from years past that you don’t want to miss. Because you don’t have to be new to be good.
Story Time Chess
ages 3+
Learn to play chess with chess pieces that have unique stories and 30 mini-games, all of which teach children the rules of the chess game.
Ladybug Memory Game
ages 4+
SO adorable — and great for fine motor skills, memory, and visual discrimination. Lift the chunky ladybugs two at a time to find a match!
Hape Robot Factor Domino
ages 4+
This cool STEM toy from Hape lets kids build with ball tracks, dominos, and catapults plus a tunnel, car, spinning arm, and more!
Pokémon Trading Card Game Battle Academy
ages 6+
Love Pokemon? This game at the Battle Academy will teach you everything Pokemon. It gives you 60 cards, a board, damage counters, and a coin plus codes for online play.
Abandon All Artichokes
ages 10+
From our friends at Gamewright, this new veggie power game’s goal is to ditch all the artichoke cards (to the compost) in favor of other vegetables.
Mystic Market
ages 10+
Hone your strategy and math skills and learn basic economics, all in a fun card game for 2 to 4 players. You’ll buy and sell magical potion-making ingredients to make sets then make the potions and trade them to earn points! Plus, aren’t the potion vials fantastic?
Happy City
ages 10+
A building strategy game from Gamewright where players earn money to build their own cities with buildings and people — and the happiest city wins.
Peaceable Kingdom Fire Truck Pups Floor Puzzle
Ages 3+
Preschoolers love fitting together these sturdy, large shapes into a large floor puzzle.
Ravensburger Friends of a Feather
ages 3+
A quick game for two to five players and perfect for preschoolers!
Wooden Sudoku
ages 6+
You’ll love this beautiful two-sided Sudoku wooden game board with smooth, wooden titles of numbers and shapes! Use the booklet with 60 challenges to get children started playing. The booklet gives starting positions for the tiles in three levels of difficulty and on two game boards, 4×4 and 6×6. Not only is this a FUN game for one player, but it’s also great for critical thinking, pattern recognition, problem-solving, visual/spatial thinking, and deductive reasoning. (Win-win!)
MudPuppy Double-Sided Puzzle 100 Pieces
ages 6+
Get a 2 for 1 puzzle with colorful animals on one side and black and white animals on the other. So cute, right!?
MudPuppy Map of the World 78 Piece Puzzle
ages 6+
Learn world geography with this beautiful world puzzle!
Brain Waves: The Astute Goose
ages 8+
Put your thinking caps on for this unique award-winning memory game which asks players to recall what the burglary suspect was wearing, the color, and the animal he is holding. An added bonus to the thinking fun is that it can be for 1 to 5 players!
Brain Games: The Wise Whale
ages 8+
Memorize the sea creatures, then try to match the creature or color without looking! Another fantastic thinking game from Kosmos for 1 to 4 players.
Twin It!
ages 8+
Think fast and spot identical pairs. Grab the match. But don’t get tricked by similar patterns– because they can get stolen if a third match appears.
Hi Lo Flip
ages 8+
Easy to learn and fun to play with the entire family– this is a numbers card game with visual discrimination and probability elements.
Pairzi
ages 6+
Play up to five different games, have fun, and practice cognitive flexibility, speed, working memory, and more. Created by the game Tenzi, Pairzi is a fast-paced card and dice game with cute critter cards.
Buildzi
Another game from the makers of Tenzi! This game asks players to study the picture on the card and build it. LOVE it!
Ubongo
ages 8+
I love this game — it reminds me of Tetris and it works for 1 to 4 players. Fit your shapes into the puzzle, win gems, and the player with the most gems wins the game. Geometry fun!
Roll and Play
Think Fun
ages 18 months+
Honestly, you don’t find many games for this age group and this is the best interactive card game for toddlers and preschoolers I’ve seen. Roll the big colored dice, pick the matching color card, and do the action. There are 48 game cards in six age-appropriate categories.
Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game!
ages 3+
Preschoolers love to play this award-winning game. Parents and teachers love it because it builds color recognition and counting practice as well as fine motor practice. Use the squirrel Squeezers to put the colored acorns into their logs. The first person to fill up their log wins. (Full review here.) A best game for kids under five.
Silly Street
ages 4+
An award-winning cooperative game that includes many types of play: dramatic, communication, creative, interpretive, competitive, teamwork. It’s FUN and silly!
ThinkFun Heads Talk Tails Walk
ages 3+
Can you walk like a chicken while meowing like a cat? Match bodies with heads! But if you make a mismatch, everyone makes the mismatched animal’s sounds and motions! Hilarious! This is one of the best games I’ve seen for preschoolers.
Guess Who?
ages 6+
Two players, deductive reasoning, communication, and fun! Try to guess your opponent’s mystery player. This game will be a favorite choice for YEARS to come.
BubbleTalk
ages 8+
Each player chooses the funniest caption from his or her cards. The judge picks the winner and that winner keeps the funny card. Take turns being the judge. HILARIOUS!
Tenzi Game
ages 7+
Tenzi is a SUPER FUN yet simple dice game that works for almost all ages (except the ages 0 – 3) which is why it’s one of our top recommendations (aka. the BEST) family night game. Be the first player to get all ten of your dice to show the same number. Full review here.
Sleeping Queens
ages 8+
Help the Sleeping Queens wake up by waking them up with the Kings and be the first player to reach 50 points. We ADORE this game and play it all the time. (My 14-year-old has loved this game since she was little!) It’s easy to play, fun, and great for family game night.
Blue Orange Maki Stack
ages 7+
Aren’t these wooden sushi pieces the best? Pick a card and race to build a matching stack using the sushi, soy sauce, and mat. My daughter and I often play this before bedtime and love it. We like that it takes about 10 – 15 minutes and makes us laugh. A great gift option for 2019. (Full review here.)
Scrambled States of America
ages 8+
This card game gets regular play in our house. Not only is it fun to play but it gets kids more familiar with the United States.
RushHour Traffic Jam Logic Game
ages 8+
Not only does this game provide hours of strategy and problem solving but it’s FUN to accomplish these tricky puzzles. We are big fans.
Word-A-Round
ages 10+
We laugh so much during this game as we totally butcher words trying to figure them out. In fact, my daughter has started writing down the funny words we invent on accident.) To win a card, you correctly read the word around one of the colored circles. The player with the most cards wins.
Blokus
ages 7+
This is my personal favorite family strategy game — mostly because occasionally I can beat my kids. They love this game, too — and let me win sometimes. Isn’t that nice?
The Settlers of Catan
ages 14+
Players must roll and trade for resources to build roads, settlements, and cities for points. The first to ten points wins. It’s easy to learn but the strategy requires some practice –it’s a very popular game for families and friend groups!
Cahoots
ages 10+
If you like cooperative card games, give this 2019 choice a whirl. You’ll be working on a team to complete a series of goals matching colors or numbers during a timed session of play.
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2 Responses
I was wondering if you had any suggestions for games for special needs male about 14 years old. Very unsociable and sits by himself at lunch time. Hoping a cool game might attract others to join him.
Ray,
Magic the Gathering is a big hit with many boys. Other longer games that might be of interest are Catan and Ticket to Ride. If those aren’t up his alley, you could go with something like Battleship, Apples to Apples, Blokus, or Five Crowns.
I also wonder about Minecraft servers online — my kids like the Harry Potter server — and for my oldest daughter who struggled with making friends in real life, her online friends gave her confidence.