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What are you playing for the holidays?

Posted by Jim {Power Gamer} | 1-Jan-15 | 61 comments

It’s a wonderful time of year! Not only is it a time where family and friends get together, but it’s also so cold outside that it’s a lot easier for us gamers to get them to sit around the table and play games!

I’ll never forget when Settlers of Catan first entered our home. My older brother brought it for the holidays, none of us were really gamers at that point. We played it almost every day, and sometimes multiple times a day! Each family had their own copy within a month after that!

This ‘Winter Break’ is a perfect time to spend with family, friends, loved ones, and our year long companion – games. We are, after all, a family here at Boardgaming.com, so let’s spend this time together in celebration of a new tradition: ‘The 12 Days of Gaming‘! In this extended “What are you playing this weekend?” let us know how you are celebrating The Twelve and what Sugar Plum Meeples are dancing on your table tops all holiday long.

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Pancha Ganapati, Yule, Newtonmas, Festivus, Decemberween, Hogswatch, The Feast of Alvis or the Winter Veil…we all sit at the table as one. Let’s unwrap our gifts together and share the new acquisitions that will grace our gaming shelves in the year to come.

Happy Holidays and a most unboxable New Year!

—Boardgaming.com

What games are you most excited about playing over the holidays? What games will you use to introduce your friends and family to the hobby? What games will you play with your fellow gamer enthusiasts?

Comments (61)

Gamer Avatar
6
Went to Gen Con 2012
Book Lover

We just played Shadows of Brimstone last night, and I think we’ll play another round tomorrow. I’m hoping for some other gaming today.

Gamer Avatar
7
Greece
Book Lover

I received at last “Pathfinder S&S” and the “The Battle Of Five Armies”..so i’m very busy with them ’till now…

Gamer Avatar
7
USA
Book Lover
Novice Reviewer
Cooperative Game Explorer

Got to play Dixit with the in-laws and Mice and Mystics wit my 7yo… So far.

Gamer Avatar
8
Legend of the Five Rings Fan
Advanced Reviewer
Tactician
Guardian Angel

Played a New Year’s Eve tournament of Doomtown: Reloaded, followed by party games like Quelf and A Terrible Time.

Yesterday, an eight-player round of Uno, followed by what turned into about eight hours (40+ games) of Catch Phrase Because we were simply unable to stop.

Gamer Avatar
6
Miniature Painter
Intermediate Reviewer

In the past couple days we have played Heroes of Normandie, Eldritch Horror and Letters from Whitechapel. I should be getting Darkest Night and Cruel Necessity tomorrow from the delivery man – that’s what I’ll be trying out this weekend.

Gamer Avatar
6
Went to Gen Con 2012
Book Lover

We intended to play Fury of Dracula, Sentinels of the Multiverse (and expansions), and possibly Chrononauts/Early American Chrononauts, Contagion, and Lords of Waterdeep. However the holiday break was pretty much filled with Sentinels of the Multiverse. I think we found the sweet spot in terms of hero characters – it doesn’t scale well to 2 characters, but 4 worked really well.

Gamer Avatar
3
US Marines Service

From December 20th until last night, I played:

Chapters 3-11 of Mice and Mystics base set.
Looping Louie x 4
Saint Malo
Tsuro
DnD Attack Wing
Dead of Winter
Warfighter: Special Forces Card Game
Crokinole
Pairs x 5
Council of Verona
Istanbul
Lords of Waterdeep
Spledor
Rise of Augustus
Concordia

Gamer Avatar
10
Gamer - Level 8
Explorer - Level 5
Critic - Level 3
Junior

In addition to a couple of rounds of Splendor and Machi Koro a few days a go lots of Click Clack Lumberjack, Ghost Tower and finders keepers with my my 4 year old.

Gamer Avatar
7
Veteran Grader
Paladin
Strategist
Junior

I am also painfully reminded that my wife’s family are not gamers at heart. We ended up playing Imaginiff and Bohnanza (which took some work and patient reminders, I must say) with the immediate family. During the extended family Christmas, Headbandz, Party Pooper, Rampage, Tsuro, Timeline, and Stupiduel all made appearances, which was quite nice. I gained a few games and ordered even more with Christmas money. 🙂

Gamer Avatar
9
Gamer - Level 9
Lookout
Explorer - Level 6
Guardian Angel

I hve been playing Sun Tzu, Tsuro, Diamonds, Splendor, and Machi Koro. I have an upcoming 4 day gaming con and am working on learning several new games.

Gamer Avatar
7
United Kingdom
I play yellow
Gamer - Level 6

We have had 4 player games on Machi Koro for the first time. Popular xmas playing games have been SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM + CA$H & GUNS 2. I also bought Carcassone on my iphone, quite enjoying that, although I am yet to beat the strong computer opponent.

Gamer Avatar
5
Crab Clan - Legend of the Five Rings

We got in some Ticket to Ride and Letters from Whitechapel, but I still hope to get some rounds of Forbidden Desert, One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Ghost Stories out before the new year.

Gamer Avatar
6
Treasure Map
Tomahawk

The gaming interest in my family is pretty mixed and the windows are short due to young children (future players) who need tending. We did get in Alhambra, Valley of the Kings, LOTR: Confrontation and Timeline. Timeline is great for how easy it is to rope in uncommitted gamers and can get the momentum for interest going.

Gamer Avatar
5
Video Game Fan
Explorer - Level 3
Book Lover

😮 I was so excited about the poem that I missed seeing the game update! This didn’t show up in my local game shop though, I think I visited there about every other day over the last couple weeks so would have seen it. Will have to be on the lookout though going forward. I enjoy Love Letter but don’t have a copy, so think I will hold out for this seasonal one instead. 😛

Gamer Avatar
8
Legend of the Five Rings Fan
Advanced Reviewer
Tactician
Guardian Angel

@Katte: It snuck onto the site with the “‘Twas the Night Before” Game Update. 😀

Gamer Avatar
9
Miniature Painter
Rosetta Stone
Advanced Reviewer
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester

Played Cash & Guns, Sentinels of the Multiverse and Smash Up with the adults.

With the kids, I got in some Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice. I also took a bunch of excess Magic the Gathering commons that I had four of and built the kids a Go Fish deck. That went well.

Gamer Avatar
5
Video Game Fan
Explorer - Level 3
Book Lover

Oh, Letters to Santa? I hadn’t seen that game before, I was just wishing we had some holiday themed games to play. I will have to take a look at that!

Gamer Avatar
8
Legend of the Five Rings Fan
Advanced Reviewer
Tactician
Guardian Angel

Finally got my mom and sister to sit down and play some of the games I brought for Christmas week: Hanabi and Letters to Santa.

Gamer Avatar
9
I play black
Guardian Angel
Platinum Supporter
Marquis / Marchioness

Illness knocked my family out. We managed one meager game of Artificium, and that was it.

Gamer Avatar
7
The Gold Heart
Arrowhead

My family understands now that we play games at Christmas after a few years of grooming them. We have always been a gaming family but I’m the only Avid gamer the rest are social, casual and family, so that makes me in charge. I have for at least the past 14 years had a Christmas game that I create and run for our Christmas eve sibling gift exchange. (I am the fourth of 6 kids and 3 of us are married.) it usually is based on the fact that I have a gift for everyone, there are 19 of us total, and the presents have mixed up names. The game is different ways of figuring out whose present is really whose. This year I went back to an original idea from like my second year which was a logic problem to find out whose name was on each persons present. I chose an easy one to do this year since I am due with my second son on Jan 1st.
The games I received for Christmas this year were: Agricola, Innovation Echoes of the Past, Bohnanza High Bohn Plus, Puerto Rico and Aquire.
I gave as gifts: guillotine, love letter, sleeping queens, arkham horror, zombie dice, fish cook, cargo noir, telestrations, and ultimate werewolf.
We managed to play Love Letter, Aquire (twice), Arkham Horror (twice), Boss Monster, Puerto Rico, Stockmarket, Shadows over Camelot with Merlin’s Company, Sleeping Queens (several matches), Bohnanza (twice and then once with High Bohn exp.) Innovation with Echoes exp, The Walking Dead Game, Power Grid, Telestrations, Pandemic and Therapy.
So a very successful Gaming Christmas with some new games and mostly old favorites. I’ll have to go over the rules of some of the new games and present them for play on a Sunday afternoon soon.

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