The best board games for Christmas

How it plays: On your turn, flip a card or stop and bank your points. Flip a number you already have and you score nothing that round. Action cards can freeze a player out or make them flip three in a row. Seven different numbers earn a bonus, and the first to 200 points wins.

Why it's fun: Making someone flip three cards when they are one card away from a bust.

Good to know: Only a deck of cards, so it travels.

How it plays: Take tokens from the shared market and place or stack them on your board to make rivers, fields, forests and mountains. Animal cards each need a certain pattern of land; build it and an animal moves in. Your landscape and your animals both score.

Why it's fun: Stacking the chunky tokens and watching a little landscape grow in front of you.

Good to know: Plays solo too. Quiet and thoughtful. The board has a second side for a different game.

How it plays: Over eight rounds, everyone picks a region card at the same time and adds it to their row. At the end you flip your cards from last to first, and each card scores only from what has been revealed so far, so you plan the trip backward.

Why it's fun: Building a route that only pays off in reverse.

Good to know: Icons and numbers, little reading. Most people need a game or two before the scoring clicks.

How it plays: Everyone gets two secret cards and five shared cards come out over four rounds, as in Texas Hold'em. Instead of betting, you take star chips to show how strong you think your hand is, without talking. Rank the hands in the right order three times to crack the vault.

Why it's fun: The silent haggling over chips, and the cheer when the vault opens.

Good to know: With 3 players it is easier. A card lists the poker hands, so nobody needs to know poker.

How it plays: On your turn, draw two train cards, take new destination tickets, or play a set of same-coloured cards to claim a route between two cities. Finished tickets score points; tickets you don't finish count against you.

Why it's fun: Completing a long route across the map, or finding someone just took the one track you needed.

Good to know: Little reading: the cards are colours and the board has city names. Many map expansions exist, but the base game is complete. Spiel des Jahres 2004.

How it plays: Roll two dice: every tile with that number pays wood, brick, sheep, wheat or ore to the players beside it. Trade with each other, then build roads, settlements and cities. A 7 brings out the robber. The first to 10 points wins.

Why it's fun: The trading: "one sheep for your brick?" across the table.

Good to know: The base game is for 3 or 4; a separate extension adds players 5 and 6. Dice decide a lot, and a game can run past 90 minutes. Spiel des Jahres 1995.

How it plays: On your turn, take gems, reserve a card, or buy a card with your gems. Each card you buy gives a permanent gem discount, so your buying power grows. Nobles visit the first player with the right cards, and 15 points ends the game.

Why it's fun: The turn your cards finally pay for a big card on their own.

Good to know: No reading: icons and numbers. Quiet and quick, with heavy gem chips.

How it plays: On your turn, play a card in rising order on one of five expeditions, or discard one, then draw. Every expedition you start costs 20 points before it earns anything, and handshake cards multiply the result. Three rounds make a game.

Why it's fun: Deciding whether one more card is worth starting an expedition you may not finish.

Good to know: Made for two. No reading: numbers and colours only.

How it plays: Take up to three gems in a line from a shared board, or buy cards that give permanent gem bonuses. Some moves hand your opponent a privilege. Win with 20 points, 10 points in one colour, or 10 crowns.

Why it's fun: Three ways to win, so you are always watching what the other player is going for.

Good to know: Made for two, and more interactive than the original Splendor. You don't need to know Splendor to play.

How it plays: Place a kitten on the quilted bed and it boops the pieces next to it one space away, sometimes right off the bed. Three kittens in a row become cats, and three cats in a row wins. This version adds ghost cats that move and boop over other pieces.

Why it's fun: Lining up the boop that knocks your opponent's cat off the bed.

Good to know: Made for two. No reading. The fabric board and chunky pieces are half the charm.

How it plays: Roll the dice up to three times, keeping the ones you want, then attack, heal, collect energy, or move the Fame and Destruction markers. Spend energy on power cards. Win by knocking out the other monster or by winning the tug-of-war on the tracks.

Why it's fun: The markers swinging your way, then straight back again.

Good to know: Made for two. The power cards have short text, so younger players may need a hand reading them.

How it plays: One player sees a hidden target on a dial between two opposites, such as hot and cold, and gives a clue. Their team turns the dial to where they think the target is, and the closer they land, the more they score. The other team guesses left or right for a point. First to 10 wins.

Why it's fun: The debate: the team talking each other round to one spot on the dial.

Good to know: BoardGameGeek players rate it best with 6 or 8. The cards carry printed word pairs, so younger players need to read.

How it plays: Everyone gets a secret word and draws it in their own sketchbook against a timer. Pass the books on: the next player guesses the drawing, the next draws that guess, and so on until each book comes home.

Why it's fun: The reveal, page by page, when everyone sees how the word turned into something else entirely.

Good to know: Everyone plays at once, so nobody waits for a turn. BoardGameGeek players rate it best with 8. Guesses are written, so players need to read and write.

How it plays: The cue giver picks a secret colour from the 480 on the board and says one word. Everyone puts a cone where they think it is; then comes a two-word clue and a second cone. Closer cones score more, and the cue giver scores too.

Why it's fun: Finding out that your aunt's idea of "tomato" sits three rows from yours.

Good to know: Very quick to teach. BoardGameGeek players rate it best with 6 to 8. Clues are spoken, so guessers don't need to read.

How it plays: A topic card shows 16 words, and everyone except the Chameleon learns which one is secret. Each player says one word linked to it, then the table votes. Caught, the Chameleon can still win by guessing the word.

Why it's fun: Choosing a clue that proves you know the word without handing it to the Chameleon.

Good to know: Rounds take a few minutes. BoardGameGeek players rate it best with 6 or 7. Players read the topic cards, so it suits confident readers.

How it plays: Scan a card with the Hitster app and a song plays without its title or year. Place the card on your timeline where you think its year fits, then flip it to check. Get it right and you keep it; tokens let you steal a card someone else got wrong. The first to 10 cards wins.

Why it's fun: Hearing three notes and knowing exactly which year it is.

Good to know: Needs a phone with the free Hitster app, an internet connection and a speaker; the songs play through Spotify. No reading needed to play.

How it plays: Spin the spinner and move that many cherries, one to four, from your tree into your basket. The dog and the bird make you put some back, and the spilled basket sends them all back. The first to an empty tree wins.

Why it's fun: Small children can run the whole game themselves, counting out loud as they pick.

Good to know: Pure luck, so a three-year-old can beat a grown-up fairly. No reading.

How it plays: Spin, then use the Squirrel Squeezer to pick up an acorn of that colour for your log. Some spins let you choose an acorn, steal one, miss a turn, or put your acorns back. The first to fill a log with one acorn of each colour wins.

Why it's fun: Working the squeezer: children love the grab as much as winning.

Good to know: No reading: the spinner shows colours. Good practice for small hands.

How it plays: Slide the Zinger and two picture tiles pop out. Whoever has that picture on their card calls it first and covers it. The first to fill their card shouts "Zingo!"

Why it's fun: The race to call out a picture before your brother does.

Good to know: Each card has an easier green side and a harder red side, so older children can play at their own level. Pictures carry the game, with the word printed beside each one.

How it plays: Turn over cards and race to spot the one picture two cards share, then say it out loud. The tin holds several mini-games, from collecting the most cards to a hot-potato round.

Why it's fun: The moment the match jumps out at you after staring for ages.

Good to know: No reading, only pictures. 55 cards in a small tin, so it fits in a stocking.

How it plays: From the tiles on your rack, make runs in one colour or groups of one number in different colours. Your first play must add up to 30 points. After that you can rearrange any tiles on the table to fit yours in. The first to empty their rack wins.

Why it's fun: Pulling apart the sets on the table to squeeze in one more tile.

Good to know: Numbers and colours only, no reading. Quiet and thinky. Spiel des Jahres 1980.

How it plays: Everyone rolls their ten dice at the same time, keeps the dice showing one number and rerolls the rest as fast as they can. The first with all ten the same shouts "Tenzi!" and wins the round.

Why it's fun: Nobody waits for a turn: the whole table rolls in one clatter.

Good to know: No reading, just recognising numbers. It gets loud.

How it plays: Each colour has 21 pieces shaped like Tetris blocks, and your first piece goes in a corner. Every new piece must touch one of your own at a corner, never along a side. When nobody can place any more, the fewest squares left over wins.

Why it's fun: Slipping a piece into the last gap and cutting off someone's path across the board.

Good to know: BoardGameGeek players rate it best with 4. No reading. Rules for two players are in the box.

How it plays: On your turn, push the spare maze tile into a row or column to shift the paths, then move your pawn toward the treasure on your secret card. Collect all your treasures and get back to your start to win.

Why it's fun: Shoving a row to open your own path and, just as often, closing someone else's.

Good to know: No reading: the treasures are pictures. Children play it as a puzzle; adults can play it more ruthlessly.

How it plays: Each round everyone gets as many cards as the level number. Without talking, the team plays them onto one pile from lowest to highest. Play out of order and you lose a life; clear all the levels to win.

Why it's fun: The held breath while everyone waits to see who plays next.

Good to know: BoardGameGeek players rate it best with 4. Numbers only, no reading, and very quick to teach.

How it plays: Players take tricks as in Hearts or Whist: follow the suit led, and submarine cards win. Each mission gives the team tasks, such as one player winning a certain card, and you can't say what is in your hand. If one task fails, the whole team tries again.

Why it's fun: Silently hoping your partner sees the plan, and the cheer when the last trick lands.

Good to know: BoardGameGeek players rate it best with 4. Quiet and thinky rather than loud. A standalone game: you don't need the first Crew.

How it plays: Each player gets four word cards on a clover board and secretly writes one clue between each pair of neighbouring words. Then the cards come off, a decoy joins them, and the team puts your clover back together. The first try scores the most.

Why it's fun: Watching everyone puzzle over why you wrote "grandma" between "boat" and "cheese".

Good to know: BoardGameGeek players rate it best with 3 or 4. Players read and write words, so it suits confident spellers.