Holiday Gaming Gift Guide 2021 | 20 Board Games We Recommend as Gifts this Holiday Season!
If you decide to go with any of our choices, let us know in the comments! Or, let us know which other games you decided to gift people this holiday season.
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0:00 Criteria & Overview
1:51 FOR THAT LAZY MORNING OVER THE HOLIDAYS
2:13 Dylann’s Choice
4:44 Carlo’s Choice
6:37 FOR THE GAMER WHO ENJOYS SOME ALONE TIME
6:51 Dylann’s Choice
9:03 Carlo’s Choice
11:59 FOR THE FAMILY WHO GAMES TOGETHER
12:17 Dylann’s Choice
14:51 Carlo’s Choice
17:46 FOR THE FAMILY WITH BUDDING GAMING ENTHUSIASTS
18:21 Dylann’s Choice
22:40 Carlo’s Choice
26:15 FOR WHEN YOU SECRETLY WANT TO BUY YOURSELF A GIFT
26:53 Dylann’s Choice
29:19 Carlo’s Choice
32:35 THE GIFT FOR WHEN ACCESSIBILITY IS PARAMOUNT
33:54 Dylann’s Choice
36:33 Carlo’s Choice
38:58 FOR THE PERSON WHO IS BOARD GAME CURIOUS
39:13 Dylann’s Choice
41:33 Carlo’s Choice
45:28 FOR THOSE LARGE GATHERINGS AROUND THE HOLIDAYS
45:49 Dylann’s Choice
48:06 Carlo’s Choice
51:29 FOR THAT SOMEONE EXTRA SPECIAL
51:51 Dylann’s Choice
55:44 Carlo’s Choice
59:10 DYLANN & CARLO’S PERSONAL HOLIDAY PICKS
59:45 Dylann’s Choice
1:02:55 Carlo’s Choice
What games are you gifting this holiday season? Or hoping to receive? Which game would you have picked in the categories we came up with? Let us know!
Gift guide aka "What to put on my own wishlist."
Welp. How do I accidentally on purpose share this with my boyfriend…?
We just opened micro macro and my family is loving it.
Great that you are covering accessibility. I think that is super important. Another thing game designers should keep in mind more is specific for card games, to accomodate left handed people and not only show the numbers on one side of the card. Many great recommendations
My 7 year old loves Cubitos
As if my list wasn't long enough already. Then this comes out…. 😜
You guys are awesome I really enjoy watching your videos keep up the good work
I really like the category choices and the recommendations!
My personal picks:
– Lazy Morning: Royal Visit (basically just a tug-of-war card game; minimal set-up, and quick and engaging gameplay without being overbearing)
– Alone Time: Troyes Dice (various "goals" at the back of the rulebook you can accomplish playing the game solo and, more importantly, challenges posted by the designers on BGG and Pearl Games' website that slightly tweak the rules and allow you to compete against the designers' scores)
– Family Who Games Together: Ingenious (simple rules and easy to teach to kids and adults, but with enough strategy that it can be played competitively – if you really wanna be mean to your kids!)
– Budding Gaming Enthusiasts: Ra (a great mix of auction/push your luck/set collection mechanics that budding gamers can become acquainted to)
– Secretly Buying Yourself a Gift: Witchstone (uses the Ingenious tile-placing to create a combo-filled point-salad-type game)
– Accessibility: Skull (basically a pure bluffing game where the minimal components and rules make this approachable for any kind of accessibility issues)
– Board Game Curious: Ticket to Ride, NY (I've found this to be an exceedingly well-liked game for those who are curious about what the whole board gaming hobby is all about; almost everyone we've shown it to has gone out and bought their own copy or as a gift for someone else)
– Large Gatherings: Werewords (basically a social deduction game version of 20 Questions that anyone can play)
– For Someone Extra Special: Crokinole (if price were not an issue – or you had a few people to split the cost with – this would be the game to give to a VERY special someone)
– Personal Holiday Pick: Sekigahara (well-designed 2-player introductory block wargame. Not really like anything else on this list, but this would be my Blockbuster-type recommended pick if you like my style of games and wanted to try a wargame and/or something a little heavier)
As soon as you mentioned Across the Board my ears perked up! So fun to randomly find people in the city! Love your content and will definitely be picking up some of these games to start filling out our collection!
So many awesome games i've never played/heard of besides Marvel Champs xd. Always can trust this channel.
“Send us a list of what you need”
That moment when you realize your relatives have noticed you play a lot of MC.
Thank you for the video. I’m a new subscriber. Just a suggestion – when introducing your choices, perhaps sprinkle screenshots of the game components. It would build more interest although it would cause you more time at the editing table.
Wow…Didn’t know Jared Leto is into board games!
JK! 😂🤣
Just wanted to say I like seeing local Winnipeg guys talking about board games!
I think this was such a thoughtful and helpful video. I really enjoyed it and your insights into how to get people to the table at various levels of experience.
Holiday objective, find a game where I can “crush” my kids during family game night! Great video guys!!
The best games were in the background.gloomhaven,qUacks,clank,everdell ,wingspan.
I never doubted for a second you'd fancy Cascadia, Carlo. Cheers! 🙂
I love you guys so much! You need to have a paypal or patron! And how can i get a AYCB coffee cup? =^,,^=
Silver and gold
This video put a big smile on my face because of the way you categorise, and because of its warm, X-massy, holiday feel.
To my non gaming sister and her non gaming family I will either give Ticket to Ride: Europe, or Carcassonne.
To a friend who is single and who doesn't own any games, but who enjoys playing them with me, I'll give the blue Railroad ink.
To myself I give Sleeping Gods: I have discovered Ryan Laukat! It'll be my 5th game by him. He's my new favourite designer. This is also evidence of the progress I have made this year (I started a year ago with the hobby – or should I say passion?).
As far as your gift guide is concerned: I value very much your opinion, you're an important reference guide to me, so I either own the games you name, or I have heard of them but after due consideration I decided not to buy them, or I'm not familiar with them, and I look them up because you speak of them.
PS Thumbs up from me for an online store! To own your mug would be nice : )
Quacks is a great game, my 7, 6yr old play this and have been since they where 5 and 6.
I am gifting welcome to, under falling skies. Plus I have got a few games for my kids and myself, Root, enchida shuffle, carcassonne Jr, zombie kidz, wizards wanted and a few others
I watched this video only to see Dylan try to sell us Marvel Champions! haha (i'm already sold by the way)
Lol!! You should rename the “Budding Enthusiast” category to “Ramping my kid up to Odin’s Feast” category.
Micro macro is under the tree already. I’ve just finished My city with my husband, we played less than one game a week, so we could enjoy it longer. I’ve beaten him with 4 points, now he wants to play the other half of the unused part again. I want to give it to friends…
Thanks for addressing accessibility. My wife is blind, and one of the considerations for any new game is how difficult it will be to adapt so she can play. A very few games (e.g., Codenames) don't need any adaptation of the components. Others (e.g., Pictionary) are too visual, and are a lost cause. Most are somewhere in between. And adapting a game so a blind player can play with sighted players often requires less work than adapting a game so blind players can play without sighted assistance.
Cards are easy to adapt; we just braille the cards. Braille playing cards use one braille character for the suit and one for the rank, and often the same thing works, just with different "suits" (e.g., Lost Cities) or maybe just a number (e.g., For Sale). Other times there is more information and the braille doesn't fit in the corner, so we braille more of the card (e.g., Bohnanza).
Sometimes we just replace the bits. For Incan Gold, I replaced the treasure tokens (distinguished only by color) with beads from the craft store (with different shapes and colors for the different values). I also replaced the "continue" and "return" cards with small tokens that fit in a closed fist: bedrolls to return to camp and torches to continue exploring. But we've also brailled bits using adhesive vinyl embossing tape (e.g., Catan).
Adapting the board often requires something to mark where the spaces are, something to identify which spaces are which, and something to keep the bits from moving around while a blind player feels where everything is. Sometimes we don't need to adapt the board; she has her own braille representation and keeps track of where her piece is, and asks where other pieces are as needed. Examples of that include the original 1955 version of Careers, or The Captain Is Dead. Other times, we use bits of Velcro to keep pieces in place (e.g., Catan), and even to distinguish between places for pieces (e.g., TransAmerica, with soft Velcro on 1-point routes and scratchy Velcro on 2-point routes, and both kinds of Velcro on the pieces).
Yeah, someday I need to publish a list of examples of ways we've adapted various games…
Great video!
what is in your cup? lol
try not to say "like" all the time. nice recommendations!
I stopped in my tracks when you mentioned Across the Board… hey fellow Winnipeggers! Great video, will be definitely checking out more. Also, awesome category for those with accessibility needs – I have never seen anyone cover that in a video before.
Just one is such a keeper! I’ll even make some more little stands to up the player count. It so easy to teach and to accessible to everyone!
Great lists 🙂 My wallet doesn't thank you
Great job guys
Great video! Found your channel with your review of Oath and slowly been consuming more of your content. This video was so thoughtful with such well-considered categories that really help viewers that I decided whelp I guess I’m subscribing to this channel. Thanks again, happy holidays, and much continued success!
Your video topics are fantastic. Glad I found this channel.
I really love including disability accessibility as a category!! I think it’s something often overlooked that does frequently make playing games more difficult or near impossible
As somebody who back the Cascadia Kickstarter it has become one of my favorite entry level board games. It is complicated enough and the varied enough between plays to be interesting for established hobby gamers. But these simple tile matching makes it easy enough to understand for newer players
great content guys