Top 10 Christmas games: fun games for Christmas and Christmas Eve
13 oktober 2026 · Bijgewerkt 5 oktober 2026
Christmas dinner is finished, the plates are still on the worktop and nobody feels like getting up yet. That is exactly when the question comes: who is getting out a game? This top 10 Christmas games is for that moment. You will find games for a full table on Christmas Eve, for two players and for the long days off afterwards.
We have completely redone the list this year. A good number of the old favourites are no longer available. In their place are games we enjoy putting on the table ourselves right now. The order runs from loud and easy to calm and a bit longer.
Looking for something for a specific group? Then you will find more tips in our lists of Christmas games for the whole family, for adults and for children.
Games for Christmas Eve: what works at a full table?
Christmas Eve is a strange games night. Grandad is sitting next to a nine-year-old nephew and someone has just eaten too much. Half the table has never had a board game explained to them. That is why games for Christmas Eve need to be quick to explain, keep everyone busy at the same time and be able to cope with a bit of chaos.
The first two games below are made for exactly that. If there are just two of you or a small group, look further down. And for the days between Christmas and New Year, when there is time for a longer game, the bigger boxes are at the bottom.
Hitster Bingo: guessing music with the whole of Christmas Eve
A disco ball picks the category, the app plays a song and everyone has 25 seconds to write something down. Was it a band or a solo artist? Was it released before 2000? Which decade? The first to fill a row with crosses shouts Bingo.
The great thing about Hitster Bingo on Christmas Eve is that age becomes an advantage. Your aunt knows exactly when that song from the 70s came out, the teenagers grab the recent hits. There are six score cards in the box, so with a big family you simply play in teams. The box says 2 to 10 players aged 16 and up, and a round takes about half an hour.
De Weerwolven van Wakkerdam (published in English as The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow): for when the whole family is there
Do you have eight people or more at the table? Then this is the game people will still be talking about later. Everyone secretly gets a role. At night everyone closes their eyes and the werewolves choose a victim. During the day the village talks, accuses and votes someone out.
The game master does not play along, and on Christmas Eve that is handy: the role suits whoever does most of the talking anyway. With the Seer, the Witch and Cupid in the mix, every round gets its own story. The game is for 8 to 18 players aged 10 and up, and a game takes about half an hour. Often the table immediately wants another one.
View De Weerwolven van Wakkerdam
Clever: a dice game that always turns into one more round
In Clever you roll coloured dice and fill them in on your own score sheet. Each colour scores in a different way, and a well-chosen box often sets off a bonus that triggers yet another bonus. Anyone who sees that happen for the first time wants to go again straight away.
The nice detail: all dice lower than your choice go onto a tray, and the others may choose from it during your turn. So you are never sitting around waiting. Designer Wolfgang Warsch made it one of the most popular roll-and-write games of recent years. For 1 to 4 players aged 8 and up, and a game takes fifteen minutes to half an hour.
Patchwork: Christmas for two
Not every Christmas means a full table. For two players, Patchwork by Uwe Rosenberg remains one of the nicest games around. Taking turns, you buy patches of fabric with buttons and time, and puzzle them onto your own little quilt. Every gap left at the end costs points.
It plays calmly, but it has a sharp edge. That one odd patch you leave now is exactly the one the other player takes at the worst possible moment. You explain the rules while you are already picking up the first pieces, and after half an hour you want a rematch. For ages 8 and up.
Dewan: a new family game with surprisingly much tension
Dewan is one of the newer games on this list, and a nice discovery for anyone who wants something other than the well-known classics. You lead a tribe that builds camps in a landscape of canyons, mountains, desert, forest and water. Each turn you take two terrain cards, or you use cards to set up a new camp.
Each area can only have one camp, and that makes it exciting. You see the other player heading towards your spot and have to decide: go now or save up a little longer? The box contains four variants, including a mode in which you play two against two. For 2 to 4 players aged 10 and up, in about three quarters of an hour.
Sagrada: a stained-glass window made of dice
There is something Christmassy about Sagrada, even though the game is not about Christmas. You build a stained-glass window, but with dice in all sorts of colours. Each round you choose dice from a shared pool and place them in your window.
Sounds calm, and it is, until you notice how strict the rules are. Two of the same colour may not sit next to each other, nor may two of the same number, and your window has its own requirements for each square. Special tools help you out of a tight spot, but get more expensive once others have used them too. This edition is in English; you will hardly notice that at the table. For 1 to 4 players, about 45 minutes.
Cascadia: calm puzzling with animals and nature
Cascadia was already on this list last year, and it remains one of the best games for introducing someone to modern board games. You lay tiles with landscapes such as forests, mountains and rivers, and place animals on them: bears, salmon, foxes, hawks and elk. Each animal wants to be arranged in a different way.
What makes it so suitable for the Christmas holidays is the pace. Nobody is getting in each other's way, everyone builds their own landscape, and yet you keep watching what the others take. On BGG it is in the top 10 of family games. This is the English edition, but the game revolves around tiles and animals, so you will hardly notice that at the table. For 1 to 4 players aged 10 and up, in 30 to 45 minutes.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal, a car race for up to six players
Is there a car fan at the table? Then Heat is the box to open. Everyone chooses at the same time which cards to play, and then the cars race. In the bends you have to stay under the speed limit. If you go in faster anyway, it costs you heat from your engine. Those heat cards come back into your hand later and really get in your way there.
Explaining it takes fifteen minutes, and after the first round everyone gets it. With six players it becomes a real racing pack, and with fewer people you fill the field with automated drivers. You can also race against those Legends solo. The edition is in English. For 1 to 6 players aged 10 and up.
Everdell: building a woodland city between Christmas and New Year
For the quiet days after Christmas, when there is a whole afternoon for a game, Everdell fits the mood nicely. You send your little critters out to collect twigs, resin, pebbles and berries. With those you build a city full of cards: buildings and residents that boost each other.
The illustrations on the cards are beautiful, and anyone walking past stops for a look. Yet the game never feels heavy. You mainly build your own city, and at the end it is always fun to see how different those cities have become. For 1 to 4 players aged 10 and up; allow an hour or more.
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, to Mordor together
In many families, the films go back on at Christmas. Anyone who then wants to travel through Middle-earth themselves picks up Fate of the Fellowship. It is a cooperative game: you play together against the game. You protect Frodo, fight enemies and evade the Nazgûl, while the eye of Sauron draws ever closer.
Designer Matt Leacock is the man behind Pandemic, and you can tell. The game builds tension right up to the last turn. With 13 characters and 24 objectives, every game is different. This is the heaviest box on this list: ages 14+, in English, and allow for a good long afternoon. For 1 to 5 players, and it includes a solo mode.
View The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Looking for more Christmas games?
Is your favourite not on the list? In our category of Christmas games you will find everything we have in stock for the holidays. Playing with young children? Then there is more in the list for children. For an evening with adults only, we have a separate list.