Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 24: Top 12 games for the Holidays
29 Plays3 days ago
Shane is absent due to recovering from sickness, so Steve signs off the pod for the year with his top 12 games to play in the holidays.
Have a great holiday everyone, we will be back in late January 2026.
Recommended
Transcript
Steve Hosts Solo Finale
00:00:12
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Mate Let's Play. You're here with just Steve only tonight as Shane has actually fallen ill. But it is the last episode of the season so I thought we'd still go ahead and do it even if it is just me talking on a microphone. So apologies in
Top 12 Holiday Games
00:00:27
Speaker
advance. There'll no witty banter as it is just me. But, tis the season. So tonight it'll be a very quick episode. but I'm going over, was originally going to do our top 10 games for the holidays, but given that it is the holidays, I thought I'd make it a top 12. Like the 12 days of Christmas, but instead of calling it the 12 games of Christmas, because that's what every podcast or YouTube channel does, I'm just going to call it 12 games to play in the holidays.
00:00:55
Speaker
So... What qualifies for this list? So for me, I didn't do holiday themed games because there isn't that many good holiday themed games out there.
00:01:06
Speaker
There are games that are this time of year, I guess, equivalent to. So games that could have taken place at this time of year. I've got a couple of those on my list.
00:01:17
Speaker
have one game that is a Christmas game. The rest of them are just games that are predominantly easy to table and can take many players. because at this time of year, it's a really good time to introduce people to the hobby because you're going to be in rooms with people who you may not have a lot of other things in common with. So pulling out a game that's quick to teach, quick to get playing is a great way to pass some time and also potentially to encourage this hobby to people who may not have jumped in previously. And sometimes it's just a time where you've got time. Everyone seems to have least the Christmas, New Year's period off, except for those who have to work and
00:01:56
Speaker
So very much thank you for that. But for those for the majority of folks, it's a time of year to have off with family and friends.
Season Finale Announcement
00:02:03
Speaker
So it gives you these opportunities to have some fun with some games. So that's what we're doing for this episode. This will be the last episode for the year for Mate Let's Play.
Festive Game Highlight
00:02:14
Speaker
We'll be back in probably late January, just due to travel and holidays and actually meeting up with people and playing games. So without further ado, let's go with number 12.
00:02:26
Speaker
So number 12 is a variant of a very popular mainstream game. So you'll often come across people who have already played the original and that is a variant of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza called Santa Cookie of Candy Snowman. It's literally the same game except instead of the the hedgehog and whatever else you've got like the reindeer and the i think than can't remember what the other ones are but uh little drummer boy know whatever else but otherwise you've got santa cookie elf candy and snowman works the same way it'll drop blood because people will be going crazy to grab the piles for the middle so i'll slam their hands down on the pile in the middle so yeah nice small game but it's still a bit of fun and it's got the christmas theme to it so it just sneaks in at number 12.
Complex Holiday Game Suggestion
00:03:16
Speaker
number 11, which is in the entire other end of the scale and probably wasn't going to make my list. But then I thought about it and it can't stay off this list because the times that I've played this game, I think three of the five or six times I've ever played this game have been in the holidays, specifically the end of year Christmas holidays.
00:03:37
Speaker
And it's because it's the only time of year where you can get six to eight people together for an all day gaming session. and so my number 11 is twilight imperium fourth edition it's very different to santa cookie off candy snowman but it is a game that when i think of playing games in the holidays it's a game that i think about because you know i've been to dave's house um dave former uh member of the Chinwag podcast, but Dave has hosted me a couple of times, I think three times now, over this period where we've've we've made a full day of it. We've had menus for lunch and dinner, and we've started in the morning, we've finished in the night, and we've just played it. Sometimes at six, sometimes at eight. So for me, it is a game I think about in the holidays. So... Doesn't quite fit what I was talking about earlier about getting games to the table that are easy.
00:04:30
Speaker
The rest of the ones on my list are, but this one I couldn't leave it off the list because it is synonymous with this time of year for me.
Christmas-Themed Game Highlight
00:04:39
Speaker
Now my number 10 is a variant as well. It's a variant of one of the first game that got me into this hobby, and it's Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries. I love this one because it does give you that Christmassy feel. It's up in the Scandinavian areas. There's snow on the board, the guy on the front cover looks a little bit like Saint Nick, so it gives you those Christmassy vibes. I would have this much higher, except the issue I have with this game is that it is three player max.
00:05:08
Speaker
So it isn't good for getting multiple people around the table. If this was five players, this would become an annual tradition that my family plays every Christmas. It almost is that even at three, but I really wish it was able to extend out to the five players. I do believe they've released a similar version, Ticket to Ride Northern Lights, which does go to five, so but I don't think that's in Australia yet.
Quick and Easy Game Picks
00:05:32
Speaker
So Ticket to Ride Nordic Country is my number 10.
00:05:37
Speaker
Now, number nine, the rest of these games are very much get together, have fun. Doesn't matter if you've ever played board games before, you'll pick it up quick enough. And the first one, I've got it a very tiny box, but most people would have it in sort of like a two player game style size of box, like 10 by 15 centimeters. And that game is for sale.
00:05:59
Speaker
So in for sale, you are bidding initially in the first round for houses, and they can range anywhere from a cardboard box, and and that would be a number one, all the way up to like mansions. I think the number 30 is a house in space, and there's an ascending value of houses from one to 30.
00:06:16
Speaker
So you're bidding on these houses that you're going to get. and everyone gets the same amount of houses. How it works is if you bid the lowest, or if you pass first, you take the lowest value house that's available out of the five or six, however many players you've got out, is how many houses are out, and you take the lowest value of that house. And then when the deck is emptied, everyone's got a hand of cards, and then we put out values ranging from zero dollars to fifteen thousand dollars and then you bid a house and the same deal happens whoever bids the highest value house takes the highest value dollar amount from the board right down to the lowest value house takes the lowest value dollar amount from the board And whoever has the most valuable property at the end of the game wins. It's that simple.
00:07:00
Speaker
I'll just taught you how to play the game. the game goes for about 10 minutes. It's fantastic. That is for sale.
Tournament Style Games
00:07:06
Speaker
Nice, easy one. It's one of those games that you play and people at the table want to buy straight after you're finished. So that is my number nine for sale.
00:07:13
Speaker
Number eight is bit of a different game. It's bigger. It's probably the biggest game, including TR4, maybe. And this is Clask. So Clask is a two-player game. So you're probably thinking, well, hang on. You told us that this list is easy games that can get multiple people into it. But the great thing of about Clask is almost every time played Clask, we've had a mini tournament where there's eight people, six people, ten people, whatever else, and you play two on, you play one on one tournaments, winner stays in, you know, you you do some funky draws if you want to play like a round robin first or if you want to do a rep a charge or you can be as funky with that as you want or you can just play winner stays in, winner stays on, everyone rotates and plays them. It's basically mini air hockey on a table with magnets. So much fun.
00:07:57
Speaker
just and by the end of it you've got scratch marks all over your table but it was
Games for Large Groups
00:08:01
Speaker
worth it. Clask is my number eight.
00:08:05
Speaker
Number seven, and yes I did that thing where I put a game with seven in the title in the seventh spot but this is also a group of games because they kind of all do the same thing with varying levels of complexity. So this is a game that you can scale to the group that you're playing with. And this is the Seven Wonders series of games. So I'm counting Architects, the base game, and DICE in this one. So Seven Wonders Architects for me is the easiest entry point of these three games. So if you've got a group of people that haven't played board games before, Seven Wonders Architects is great because they all share a common theme, and that is that seven people, up to seven people, can play this game, and it does not increase the playing time. Seven Wonders Architects is no different for that. You're all choosing cards from the left or right or the middle of the pile and you're trying to build your wonder.
00:08:52
Speaker
you get bonuses depending on what type of wonder you've got very easy to explain really simple game but very quick playing at seven players obviously the classic seven wonders is very similar i think it's a little bit harder to understand as a new gamer but it's the same sort of deal get cards build your wonders score points everyone's playing at the same time so the game moves low at a good pace and then recently they came out with seven wonders dice which i really like it gives me like mini hadrian's wall feels but that's not ah not a difficult game to play, just it just has some similar likenings to that I guess, so this is another one that you could probably play with people who are accustomed to Sun gaming, maybe not fresh off the bat, I would still look at Seven Wonders Architects, but it still fits that same niche of it's seven players, up to seven players, and you all go at the same time, and it's fantastic, so Seven Wonders, either Architects, Dice, or Base Game is my number seven.
Family Favorite Party Games
00:09:53
Speaker
Number six is a game which is great in groups. It's better with more people, but also works at four. It's a simple party game. One of the one of probably the all time party games now, it has to be said, and that is Codenames.
00:10:06
Speaker
And this is a game that we always play in the holidays because my parents love it, my wife loves it. So it always gets a run whether I want to play it or not. But it's it's always a good time. And some of the some of the funniest moments that have come out of of the holiday season for us has been moments of arguments over the table in a game of codenames not for arguments but like just situations that you can't believe happened i can't believe you tried to link this and that with that word and uh or you know or i was trying to tell a story why didn't you pick up on this story and it's someone's random story that is only alive in their brain and they're trying to link all these words based on this story that they've created in their head i love it so yeah code names great game number six and you can mix in all the other ones if that's what you like if you have a particular if you're a marvel fan don't play the the marvel rules just skip half a dozen marvel cards and throw them in so you can keep the kids interested or whatever else
00:11:07
Speaker
Number five is a bit of a different one. It's not actually a board game, but it kind of is. And this is the Jackbox Party Pack game on any device. You can get it now. Everyone's got a phone, so you only need a phone to play it and one copy of the game on something, whether it's a PlayStation, Apple TV, Switch, PC, whatever. I'm sure there's an iPad app for it. But everyone logs in on the device and you...
00:11:32
Speaker
put in your answers on the device. There are loads of different games and they are absolute crack ups with big groups people, especially families where you can have a bit of a dig at each other. There's some, and like I got stuck playing this a game of this at my sister's house a couple of Christmases ago. and somehow for some reason the running joke was one of the answer was Steve's nips so that just kept getting mentioned that it just it was one of those things that stuck out I was quite happy to be made fun of it's all good I don't know what's so special about my nips but hey it worked for that note so that is Jackbox Party Pack my favorite Jackbox games
00:12:11
Speaker
I really like bracketeering, that's really cool. um I did like Mad vs City, but it really is dependent on having people who are a bit more creative at the table, which I'm not necessarily one of those, but sometimes you can come up with a decent rhyme. The t-shirt ones can be great. We've had some fantastic little, so many times where we've made t-shirts on the game and gone, we actually want that shirt, like we want to order that
Addictive Card Games
00:12:35
Speaker
shirt. I haven't played many of the new ones but you know even things like uh Bidiots and some of the older ones I love the the Bomb Squad one but no one else in my family does so I can't really play that one but so many different versions of essentially the same thing but uh definitely worth checking out if you haven't before Jackets Party Pack is my number five
00:12:57
Speaker
So getting into number four, and as though although I did put all the Seven Wonders at seven, I wasn't smart enough to put Trio at three because it's number four. Trio or Nana, if you've got the original version, this is just a great, easy card game.
00:13:11
Speaker
There's 30 cards, I think, in a deck, or maybe 27. I can't do maths, so it's done. It'll be 36 cards in the deck. Three of each number from 1 to 12, and you're trying to get sets of three, but the trick is you only have access to the first or the last card, the lowest or the highest card, in anyone's hand, and you've got to try and find these numbers. So you might be sitting on two sixes, and you might know where the other six is, but you've got a one, two, and a four before it.
00:13:37
Speaker
and 7, 9, and 11 after it. You've got to get rid of either end of those in order to be able to have access to your sixes. It's one of those games that you play, and then someone at the table's like, let's play again. And then they lose again, and just play again. And then they're like, I just want to keep playing until I win one. And you get that feeling, and you just play hand after hand after hand after hand.
Social Deduction Games
00:13:57
Speaker
It's a lot of fun. It's a really good game.
00:13:59
Speaker
That is number four, trio Before I get to my top three, it's probably worth mentioning that none of these games actually made my recent top 20 of all time. And it's not that they're bad games. In fact, some of them only just missed out, but it's the type of audience, it's the games that they are.
00:14:18
Speaker
It's not games that I would sit back and go you've got play this. This my favorite game ever. Like I mentioned Wonderland's War. I would never pull out Wonderland's War in the holidays. Firstly, because it's hard to transport and I travel. But secondly, because it's a long game that requires a lot of time and and and strategy and focus and at that time of year, just there's too many things going on. No one's going to be like, yeah, I'll sit down and play a three hour game with you. But if you pull out a deck of cards and go, this is a quick game, let's let's try this out.
00:14:50
Speaker
You'll get people far more often. So it's not the time of year for those big Euro games, in my opinion. So with that in mind, we'll go straight into the top three with a deck of cards, and it's like a double deck of cards.
00:15:04
Speaker
This one came out about a year or two ago and set the water light. You can literally buy it everywhere. And this is Flip 7. Another great card game. ah card game with no real maximum number of players, although i don't know how fun it would be when you get past sort of 10, 15.
00:15:21
Speaker
But I played it. oh I played it with, I think, 11 people at once was probably the most. It even says it in the rule book, if you want to play with more than 18 players, you need to get in a second game. copy of the game but I don't know if I'd ever want to go and try that out but maybe it's great but flip 7 is just such a simple game to teach get it to the table literally you give people a card and you say right there's 12 11 11s 10 10s all the way down to 1 1 and in a fact 1 0 if you get the same number twice you've busted and the amount of points you score is the amount of nut points on the card so 12 while being a great scoring card is also the most likely to bust you
00:15:58
Speaker
go hit or stay you explain what the the special cards do and then you just ask people if they hit or stay get at the table so quick it's a lot of fun there's a lot of those moments where things happen i actually wrote a review for this on bgg and it was like is this a good game I don't know and I don't care like it's just a fun game it's not I don't think it's designed to be this amazing thought-provoking game it's just a lot of silly fun and it's got great catch-up mechanisms in the sense that
00:16:32
Speaker
If there's a clear winner, there are ways to slow them down and people can work together to stop the runaway leader. So but then there's also great moments where you might be sitting there and someone is getting closer and closer to 200, which is the which is the end point. And you're like on 70. So you're like, well, bugger it. just going to keep pushing. I'm not going to stop. What's the point? Who cares about coming third? I want to win. So you make.
00:16:55
Speaker
you increase your risk because the the payoff is worth it. and And if you fail, then it doesn't matter because you are failing anyway. Or yeah maybe someone's laughing because they're way out in front and then they bust on two twos and you're like, suck it.
00:17:11
Speaker
and then someone gets a run of seven. i've seen great comfort behind wins. I've seen people get to the 190s and fall stagnant and not be able to get across the line. There's so many great ways this game can go, and it's just it's just a game that I'm always playing on BGA, but in person, super fun.
00:17:27
Speaker
Number three is Flip 7.
00:17:31
Speaker
My number two is one that people will disagree with. It's actually two games I've written down here, but the same style of game. It's a game that can go to larger numbers.
00:17:43
Speaker
And the reason it's so high on my list is because I've had such great experiences with this game at this time of year.
Adaptable Party Game
00:17:49
Speaker
and that is either werewolf or blood on the clock tower werewolf can go to more people and you can have great games of werewolf for 30 35 people i've done that multiple times and it's a it's absolutely excellent time and blood on the clock tower i think it goes to 16 people but it's a better time It's a better game than Werewolf, there's no doubt. that you're You're never out of the game. But then again, I guess some people would argue that that's that's a negative. Sometimes people are happy just to get out and watch what's happening in Werewolf, especially if they're not hardcore gaming people.
00:18:21
Speaker
But Blood on the Clock Tower makes this list because of one particular game we played of it where I've mentioned it before, but in the middle of round two, my wife and daughter started making a pavlova. It was on New Year's Eve and it ran through We had people there in the room that were like fully gaming the game and wanting to have little meetings with everybody. And then we had people in the room who'd never played the board game before, board game before, and wasn't their jam and everything in between. And it was just a hilarious time. And my kids still reference it and say it was one of the best games they've ever played, even though it was an absolute catastrophe. And my poor brother who was running it was pulling his hair out. but the people who were playing the game were thoroughly enjoying it. So yeah, it it holds a special place in my heart. And I've run a few werewolf games as well that have had a similar feel. So Blood on the Clock Tower and Werewolf, they're both social deduction, big group games where you're trying to find who the bad people are, and you've got to kill people in the village who you think are bad, but then they turn out to be good, and then you've lost valuable information, something like that. So they're both excellent for their own reasons, Werewolf or Blood on the Clock Tower.
00:19:30
Speaker
And that just leaves us with my number one top game for the holidays. This one always gets played in our family, even if we don't have the game with us. And we play an Australian variant, which is kind of funny. I've played it with people who are not from Australia and they do not understand, but it's the same, the the original version is very America-centric, so it's a good good to mix them together a little bit.
00:19:55
Speaker
And this is Time's Up. So Time's Up is a great game where you put a bunch of names into a deck of cards and then in the first round you are trying to do whatever you can to get your teammates to guess whichever name you're reading off that card.
00:20:11
Speaker
And the thing is you might not have a clue who that person is but maybe the name is James James Alderman and you're like, okay, well, I know, I know like James Bond. So I'll talk about, you know, say a famous spy 007 first name and they'll be like, oh, James. I'm like, okay. And there used to be a Australian cricketing fastball with the first name Terry. And so like, oh, Terry Alderman. and you go, yeah, put them together. Oh, James Alderman. All right.
00:20:39
Speaker
So even though I had no idea who that was, we managed used to get an answer for it. Then what happens is in the second round, all the names get back into the deck, you shuffle it back up and we draw them out again. So then in the second round, I still don't know who James Alderman is, but I draw James Alderman or someone else draws James Alderman and they go, oh, oh, spy.
00:20:58
Speaker
And then their team goes, hang on. They use James Bond as a clue for James Alderman in the first round. So when he's saying spy, he probably means that one. So it wasn't James Bond. And they'd be like James Alderman, because in the second round, you can only say one word. So you're using what you've learned in the first round to help you in the second round and so forth. And then in the third round, you've then got to act it out. So now suddenly, let's say James Alderman is a famous musician. Suddenly you've got people acting out James Bond in the third round and everyone's going, oh, James Alderman straight away, because it references what's the meta that's happened in the game previously i love it it's so much fun and it is a really good party game for loads of people because the more people trying to guess the funniest we are i always go back to we had ben lee the australian musician ben lee and uh someone thought that was the name of this of the uh
00:21:52
Speaker
electronics and white goods store Bingley. So they're talking like, oh, you know, sells fridges, sells microwaves, and the people are just going, i don't understand. And then someone said Bingley, and the guy's just gone, oh, um,
00:22:07
Speaker
Yeah, this is going to be hard because he'd realized he'd stuffed up because the shop was called Bingley and not Bentley. And he had no idea who the musician was, but we got there in the end.
00:22:18
Speaker
But anyway, that's my number one, Time's Up, which is apt because, hey, that's the last ah game I'm going talk about on the podcast. And, you I guess I can say that my time is up.
00:22:28
Speaker
I will mention one thing about Time's Up there real quick, and that is that You also don't need the game. I mentioned that at the start. This can be a game that if you've just got some friends, you just grab a few pieces of paper, everyone writes down four or five names on pieces of paper, and you throw them into a hat, and you just play the game.
00:22:45
Speaker
You don't need the actual physical thing. The advantage of having the physical thing is that you don't have to think of people's names. You can just random draw them. And you also then avoid that meta thing of having someone at the table who's in the game, like my pop pops in the game. So when it's his turn, we just point at him. It's not quite as fun as trying to establish that meta of previous rounds and potentially getting answers to people who you have no idea who they are. It's it's yeah but still it means you can play the game whether you own
Holiday Farewell and Future Plans
00:23:16
Speaker
it or not. So there we go. My top ten or top twelve games for the holidays.
00:23:22
Speaker
Sandy Cookie Old Candy Snowman, Twilight Imperium 4th Edition, Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries, For Sale, Clask, the Seven Wonders series of games except for Seven Wonders Jewel, Codenames, Jackbox Party Pack, Trio slash Nana, Flip 7, Werewolf slash Blood on the Clock Tower, and Time's Up.
00:23:43
Speaker
So there you have it. If you get any of those games at the table over the holidays, I'm sure you'll have a great time, especially with new people, except for maybe TI4. ah And more importantly, I hope everyone has a great holiday. Anyone who is listening to this pod, thank you for listening to me ramble for 26 minutes. you are truly a special individual if you can pull that off.
00:24:02
Speaker
i Shout out to Shane, hope you're feeling better mate, and looking forward to taking a break, but also very keen to get back into it at the start of next year. 2026, we will be kicking off the year, most likely carrying on our Board Game Geek top lists of the years, and I think we're up to 2021 next. So keep an ear out for that, and more importantly, have a happy and safe holiday.
00:24:27
Speaker
Cheers.