When your two sisters and their husbands, an uncle from out of state and 12 nieces and nephews arrive at your house this Thanksgiving, how are you planning to entertain them?
Unless you have an eight-course meal in the works to last through the afternoon, a selection of group-appropriate board games might be the answer.
"A lot of people have groups at their house for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is a big group game season," said C.C. McClure, owner of Downtown Book & Toy on East High Street in Jefferson City, which specializes in offering board games for all ages. "It's just a perfect time for families to do something together. You look back and think and laugh about how much fun it all was, and that's really what the holidays are supposed to be about."
While classic games like Monopoly and Sorry! can act as a good fallback, game manufacturers continue introducing new options year after year that challenge players to acting and strategy tasks as well as word games and more.
"A lot of the newer games will come out in anticipation of the holidays," said Kristie Propes, manager at Barnes & Noble in Jefferson City, which also offers a broad selection of new and classic games.
Roll the dice and try your luck at landing a successful holiday party with some of this year's best new board games, along with a few of your old favorites.
Name 5
New this year by Endless Games, Name 5 is a party game suitable for two or more players and can accommodate even the largest groups if broken into teams.
"This is one that I see for New Year's Eve or family night," McClure said.
The object is for teams or individual players to progress across the board, advancing by naming five things that fit into given categories within 30 seconds. When asked to name five orange foods, it could be easy enough to start with oranges and carrots, but you might get stumped before you reach pumpkin, apricots and cheddar cheese.
"The people that you're yelling them to can always challenge what you say," McClure laughed. "You can lie if you can be convincing."
Telestrations
One of the Jefferson City Barnes & Noble's most popular games, maker USAopoly markets Telestrations as "the telephone game sketched out."
"We get tons of requests for this one every year," Propes said.
Made for group play between four to eight players, but with a party pack available for up to 12, Telestrations starts each player with a word card and 60 seconds to draw an illustration for the word. The players pass their dry-erase sketch books to the left, then replace the drawing with the word they think the illustration represents. This continues until everyone's sketch book returns to its original player, and everyone sees how their original word evolved.
Strike a Pose
For families and friends who prefer a more active game experience, Strike a Pose might strike a chord.
Made by R&R Games for groups of three to 16 or even more if broken into teams, Strike a Pose is brand new this year.
Players take turns acting as the "judge," who leaves the room while the other players draw numbers to determine which item on the category list they'll receive. The player who draws No. 2 would take the second item on the round's category list - types of candy, for example - and would strike a still pose for his assignment as a Snickers bar. When the judge returns and each player strikes a pose, the judge must guess what everyone is supposed to be.
"It's a lot harder than you'd think," McClure said.
Don't forget the classics
When the party begins winding down and guests are too tired to learn a new game, old classics can keep the fun going.
"The classic stuff always does really well during the holidays," said Kristie Propes, manager at Barnes & Noble in Jefferson City, noting the games also make great gifts that can be unwrapped and played as a family for the first time at a Christmas gathering.
Games like Tripoley, checkers and Chinese checkers never seem to go out of style. "Those are the kinds of things that have been around a long time that people still buy," McClure said.
Game makers also have begun releasing new versions of their classics, such as Battleship, Risk, Sorry! and Twister, as well as nearly endless specialty incarnations of Monopoly. One of the newest versions is Hasbro's Monopoly Empire, which takes the classic business game to the tycoon level, with each game space representing one of the world's top brands to be bought and traded.
Other party games like Apples to Apples, Scattergories and Taboo have become their own category of classics as well.
"It gives people an opportunity to bond as a family without electronics," Propes said. "Anytime you can pull out an old board game and get people to interact with each other, it's definitely more quality time."