2021 Holiday Gift Guide

Santa Meghan is here to share the ULTIMATE list of games I’ll be delivering this holiday season!  The AreYouGame Elves have been working all year to share with you the best and most popular games we have to offer.  Don’t worry, no one is on the Naughty List this year so you’re guaranteed a fun filled holiday season. 

Kids 5-8

Now let’s see what I have for all the good boys and girls that are about 5-8 years old.  From family classics to brand new games, there is something for all children in Santa’s sleigh!

1. Pete the Cat – The Missing Cupcakes Game
   • Find the missing cupcakes! Join Pete and his friends as they work together to get the missing cupcakes back from Grumpy Toad. Sing songs, act out physical activities, and identify favorite animals, foods, and words in this fun board game.
2. Pretty Pretty Princess
   • Enchant a whole new generation with the classic Pretty Pretty Princess game. Play dress-up with your friends as you race to gather your set of fancy jewelry. Collect your own matching color necklace, bracelet, ring, and earrings. When you have all of your jewelry plus the crown, you win the game! Then you'll be as pretty as a princess!
3. Candy Land 65^th Anniversary
   • A sweet little game for sweet little folks. This classic edition features the charming graphics and components from the game's early days! This edition of Candy Land will bring back fond memories of Gumdrop Mountains, Candy Hearts, the Peppermint Stick Forest, Lollypop Woods, Ice Cream Floats, the Gingerbread Plum Tree, the Crooked Old Peanut Brittle House and Molasses Swamp. This simple, race-to-the-finish game, is a rite of passage for all children.
4. Guess Who?
   • There's a mystery person on your opponent's card. Can you find the matching face in the crowd? Ask YES or NO questions and then take a guess! Ask the right questions to eliminate the wrong faces! Once you're down to a face or two-solve the mystery by guessing who! If you're the first to identify your opponent's mystery person, you win!
5. Kids on Stage Charades
   • Bravo! Encore! Everyone's applauding Kids on Stage, the fun, creative way to encourage confidence and develop communication skills in young children. Everyone gets in on the act on every turn. Each player takes a turn acting out animals, objects or actions while the other players guess. It's a game the whole family can play and enjoy.

Kids 9-12

I know the bigger kids want in on the fun and still look forward to the magic of holiday season.  I’ve got the trendiest games around that will ensure lots of excitement no matter what age!

1. Anti-Monopoly
   • This game may sound and look familiar at first, but don't be fooled. This real estate trading game presents an exciting twist where players choose free enterprise or monopoly - and play under different rules as a result. In addition, this fun and intriguing game comes to you after making its way through a fascinating, real-world legal battle. Decide for yourself: who wins? Is it the Competitor who charges fair market value for rent? Or is it the Monopolist who amasses control over whole regions and can charge much higher fees?
2. Carcassonne
   • In Carcassonne, players build the area surrounding this impressive city, one tile at a time. They then place a follower on fields, cities, roads or monasteries in order to score as many points as possible. These followers will become knights, monks, farmers and thieves, depending on where they are placed. No matter their function, the player who will most cleverly use their followers will win the game.
3. 13 Dead End Drive
   • 13 Dead End Drive is the game of mystery, suspicion, and foul play that first hit the scene in 1994. Now this fan favorite is back, by popular demand, to entertain a whole new generation. A motley crew of Aunt Agatha's freinds and employees are gathered at her mansion for the reading of her will. Only one of these 12 specially invited guests will inherit her loot. Who will it be? Old Hickory her gardener? Her best friend Lulu? Poopsie her fluffy cat? Or, one of Aunt Agatha's other nearest and not-so-dearest?
4. Queendomino
   • Build up your kingdom by claiming the lands that surround it, choosing the best wheat fields, forests, grasslands, swamps, mines, and towns to add to your ever-growing riches. As you conquer these lands, call upon your trusty knights to collect taxes for the royal treasury, and spend this money wisely by building up your towns. Try your best to win the queen's favor along the way, but make sure to watch out for the dragon!
5. Taco Takeover
   • Ready, set, TACO! Players race against each other to see who can correctly fill their taco orders first. But be careful! If you draw a "La Cucaracha" card, or are dealt an "Antacid" by an opponent, you'll need to dump your taco and start over! Taco Takeover is a chaotic, free for all for the entire family - so let's not taco 'bout it any longer, let's play!

Adults

Do you have an upcoming anonyms gift exchange or are you looking to amp up your gift game?  AreYouGame is THE place to stuff your stockings and bring the fun to your next holiday party.  The games on my list might put you on the naughty list J

1. Wingspan
   • You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats focus on several key aspects of growth: Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower; Lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors; Draw from hundreds of unique bird cards and play them.
2. Hedbanz Adulting
   • Hedbanz Adulting is the hilarious head-to-head party game for "responsible" adults! Slip a card into your headband, flip the timer, and ask yes or no questions until you guess what's on your head. Can't get it in time? There's a cheeky hint on each card, in case you're not thinking super clearly tonight! Everybody knows but you!
3. Codenames
   • The two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their CODENAMES. The teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. Their teammates try to guess words of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposite team. And everyone wants to avoid the assassin.
4. Pandemic
   • As skilled members of a disease-fighting team, you must keep four deadly diseases at bay while discovering their cures. You and your teammates will travel across the globe, treating infections while finding resources for cures. You must work as a team to succeed. Pandemic is a cooperative game, where all players win or lose together. The clock is ticking as outbreaks and epidemics fuel the spreading plagues. Can you find all four cures in time? The fate of humanity is in your hands!
5. Judge Your Friends
   • Find out what secrets your friends have been hiding in Judge Your Friends! Learn things about your friends you wish you hadn't in this outrageous, fast-paced party game. Each round, players take on the role of Judge and Defendant.

Family

Spend the holidays with your family bringing back some of your favorite classic games and maybe some new favorites.  These games are great for adult to kids and everywhere in-between.  Pass the eggnog and pass the pig to make this season bright!

1. Arboretum
   • Nowhere is nature's beauty quite so evidnet as in the resplendent colors of an arboretum. In Arboretum, you create carefully planned paths for your visitors to walk as they take in the colorful explosion of buds and leaves. The cheerful cherry blossom, the fragrant dogwood, the mighty oak - all have a place in this peaceful haven. But the tranquil setting belies the game's competitive heart. You must choose which cards to plant in your arboretum and which to keep in hand, as only the most expert curator will win the renown of nature enthusiasts everywhere.
2. Rummikub
   • The original rummy tile game of creating runs and sets of numbers now comes in a vintage gift box edition. Played by millions for over 50 years, Rummikub is a classic all-family game. The new edition features an all wooden storage box, complete set of 106 Rummikub game tiles and nifty slide-off lids which double as wood tile racks.
3. Pass the Pig
   • ...Hurling barnyard animals has never been so entertaining! Toss two pig "dice" and see how they land-- it determines how many points you get. For example, if both pigs land on their feet you score a Double Trotter for a whopping 20 points.
4. Ticket to Ride
   • Tickets, please -- all aboard for this cross-country train adventure. Ticket to Ride is a beautifully illustrated coast-to-coast railroad journey. Earn points by claiming routes, building continuous routes between cities, and by building the longest routes, but points are lost if you do not successfully complete the route on your destination ticket.
5. Sequence
   • Sequence has it all! This exciting game of strategy is easy enough for children and challenging enough for adults, making it a family game night favorite for generations. Play a card from your hand and place a chip on a corresponding space on the game board. When you have five in a row, you have a Sequence!

Stock the sleigh and bring the games that are on everyone's wish list this year!