Our Top 5: Children’s Games To Buy For Christmas

This year more time at home has led to H and I reminiscing about the childhood games we used to play. Here we’ve put together our Top 5 children’s games to buy for Christmas, including some of our old firm favourites.

1. Snakes and Ladders

Snakes and ladders is Cyrus’s favourite game right now. Its origins date back to India and it is played between two or more players on a board made up of squares from 1 to 100. On the board are pictures of snakes and ladders with each connecting two of the square grids. The snakes are drawn haphazardly at different positions from the ladders. The goal is to get up to the 100^th square by getting around the snakes and trying to climb up the ladders to gain an advantage. We love BigJigs Toys version of the game as it’s sturdy, designed in the UK and really very colourful in its design. Priced £9.99.

2. Soundiculous Kids

If you’re looking for hours of fun and laughter over the Christmas, you’ll love Soundiculous Kids from Gamely Games. It’s a family-friendly card game that’s ideal for children between three and seven. It’s a bit like Charades, only you can make as much noise as you like. The aim of the game is to collect points by making silly noises and guessing the noises that other players are making.

With 52 beautifully illustrated cards, Soundiculous is perfect for kids’ creativity and imagination as they experiment by making and guessing different sounds. These range from easy (pig, train) to hard (drums, volcano)! Priced £8.99.

3. Pass The Pugs

Based on the small and simple game, Pass The Pigs, Pass The Pugs from Winning Moves is really fun. It’s portable and doesn’t take any time to set up, although the pieces are small so you need to be careful not to lose them! It’s a game that’s a bit like yahtzee, but instead of dice, you throw pugs. The game consists of 2 pugs, a pad, 2 pencils and a carrying case. While it is a game for ages seven and up, Cyrus loves playing it under supervision with our family. It’s addictive, competitive and hilarious fun for all, so it’ll definitely be packed in our suitcase if we ever get away on holiday in 2021. Priced £9.99.

4. Ludo

It’s years since H and I played Ludo and a lot of people today don’t even know how much fun the game is because they’re so hooked on the digital age. Well in our home, we enjoy nothing more than traditional board, dice and card games. In fact, old-fashioned games are great for our mental health, promoting skills and encouraging us to play in groups and have fun. It even helped me make new friends as a only child! Did I mention the fact that the games are relatively cheaper than today’s e-games?

Ludo originates from India and is a board, token and dice game and one of the easiest traditional board, token, and dice games to play. It is played by two to four players. Players race their tokens from start to finish, and their luck depends on dice rolling and strategic placement of the tokens.

We love Jacques London luxury edition with its colourful solid wooden playing pieces. It comes stylishly wrapped and is only £5.99.

5. Top Trumps

Now Top Trumps was not something I played as a child, but it was certainly something that H remembers. It’s a card game that is still a firm favourite today and brings your favourite things to life. The aim of the game is to compare the cards values to try to trump and win another player’s card. C doesn’t realise it yet, but we bought him some fast cars Top Trumps! I’m pretty sure he’s going to love them. Winning Moves has a great selection of Retro Fast Car Top Trumps which feature iconic models.

For more ideas on what to buy for Christmas, check out this post for busy mums.