Board games at Christmas: the best for the whole family

Tombola or Monopoly? Scrabble, Cluedo or something more exotic? At Christmas board games they are almost inevitable, especially if there are many of you and if you have to do well from nine to ninety years old, creating a bridge between generations. A pastime. Yet Marcus du Sautoy, a great mathematician and professor at Oxford, studied them (“I love them, I look for them in the countries I visit; they are portals, they are passports”). His essay is entitled, not surprisingly, Around the world in 80 games (Rizzoli) quoting the famous novel by Jules Verne. Explain their symbolic value and the thousand things they teach (war, strategy, uncertainty) while we only think about having fun.

Because board games are not just just games

Some they can be played from eight/ten years old, first of all Monopoly. Du Sautoy cannot understand why «for so many people this is the default game on holidays! After a while it becomes clear who will win and, for the rest of the game, only those who go ahead and squeeze the others have fun. Indeed, it seems to me that it has a certain tendency to provoke arguments. The Royal Family went so far as to ban it for the discussions it provoked. In my house, the time I overturned the board was famous, frustrated because my sister was winning while I had lost money, houses and hotels, ending up bankrupt.” Perhaps for these reasons the manufacturer Hasbro has just admitted a decline in Monopoly sales.

To fill in the blanks

Ameya Canovi enlightens us on the value of the gamePhd, systemic-relational psychologist, author of the podcast Intrecci-The art of relationships (until January 30th one episode a week on Storytel): «The game fills gaps between people who aren’t dating, avoid embarrassing questions. It brings out unexpected alliances, sympathies, competitions (and that’s why we argue). I’m not competitive, my husband is, he wants to win. Everyone projects their own experience into every choice. He starts off lightly, then we start arguing over a wrong card. The holidays often put us to the test. Today there is no longer the traditional family, there are “families”, born from emotional ties that are not of kinship, but of belonging. A match can tell us a lot if we approach it in the right way. It can help you build a team, accept shifts, and get to know yourself better.”

The most loved board games

In at the top of the Christmas hit is Scarabeo (whoever spells the longest word wins), which has just celebrated its first sixty years (1963-2023) with an exhibition-event in Milan. Six artists created a work choosing the word that characterizes each decade: Family (1960s, economic boom); Maternity (1970s, first laws protecting mothers and workers); Rebellion (80s, individualism and punk culture); Pardon (1990s, reunification of the two Germanys, end of the Cold War, abolition of apartheid in South Africa); Chaos (2000, technological revolution, social networks, Obama presidency); Soul (big battles like that of Friday for Future).

No more algorithms, better swords and spells

At the Turin Book Fair many have talked about the great return to analog games. «It is now certain that the pandemic caused it: people started looking for personal contact. The virtual world of Zoom is not enough… Games allow us to explore sides of our personality that we are reluctant to show. They tap into the deeply human need to sit around a fire and tell stories. We’re getting tired of algorithms” admits de Sautoy, who is also a mathematician. «We want something that complements our increasingly digital existencewhere work, social life and even emotional life are dictated by the online presence.”

Indeed the game Dungeons & Dragons has had a real boom: 2020 was its most successful year since its birth in 1974, with over fifty million players worldwide. But growth continues, helped by references to the Stranger Things series and the film released this year, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor for Thieves. Marcus du Sautoy only played there once: «It was Christmas 1983. I was eighteen. Under the tree I found Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy world of sword and spell adventure. Anyone can become a powerful wizard, a fearless hero, a valiant dwarf, a shrewd halfling, or a dozen other adventurers. Father chose the warrior, Brakspear of Uist, mother the wizard Marok of Cornwall. My sister was Shortley the Thief, a dwarf. It ended up because they didn’t want to kill the sleeping goblin and stopped…”. Chris Pine, protagonist of the film, is instead enthusiastic: «My father is 82 years old, my mother is 76, I didn’t know this game and neither did my sister. But in fifteen minutes we started having fun like never before. Dungeons & Dragons is ageless, stimulates the imagination and teaches cooperation.”

Playing in a group produces well-being

Playing in a group produces oxytocin, the feel-good drug, and the winnings are a “hit” of dopamine. So, during the holidays, there are good reasons to play. Not only Tombola, but also Tarot. The Hanged Man, the Fool and the Wheel of Fortune cards evoke mystical powers and predictions. Then there’s the Cluedo, which Agatha Christie apparently liked. She practiced bridge with passion and used it to enliven her plots. In the story The King of Clubs (The King of Clubs), Hercule Poirot, analyzing a game, dismantles the alibi that seemed ironclad. You could try to imitate him, if you like mystery, by testing investigative skills. Each of the six players is a character, a guest at Tudor Hall, where Doctor Black was murdered. There are nine rooms, corridors, secret passages and six weapons. But many more of the 80 games collected by du Sautoy could be dared.

Trivial Pursuit, launched in 1983, more or less means “futile research”, but it is challenging: some questions contained in the thousand cards ranging from sport to literature are really difficult. Impossible to do this with children (there is a special version for them). Cranium tests several skills: drawing, solving puzzles, miming, humming, spelling a word backwards and modeling clay. EXIT: The Game, is a set of collective challenges based on escape rooms. It invites you to cut the cards and write on them, so you can only play once. “But,” says de Sautoy, “the moment we put the board back into the box and move forward is no less important than the moment we roll the dice for the first time, move a pawn or choose a card.” Because we are back in that great game that is life.

Each personality has its own parlor game

Thanks to the choice between Tombola, Scrabble or Risk, you can understand the personality of those who put themselves… at stake. Tell me what game you play and I will not only tell you who you are, but who you would like to be. According to Corey Butler, a psychologist at the University of Southwest Minnesota and an “extroverted chess player,” thanks to games you can do self-analysis, profiling and improve the third half of life. Therefore, they should not be chosen at random. Notice a certain difference between him and her. Women seek simplicity and fun, men seek conflict and competition.

Each personality has its own game.

Trivial Pursuit. Very suitable for introverts. The challenge is cultural, the rest is decided by the dice.

Dungeons & Dragons. Like many role-playing games, it is perfect for those who are curious, love to experiment and cannot do so in everyday life.

Bingo. Loved by sociable extroverts because there is no competition, but sharing.

Monopolies and Risk. Competitive extroverts who only play to win like them.

Scrabble and Cluedo. For rational and perfectionists, even a little neurotic.

Card games. They help exercise memory. A study conducted in the South West of France on 3,675 elderly people showed that the risk of dementia decreased by 15 percent in those who played regularly. Ditto for the rate of depression. Who said they are just pastimes?

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