The Ultimate List of Games Every Family Must Have

There is nothing like family game night, especially when it comes to some frugal family fun. One of our favorite holiday traditions is that we get a new family game every year. We do grab games at other times, too, especially when there is a great sale, but with the tradition we know that we will always be adding at least one new game to our family game closet every year.

There are so many to choose from, however, and so I often get asked,”What’s in your game closet?”

Actually, I’m a really great one to ask since we’ve got kids of all ages. While some of the games we have are more focused on more adult games or more little kid games, there are family favorites that we really can all play, especially if a younger child gets a little bit of help from an older one.

With this in mind, I’m sharing our favorite ones here. Just click on any of the games shown here for more details.

Here is the ultimate list of games for your family game night.

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This is a great card game, and in all honesty I still really love this game. Kids as young as 6 can play along.

This is a new one that we’ve recently added, and it can get a bit heated, but it is so much fun!

This is another great card game that even our younger kids can play. It can get long at times, but it can easily be modified to be shorter for younger kids by only working through some of the 10 phases rather than having to get them all. This has worked great for us.

Yahtzee is a classic, but there’s a reason why it’s a classic. Everyone loves it, and young kids have the same change at winning as the older kids since it is primarily a game of chance since it’s just rolling the dice.

Now this can really get competitive in my house. My older kids really get into this one, and it is great for younger kids to learn spatial relations and really thinking through from start to finish.

This is a junior version, which makes it something that we can all play together. There is a regular version as well if you don’t have younger kids to include

Although it’s been around for a while, Clue is a great game for reasoning skills. This isn’t really one that we play as an entire family, but I will have three or four kids playing this one at times.

Ticket to Ride is awesome. This is one where younger kids need a bit of help, but I am always surprised to see what they can really do on their own. There are all kinds of versions of this one, this is just the classic one.

This is more on an “older kid game,” and it is a game that my husband and I have enjoyed playing with other couples, but it is also a game that even my 8 year old can really grasp. It’s deeply rooted in strategy, which is such an important skill for kids to start using at a young age. I say this is a good one for any kids 8 and older in my house. Again there are all kinds of different versions and expansions. This has been a favorite for more than 20 years.

The memories we make as a family on game night are among the ones we all cherish most. With so many game options it can be difficult to know which ones are winners and which ones are duds. These are the games that our family of 10 loves most. Your family will love them too!