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We tried these ten games for you
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Diana Doert / DER SPIEGEL
"Timmy in the Zoo"
As a child, who would not have loved to feed the animals in the zoo? So quickly convert the game box into a zoo and off you go! Every budding zookeeper is provided with a different feed. There is fish, apples, meat and grains. In your turn you throw the food cube. If you have the food shown on the dice in front of you, you can drag Timmy to the appropriate enclosure and feed the animal that lives there. Whoever empties his supply first wins.
Well, even the greatest strategy players started out very small.
Even the youngest can take part with "Timmy in the Zoo".
Roll the dice and feed the right animal - that sounds boring to adult ears, but anyone who has ever had the pleasure of watching a three-year-old tirelessly sorting household items knows: There are enthusiastic fans for this too.
Pegasus; 2 to 4 players: inside; from 3 years; approx. 18 euros; Author: Maria Herzog
»Frogs«
If the board game kids already have the numbers from one to eight, the frog pond should now be cleaned up urgently.
The croaking amphibians have managed to mess everything up in such a way that you can hardly see through.
And then there is also rubbish in the pond!
That does not work at all!
In this card game, each player is dealt eight cards face down in front of him, with a draw pile in the middle.
Numbers from one to eight, frog jokers and sometimes rubbish are printed on the cards.
In your turn you draw a card and, if it is a number or a frog, try to sort it into your own row.
The goal is to openly lay out a neat series of numbers from one to eight in front of you.
Frogs are considered wild cards and can be used as desired, the garbage slows down the players.
Quickly explained, quick to play, low frustration factor - if only the nursery would have been tidied up so quickly.
Amigo; 2 to 4 players: inside; from 5 years; approx. 7 euros; Author: Haim Shafir
"Sock Monster"
No two matching socks in the house - does that sound familiar to you?
Here you finally found the culprits.
It's not the washing machine that has been suspected for years, it's sock monsters.
One could also have guessed.
Fortunately, the house-elves have known for a long time and are tirelessly trying to bring the pairs of socks back together.
Unfortunately, the sock monsters mess around just as tirelessly.
The memory game is played in a game box.
On each field there is a face-down card with an object depicted on the underside.
The sock-destroying monsters start in the four corners, the players start with their elves in the middle of the playing field.
In your turn you can move and turn over a card; if you manage to reveal the correct objects, you can blindly pull socks out of a bag.
They then pull the house-elves on their arms and feet.
Whoever has picked up three pairs of socks first is not free like the house elf Dobby from "Harry Potter", but has won the game.
Lifestyle board games; 2 to 4 players: inside; from age 6; 24 euros; Authors: Liesbeth Bos and Anja Dreier-Brückner
"Decrypted"
Treasures are there to be plundered, every child knows that. The treasure from "Decrypted" consists of many colorful gemstones and is kept at the top of the castle tower room. However, there are a lot of deep slits in the floor around the treasure chest. The locks in these floor openings are unlocked with three oversized keys, but the treasure chest only opens briefly. There is just enough time to steal one or two gemstones before the lid closes again. And if the key doesn't fit, you get nothing.
No Christmas without a memory game.
As many adults are painfully aware of, children have a superpower when playing games with a memory mechanism, against which one is almost powerless.
With »Decrypted«, the elderly are saved every now and then by the fact that the willingness to take risks is rewarded.
The rules are quickly explained and a game doesn't last long, because when the treasure chest is empty, the game ends.
You can do a few laps there.
HABA; 2 to 5 players: inside; from 5 years; 17 euros; Authors: Leo Colovini and Teodoro Mitidieri
"Magic Market"
The local magic flea market has opened its gates and we want to sell our junk - our valuable attic finds, to be precise.
But of course we would also like to buy a little something.
There is a turntable on the playing field, which brings market visitors to the players' stands.
Every visitor to the market wears a hidden symbol that indicates what kind of item he wants to buy.
However, since not every player has items that match every symbol, the position of the salespeople on the turntable should be well remembered.
Occasionally, the stall owner also has to buy something from the other players - a good opportunity to test his negotiating skills.
In addition, the market closes at 5 p.m., after which you have to take your clutter, the valuable individual items, back home with you.
The winner is whoever has taken the most coins at the end of the game.
Memory and selling - you guessed it: the younger ones have a heavy advantage again.
The game has an enchanting look.
There is also a small extension that can come into play once the basic rules have been mastered.
Loki; 2 to 4 players: inside; from age 6; about 32 euros; Author: Les Fèes Hilares
"Sticky Cthulhu"
The old man is annoyed.
The brood of his sinister followers leaves him no peace.
So nothing will happen with the end of the world.
A servant is needed, someone who takes care of the annoying day-to-day business.
Those who do this job particularly well might get a box seat at the Apocalypse.
That sticky gossip tentacles play a central role only makes things more appealing.
It's hectic at »Sticky Cthulhu«.
The table is teeming with colored creature tokens and investigators.
Each servant is equipped with an adhesive tentacle.
A color and a creature die determine which annoying little monster has caused anger in the current round of the master and has to be removed from the face of the world, well, the table.
The tentacle is hit, if you miss it and catch an investigator, you get deductions in the B-grade.
Whoever kills five creatures wins.
When at some point everyone is trained in fine motor skills, you can curse each other and make it even more difficult for the others to hunt.
For the connoisseur among the parents: The tentacles can be washed off with cold water, then they will stick again the next time you play.
IELLO; 2 to 6 players: inside; from age 6; approx. 17 euros; Authors: Théo Rivière and Cédric Barbé
"5-Minute Mystery"
Now that everyone has played warmly, you can quickly clear up a museum robbery in five minutes.
Could it be running out, do you think?
Oh yeah!
Before the start of the round, a case file is selected that indicates how difficult it will be to resolve the case.
In the simple version you only have to catch one culprit, in more complex cases several.
But you also start with small start-up aids such as additional hints.
The cards with the suspects are evenly distributed to the players and off you go.
On each card there is a picture in which variants of five symbols are hidden in different ways.
It is precisely these symbols that must be searched for quickly as soon as the five-minute timer starts.
Once you have found the symbols, they are set by a player on the code reel.
So you get a different arrangement of the variants of the five symbols every time.
Whether you are correct with your result is checked by turning the card over, because the symbol variations are printed there in the correct order.
Sounds complex, but it's easy to understand.
If everything is correct, you can reveal a clue card.
The card indicates the suspect is wearing gloves?
Great, then everyone will be kicked out without gloves.
To get to the next clue, a new crime scene card is turned over, the code role is set and the next clue is earned until everyone is sure they have the right suspect.
Or until the time is up.
The hectic search and puzzle game is particularly suitable for families with children of different ages.
The tasks can be distributed well.
The little ones are already looking for the symbols and set the decoder while the older ones keep an eye on the hints.
Cooperative and without quarreling.
Game factory; 1 to 4 players: inside; from 8 years; approx. 28 euros; Author: Connor Reid
"My kingdom for a horse"
Impressing our father the King is no easy task.
Especially not when we try to be the first to breed a horse in competition with our siblings.
So far we only have a few sheep, pigs and fences.
But through clever swapping, selling and remodeling willows, we may be the first to reach our destination.
In your turn, you roll all four dice.
They show which animals you can get and whether the animals you already own are multiplying.
But you also need the right pastures for your animal breeding, and of course each species wants to keep to itself.
Cows and pigs in a pasture?
Where are we going?
So you also need enough fences to build enough separated areas on your own player board.
And how do you get your own horse now?
Very simple: if you have two sheep, you can exchange them for a pig, three pigs for a cow and - you guessed it - three cows for a horse.
Whoever has a pair of each animal species first, wins.
So that this is not that easy, a few action cards come into play, which make the whole thing a bit more complex.
Although you can leave them out for younger players for now.
A successful game for everyone who later wants to play more complex games like "Agricola" with their children.
Kobold Spieleverlag; 1 to 4 players: inside; from 8 years; approx. 39 euros; Author: Moritz Schuster
"Hula Hoo!"
The animals meet for the hula hoop championship, so perseverance is required.
Who will take home the trophy?
The agile rat or the vertigo-resistant seahorse?
Or did the elephant practice secretly?
As with the real hula hoop, it's about staying in the game for as long as possible.
At the beginning all players have ten cards.
These have numerical values from one to 13, the old octopus with its eight arms is of course the wild card.
Everyone gets five of their own cards in hand, the other five are laid out in front of the players so that they can be seen by all.
One starts, places one of his cards face up in the middle and says "higher" or "lower", which the next player then has to fulfill.
In addition to the joker, which can be placed on any card and has a numerical value of seven, there are a few nasties.
If you put down an identical number, you "double" and force the next player to either "double" or resolve the "double" with a card that can only be one number higher or lower.
Whoever gets rid of all cards first wins the round and receives one point for each card on the discard pile.
Whoever has 77 points first wins.
If you have played this for a few rounds, you should urgently try the chaos variant for professionals, then the gamble game becomes a lot meaner.
Three hares in the evening sun; 2 to 6 players: inside; from 8 years; approx. 10 euros; Author: Jacques Zeimet
"Karak"
Beating all over the dungeon, that sounds like a good end to the contemplative and peaceful holidays.
Collect treasures, fight monsters, improve weapons and finally defeat a dragon - a dream!
In »Karak« the players first choose a character who can be upgraded in the course of the game with captured weapons and spells.
The obligatory thief, the no less obligatory magician, the seer.
Fortunately, the usual suspects all have time to look after the dungeon under Karak Castle over the holidays.
The dungeon, i.e. the dungeon through which the players wander, only emerges in the course of the game.
The goal is to have the most treasures in the end.
The game ends as soon as the dragon is defeated.
When it is your turn, you can move your figure up to four spaces, discover new sections, fight against monsters, refresh life points or step through portals.
Finally a dungeon crawler - that's what this type of game is called - that is great to play with younger people too.
The rules are quickly explained, for the older ones it is still complex enough and the replay value is high due to the constantly emerging dungeon.
Happy looting!
Cosmos; 2 to 5 players: inside; from 7 years; approx. 30 euros; Authors: Petr Mikŝa and Roman Hladík
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