We have 5 kids and 6 grandkids and my favorite task in December is to take care of all of the stockings. Besides candy, we love to get small box games. Here are our top 10 games or series of games from past years.
These small box games are also great backpack and travel games.
We have orders out for games in many of these series for this year's stockings.
BUTTONSHY GAMES
Buttonshy is a game publisher that specializes in wallet sized games made up of 18 cards. They have about 45 games to choose from.
Our family favorites include: Sprawlopolis, Agropolis, Tussie Mussie, Skulls of Sedlec, ROVE, Hierarchy, Seasons of Rice and Food Chain Island.
We have 16 Buttonshy games and more on the way.
Buttonshy has a theme or style for everyone.
MINT TIN SERIES
There are now 4 games in the Mint Tin Series originally created by Justin Blaske.
All the games fit in a Mint Tin. The Tins are stuffed full of cool cards and wooden Mints. The series uses Mints as player pieces.
Our favorites are Mint Works and Mint Delivery. Mint Delivery has flown over 100,000 miles in my travel backpack.
FLUXX
Fluxx is a series of over 40 games by Looney Labs that all follow the same basic mechanics: play cards to change the rules of the game and win by matching a condition that can also change.
Tons of fun. Very easy to learn.
Wide range of themes with something for everyone. Here is a sample: Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Chemistry, Doctor Who, Oz, Martian, Monster, Monty Python and some adult themes also.
CLAIM by Scott Almes
The Claim series of games by Scott Almes is one my favorite 2 player head to head trick taking games.
Extremely high quality cards with multiple expansion decks available with more factions and cool cards.
Claim 2 and the Expansions are on my personal list for Santa.
LOVE LETTER
A game in a bag in a stocking...what could be more natural!
A now classic deduction/risk/luck game that comes in multiple themes: Classic, Batman, Marvel Infinity Gauntlet and Cthulhu.
MONOPOLY DEAL
A quick playing card version of the classic Monopoly. We've had great luck playing this with all age groups.
The game plays in about 20 minutes. There is a very homey feel of playing a card game with all the familiar property names and images.
We are on our third copy of this game and this box is now falling apart from many trips and plays.
TIMELINE
Several games in the Timeline series.
A family favorite of putting famous historical events in chronological order.
Grandkids often pull this off this shelf to play.
Great that kids (big and small) have fun while learning.
THE CREW
Our most played games of 2021.
There are two versions of the The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine and Mission Deep Sea. Mission Deep Sea took all the great things from Planet Nine and made them even better.
Awesome trick taking games in a cooperative setting.
Highly recommend.
TINY EPIC GAMES
Where to begin?
Tiny Epic Games are smaller sized boxes stuffed full of awesome mechanics and themes: Pirates, Dinosaurs, Galaxies, Kingdoms, Zombies etc.
And they have Ultra Tiny Game versions of several of their all time favorites games too!
EXPLODING KITTENS
And last but not least...Exploding Kittens.
Exploding Kittens is a fast paced game where you collect sets to avoid Exploding.
Win by not going boom! Hilarious family/group game. Also has a NSFW version.
Not many games have a box that meows.