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Christmas is fast approaching, and if like me you’re overly stressed, disorganised and still scrambling for ideas for Christmas, then perhaps starting to think of gifts to fill out a stocking is the way to go. As a 32-year-old who still proudly gets a stocking every year from his Mum, then finding a great stocking filler outside of the usual deodorant, chocolates, or as my Mum would say oranges and a sugar mouse can be a real challenge.
Which is where some fantastic small box board games can come in clutch! Fitting into any stocking as well as they fit into your pocket on a trip to the pub, a board game can make a wonderful stocking filler, something you can get out and play for 20 to 30 minutes while you wait for your Christmas turkey to cook/burn.
So put on your Christmas pjs and whack on a bit of Wham, as I go through 5 stocking filler board games you can get for your loved ones (or yourself!), this Christmas.
1. Sea Salt and Paper
Sea Salt and Paper is a lovely small box board game you should really consider gifting this Christmas!
Designed by the fantastic Bruno Cathala and Theo Riviere, Sea Salt and Paper is a beautiful 2-4 player card game where you and your opponent’s go head-to-head trying to rack up points through duos or sets of cards, with your points total decided either by having a big set of one design, or potentially through the colour of your cards, along with some extra bonus points available as well.
It’s a very straightforward game but with a good amount of tactical nuance to really give it some depth, as you can end a round either by declaring ‘Stop’, and players counting the points on their cards, or going for the big bold play of giving your opponent a ‘Last Chance’, where the real points can be won, where you risk your opposition having one more go at getting the elusive card they need.
There’s also the excellence of being able to win the whole game, not just the round, by stacking up the 4 mermaid cards in the deck! I’ve never done it, never even seen it done, but the fact it’s there, lurking in the ocean, makes it even more tantalising to go for!
But the real beauty of this game, and its main selling point for me, is the adorable artwork on the cards. Beautiful origami pictures of fish, seashells, and penguins, just make it such a simple joy to play, and an idyllic quick 20-minute game to start off your Christmas morning.
And if you know someone who already owns the game, you could give them the expansion Sea Salt and Paper: Extra Salt, as an extra little condiment to an already great game!
2. 6 Nimmt
My next recommendation as a perfect board game stocking filler for Christmas is 6 Nimmt, quite possibly my favourite card game to get out at Christmas or at the pub.
With its delightfully simple premise, 6 Nimmt is an immediate favourite with whoever I have shown it to in the last few years.
I won’t go through the full rules, as it certainly falls into that weird Board Game phenomenon of a game sounding a hell of a lot more confusing when explained than it does just being played,
but 6 Nimmt really couldn’t be simpler as you tactically play one of the 10 cards from your hand with a value between 1-104 into one of 4 rows, with it needing to be played next to the closest value number on the table (always greater than the number already placed).
If you play the 6th card in a row, you must pick up that row, and you score all the bullheads on your cards. Unlike Sea Salt and Paper, in 6 Nimmt it’s the person who scores the LEAST points who wins! If that sounds complicated, trust me, its simpler than most traditional card games you’ve probably played before.
It has this fantastic quality to it which feels like one of those games you may have played with your Grandparents growing up, and each card you choose somehow always feels like the most important decision you have ever made.
In such a small box you get a hell of a lot of game, drama and tension, feelings we all want round the Christmas table every 25th of December! With it playing up to 10 players as well, it’s great for ensuring no one at your Christmas party is left out.
3. Fugitive
Cards on the table (pun intended), I am terrible at Fugitive. Whether I am playing as the titular character or as the agent deducing where the fugitive may be hiding, I truly am the world’s worst criminal/detective. Yet I still love it.
Somehow in this tiny box, designer Tim Flowers has created a wonderful push and pull 2 player game, as one player plays as the Fugitive, putting down numbered cards which act as the places they are hiding as they look to make their grand escape, and the other as an Agent trying to use their best detection skills to find them before they escape on the helicopter.
Everything about this game brings such joy, from the feel of the cards to the wonderful artwork, with the iconic 50s/60s inspiration Tim Flowers brings to his games really creating a stylish experience.
The best addition to this game though is the lovely whiteboard the agent gets to write on to try and sus out where the fugitive is hiding. Why it’s so utterly satisfying to write on here as you cross out possible hiding places only a psychologist could explain!
It’s such a wonderful little box that can slip nicely into the bottom of someone’s stocking, to be a little surprise they almost didn’t feel was there.
Despite being utter rubbish at the game, I always love a quick battle of wits in Fugitive, and who doesn’t want to have a quick cat and mouse chase before the Xmas cheese comes out!
4. Cockroach Poker
Cockroach poker is the game more than any other on this list that will make a great Christmas party game, perfect to gift in someone’s stocking that they can open ready for the evening’s festivities of games and drinking.
For between 2-6 players (though definitely better at bigger player counts), Cockroach Poker can be best described as lying, the game.
One player takes a card from their hand, looks at it, and places it face down on the table, sliding it to the player (or enemy) of their choice. They then simply tell them what critter is on that card… But have they told them truthfully??
The person now with the card can either accept it as truth or false, reveal and see if they were right, or peek at the card, pass it to a new person and say which critter it is. It’s up to them if they tell them the same critter they were told, or something new. But again, are they now telling the truth??
And that really is that. Cockroach Poker gets people talking, arguing, laughing, never trusting Grandma again, and it’s wonderful.
The twist as well in Cockroach Poker that makes it even more fun (or evil depending on your point of view), is only one person loses. Everyone else wins! When one player runs out of cards or has 4 cards in front of them (because they have been caught lying or believed another’s falsehood), the game ends, and that person loses. Harsh yes, but hilarious!
Obviously, this means it might not be everyone’s cup of Bailey’s, so for those who don’t like particularly mean games or are prone for a small tantrum at Christmas, it might be best avoided, but for lovers of a bit of bite, Cockroach poker would make a tremendous stocking filler.
5. Compile
My last choice is a bit of a personal pick, in that I am hoping to find it in my stocking this Christmas.... (directs family to his blog for some last-minute inspiration). Compile is a game I do not own, haven’t played, and isn’t readily available yet…. But from everything I have seen I need it in my collection!
This wonderfully futuristic small box game pits two players against each other as you play as AI trying to understand the world around you. And while AI in real life may be terrifying, Compile just looks like a load of fun.
Everything I have seen online about this makes me want to go buy it. The theme looks special, the cards beautifully designed to build this sci fi setting, and the gameplay mechanics look sharp and weighty for something in such a small box.
I am a big fan of two player head-to-head games, with the likes of Star Realms, Jaipur and Fox in the Forest some of my favourite games. But Compile’s gameplay most reminds me of Radlands, quite possibly my favourite two player game, but changing up the Mad Max setting for this Sci-Fi world.
You’re playing cards and trying to make clever combos as you look to defeat your fellow AI, playing them in one of three rows (Radlands style), to compile your three chosen protocols to win.
Without having played it I can’t say much more on it other than go have a look online and see if you agree with me. If I can get a copy before Christmas, it might just be a little present for myself that compiles its way into my stocking filler.
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