With the cold snowy weather upon us forcing us indoors, it’s the perfect time of year to enjoy board games! It’s also the perfect time of year to cultivate hygge! If you don’t know what hygge is, go here.
Go grab some herbal tea or cocoa, get your family and/or friends, and have fun with these games!
- The Hygge Game- this is not really a game, it’s basically conversation starters on cards. I keep it by my dining room table to spark yummy dinnertime conversation. Now, if you want some real games that have hygge aspects (inspiring cozy togetherness), read on.
2. Just One- so easy to learn, and so fun if you like word association games.
3. So Clover- also so easy to learn! Both it and #2 are cooperative, and they are both for people who love word association games. This is a really fun game to climb inside some one’s mind and learn how they think. You have to disentangle word pairs given one word clues. It’s so clever and so fun!
4. Imaginiff- a great getting-to-know-you game to see if you can match how people think. It’s fun if you have some friends who you know somewhat so you can predict what they will guess. Only play if you have people who will be kind and good sports if someone is inadvertently not kind. See what I mean in the sample question below.
“The game is played in rounds. Each round, one of the players is chosen as the “subject” of a question. The question has 6 multiple choice answers. The question is read aloud and players vote on the answer they think is correct. Points are awarded to the players that chose the most popular answer.
“An example of a question:
“Imaginiff _______ were a flying object. Which would he/she be?
1) Blimp
2) Biplane
3) Glider
4) Frisbee
5) Lear jet
6) Brick” (quote from boardgamegeekforum.com)
So yeah, only play if people won’t mind being compared to a blimp!
5. Loaded Questions- a great getting-to-know-you as long as I already know a bit about you, like #4
6. Moods- this is fun only with people who are willing to dust off, or try on for the first time, their acting skills. It is not fun if you play with inhibited people. Find it at thrift stores or eBay, it’s a gem!
7. Truth Be Told-same as #4.
8. Disney Dixit. The best version of Dixit ever because the images are cute instead of creepy! The Dixit possibilities are endless! I’m thinking of making a family history version where you play with family photos or a Christmas version where you play with Christmas cards.
9. Letter Jam- a fun spelling and guessing game that is co-operative. It’s only fun if you are good at spelling. You are given a secret word that you have to guess, while helping your teammates guess their secret word. The clues you are given to help you guess change every round. The heavy numbered chips are so pretty, they make me want to eat fruit and jam every time I play!
10. Disney Animated- this brings back all the nostalgic Disney vibes. It’s cooperative. You work as a team to finish classic Disney animated movies before the deadline.
11. Reverse Charades- this one can bring a lot of laughs. Instead of classic charades where one person gives clues to the rest of the group, in this game, a group of people give clues to one person. I love playing this with a big group. I like to play where one person sits on the couch , the others act, and you just rotate who sits on the couch as the guesser. Give the card to the guesser if he/he gets it right, the person with the most cards at the end of the game wins. I often see this one at thrift stores. If you see it there, snatch it up. It’s totally worth the few bucks you’ll spend!
12. Likewise- word association to see if you can match other people’s guesses. So unlike Boggle, you want to have answers that other people have.
13. The Game of Things. This is basically draw a card with a question prompt, write an answer, then see if you can guess who said what. I like to play this with the conversation starters I got from Jennifer Flanders, linked over here.
14. Say Anything, a slight twist on the Game of Things.
The following can be hygge-ish, depending on the crowd. If you are playing with people who are super cut-throat competitive then the answer is no. I have two expert Boggle players in my nuclear family I grew up with so if I want a hygge night with them I will avoid Boggle. Maybe I’m a sore loser, but it’s just not fun to have to scratch off every single word you come up with. Scrabble can be hygge-ish if you play with people who aren’t super competitive and don’t take forever to take a turn. More hygge Scrabble versions are Gardening Scrabble and Cooking Scrabble, as they give you special powers so the game isn’t so tedious. Look for them at thrift stores and grab them. I found Gardening Scrabble at the Provo D.I. and feel infinitely blessed for it. Scrabble will never be the same for me! Trivial Pursuit could be hygge-ish if you play with people who enjoy trivia on your level, especially if they have any stories to tell about the different trivia questions. Half Truth is a better trivia game because everyone plays on every turn. It’s hygge-ish if you play, again, with people who aren’t super competitive and are OK with skipping cards when no one knows any of the terms.
- Boggle
- Scrabble
- Trivial Pursuit
- Half Truth
The following are not hygge, even though they are co-operative:
- Pandemic- what could be cozy about eliminating a pandemic? It is a good game though and allows you to see people’s leadership styles.
- Scotland Yard- a real anxiety inducer. So definitely not hygge.
Do you know any hygge tabletop games? Please share in the comments below.
Tree of Life Mothering 