Is a No-Gift Christmas with Kids Really Possible?

Have you ever come to dread something you once loved? Last Christmas, I realized that even though I looked forward to the cookies, the lights, the general goodwill in the air, and of course the special religious meaning for my family, I also felt an overwhelming desire to hide under the covers and not come out until January. 

The problem was my family's gift-giving, which had gotten out of hand. We were spending way too much time, effort, and money on stuff that didn't add value to our kids' lives, and on top of it all the house was always a disaster because it was too much for any of us to organize and manage. 

So we simply quit giving the kids gifts at Christmas. No more toys. No more stuff. 

How did our first no-gift Christmas go? Would we do it again? And would it ever in a million years work in your family? 

Here's everything you ever wanted to know about going gift-free this Christmas, but were afraid to ask.

Q: What did your Christmases look like before?

We used to get each kid four presents, plus one from Santa. That doesn't sound excessive, but with 6 kids it quickly added up, and when you added in extra toys and gadgets from extended family members it was way too much. 

I know it's a privilege being able to complain about having too much stuff, but it certainly doesn't feel like a privilege when you're drowning in it.

Q: What does a no-gift Christmas look like?

A: Each child gets one experience gift from us, and that's it. The only tangible items they receive are a stocking filled by Santa, one physical gift from Santa, and whatever their grandparents choose to get them.

Q: Were the kids actually on board with this?

A: We started by having a family meeting. We explained to the kids we wanted to avoid waste and focus on doing stuff together instead of giving stuff. At first they were skeptical (especially the younger ones,) but once they started making lists of fun places they've always wanted to go they got excited about it.

Q: Wait a minute. Wasn't Christmas Day super-lame without gifts to open?

Well, they still have a few gifts to unwrap from Santa and their grandparents. But aside from that, we tried to make the experience of opening the experience gifts fun by printing out a certificate for each experience and packaging it creatively. 

We rolled up the 5-year-old's certificate and stuck it in a balloon for him to pop, and the 13-year-old's went in this folded paper pyramid. In future years maybe we'll wrap certificates in a bunch of boxes inside each other, have them follow a strand of yarn all over the house to find it, make a scavenger hunt, or write it in a scrambled language to decode.

Q: What kind of experience gifts did you give?

We're big believers in family time over individual date nights with each child, so it felt natural for us to include everyone who was able to participate in each experience. Here's what we did last year:

5yo: Trampoline park for the whole family

7yo: Laser tag for the whole family

10yo: Escape room for one parent and the 3 kids who were old enough

13yo: Adult go-kart racetrack for one parent and all kids who met the height requirement

15yo: Virtual reality room for the teenagers and a parent

17yo: Semester of piano lessons at a local music school (not exactly a family experience, but it was something she really, really wanted)

We found a lot of ideas by searching our city on Groupon and Trip Advisor. You could try indoor skydiving, pop-up museums, an overnight hotel stay with a pool and pizza for dinner, or one of those pay-by-the-pound ice cream places where you do all the toppings. The experiences could even be free: a cool sledding hill they've never been to before, or an "anything goes" night where they stay up late and create the itinerary.

Q: How did your first giftless Christmas go?

Every time we drove home from one of those experiences with the kids talking about it excitedly with each other in the backseat, I felt like we'd done the right thing. This year there was no wasted time and effort tracking down presents no one used, no landfill of wrapping paper and packaging waste in the living room, no meltdowns the week afterward trying to organize the avalanche of toys. I even heard my 10-year-old exclaim several times at the escape room "This is the best Christmas present EVER!!!"

Q: Were there any downsides to not exchanging gifts at Christmas?

A: It was challenging to juggle so many people's schedules to find a time to actually do all the experience gifts. We tried to complete as many as possible in the week between Christmas and New Years, but we didn't finish all of them until March. Also, our no-gift Christmas was not cheap. Most people assume we saved a ton of money, but obviously eight admissions to the trampoline park costs more than a few plastic toys. In all, it probably ended up costing about the same as before.

Q: Any tips for me if I want to try a no-gift Christmas with my family?

A: In the past, we'd tried encouraging extended family members to get us experience gifts, which was met with mixed reactions and didn't work well for a variety of reasons. We found it was much easier to fix our own gift-giving and let everyone else do what they felt comfortable with.

Start out by clearly deciding what you're trying to accomplish with a no-gift Christmas: to be more environmentally conscious? more responsible with your money? less overwhelmed by the number of toys in the house? Involve the kids, come up with a plan, and commit to trying it for just one year. Explain you can always go back if they don't like it.

Q: What if I want to downsize Christmas but I'm not ready to give up gifts altogether?

Dip your toes in by giving experience gifts with a small related trinket, like a zoo pass with a dollar store bag of plastic animals or tickets for a monster truck rally with a Hot Wheels vehicle. It will get you and your kids used to the idea without going completely cold-turkey.

You can also explore other ways to ease your holiday burnout. If there's Christmas decor you don't really like putting up, get rid of it. Ask your family their favorite Christmas traditions and eliminate the ones on the bottom of the list. Deep down you probably know what should be cut out to make things simpler, you just need to give yourself permission to do it.

We're heading into our second no-gift Christmas, and I couldn't be more excited. It's freeing not to orchestrate who's getting what with a literal spreadsheet starting in September, and I know that the day after Christmas I'll wake up to a calendar of fun things to do with my kids instead of a house full of clutter and chaos. At least, not any more full of it than usual.

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In Search of a Less Wasteful Christmas

It's December 1^st, and if this were any other year I would've had at least one holiday prep-related mental breakdown by now. But it hasn't happened yet, and here's the beautiful reason why: my husband and I aren't getting the kids gifts this year.

Before you start penning your letters to CPS, please hear me out. It's all part of a bigger plan. In fact, it was the kids' idea.

For years now, I've had the sneaking suspicion that our Christmas season was out of control. I tried to simplify and streamline everything I could, using task management apps, jettisoning traditions that were more work than enjoyment, even paring down our holiday decor so it didn't feel like such a big job.

But I couldn't quite bring myself to re-examine our gift-giving. It was Christmas, after all: the one day a year (other than their birthdays) when the kids get presents. And Evans family tradition had it that every kid received four gifts from Mom and Dad on Christmas morning, plus another from Santa.

Maybe that doesn't sound like a lot, but with 6 kids that equals 30+ presents to shop for... not including stocking stuffers. 

I don't want to know how many hours I've spent poring over holiday gift lists and wracking my brain for any conceivable way to commodify my kids' interests: the 7-year-old likes basketball, what product goes with that? A new ball? A jersey? A basketball nightlight for his room? A life-sized cutout of LeBron James? 

Which, to be honest, always left me feeling vaguely uncomfortable. If my son was happily playing basketball with what we had already, wouldn't he rather have me just go outside and play with him instead of hiding inside furtively reading "52 Awesome Gifts for Kids Who Can't Get Enough of the Game"?

Not only that, I was also feeling burnt out. I was tired of the planning, the brainstorming sessions, and the shopping. I was tired of the ordering and the tracking. I had come to resent the color-coded spreadsheet of which items we'd chosen but not ordered, and which ones we'd ordered but hadn't yet arrived. 

And I don't even want to talk about the gift wrapping.

Christmas 2016. I know.

But hey, I figured, that's just the way Christmas is, and resolved that the only thing I could do was change my attitude and try to enjoy the ride.

The gift-giving question was forgotten for a few more years, until this past spring. Inspired by The Minimal Mom on YouTube, I did a massive declutter of the house.

From the attic to the basement, I was ruthless in my purging. I didn't throw out any of the kids' stuff without their knowledge, but what I did do was give them permission to get rid of absolutely anything — anything — they didn't use or love. Even (and maybe especially) if they felt like they "should" keep it for some other reason.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a lot of the stuff we'd given them for Christmas just a few months earlier sailed right out the door that spring, and it was a real eye-opener to me and my husband. All those hours we'd spent hunting down the perfect gifts... maybe it wasn't as worth it as we used to think. 

I don't care for excess and Phillip doesn't like waste, and looking at the pile of items the kids happily discarded once they had permission was hard evidence that we'd inadvertently been creating a lot of both.

So what to do with this wake-up call?

We considered having the kids start drawing up wish lists, but only briefly. I didn't like the idea of reducing gift-giving to an "I put in my order and you fill it" transaction. (Where's the magic in that?) And to be honest, I wasn't sure that shoving a toy catalog in front of my 5-year-old would be any less wasteful than what we'd already been doing. 

We posed the question to the kids at a family meeting, and they came up with a creative solution: experience gifts instead of tangible ones. In the next few weeks, they'll be giving us two or three ideas of something they'd like to do, see, or visit in the week between Christmas and New Years, and Phillip and I will either choose something from the list or surprise them.

But here's the kicker: that will be their only gift from us. Phillip and I are out of the presents-that-go-in-a-box game.

The 5- and 7-year-olds were a little concerned, but were fine once we assured them they'd still get stuff from their grandparents, and Santa will still fill their stockings and bring them one physical present. Our Christmas isn't going to be ascetic, just reasonable.

Ultimately, I realized that no matter how much time and effort we put into selecting the perfect things to put under the tree, we can never guarantee they won't end up in a pile of clutter no one uses. 

Giving experiences, however, is a different story. Even if your experience gift ends up being a dud (you got a flat tire on the way there, the tour guide was crabby, and the whole thing was not at all what you expected,) you still spent time together creating memories. It's always a net positive.

This Christmas will be much different, but in a good way. I know I won't miss waking up exhausted from present-wrapping to hunt down batteries and run tech support for new gadgets, and I don't think the kids will mind having fewer presents under the tree. Instead, we'll have a calendar full of fun things to do together, and none of us can hardly wait.

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7 Quick Takes about Shady Google Assistants, the Butterfly Effect, and A Little Holiday Trigonometry

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

My 16-year-old has been giving away handmade cards to our friends and family during the holiday season, and a few days ago she came to me. 

"All of a sudden I'm getting a bunch of ads for greeting cards," she said. "Is Google spying on me?" 

I started to answer, but my 14-year-old just picked up her phone to ask Google Assistant about it directly. This was how it defended itself against the accusation:

I don't know. That sounds, as the kids say, immediate sus.

—2—

Lately I've been on a homemade snacks kick. I kind of always am, but now I'm actually making the recipes instead of just Pinning them.

First I tried these green smoothie bars (except I made them in muffin form,) but nobody liked them. Some were more diplomatic about it than others. I asked my teenager what she thought and in a super-positive voice she answered "They taste... healthy!" Bless her heart.

I had more success with fruit leather. For my first attempt, I chose a banana orange recipe and was told by several of my kids that it's "like eating banana bread." I mean, actual banana bread is way less work so maybe next time I'll just do that, but still.

—3—

You all know I love parenting books, so I was intrigued when I saw this TED talk entitled "Why Most Parenting Advice Is Wrong." 

Several times this week, I've caught me debating myself over the content of this talk. This TED talk is the verbal equivalent of the optical illusion that is two pictures at once, but no matter how hard you try you can't see them at the same time. Do we matter or don't we?

Whatever the answer, we can at least agree with speaker's choice of opening metaphor. In comparing parenting to the Butterfly Effect, she likens children to the hurricane — and we all know that children are always the hurricane.

—4—

My 14-year-old, who is a cashier at the grocery store, was so excited to go to work on Christmas Eve. She could barely contain her excitement as she told me, "It's my LAST DAY of listening to Christmas music!"

As much as I love little Michael Jackson singing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," I can imagine it would get old after 40+ hours.

Everybody likes Christmas music, except for people who work in retail.

—5—

Our family has had to improvise a lot this Christmas. We usually stay here for the holidays, but COVID has impacted our plans in other ways.

For instance, looking at Christmas lights. We drove around and picked the house with the best light display like always, but instead of ding dong ditching a plate of thank-you cookies at their doorstep we just left a note in their mailbox. (That was a little disappointing, because watching my teens take a running leap into the van as Phillip peels out is one of the highlights of the season for me.)

We also couldn't find a ham for our traditional Christmas dinner. I planned to pick one up on my regular weekly shopping trip and they were out, and Phillip later went to three different grocery stores before he came in triumphantly announcing, "I got the last one in New England!"

Lastly, there was a run on Christmas trees. I guess it makes sense, since everyone is staying home and getting a tree instead of traveling and enjoying their mother-in-law's tree or whatever. We planned to get one sometime this week, but by then it was too late and the places we looked at were sold out.

—6—

The truth is, we didn't really look too hard for a tree. Our family is good at adapting, and I didn't want to take the last tree away from someone who would be devastated not to have one on Christmas.

We'd be fine with a substitute; it could even be fun. But what? We thought about making a full-size dowel Christmas tree, but by the time I priced it all out it was too expensive.

Here's what we came up with: 

Using boards left over from replacing our front porch (I believe the Pinterest term is "reclaimed wood,") Phillip built a 6' triangle. Cutting all the angles correctly requires some pretty intense mathematical calculations, so we jokingly call it "the trigonometree." 

The boys helped pound nails around the sides at 4" intervals. Then we strung Christmas lights from the nails, propped it up on the wall, and hung ornaments from it.

Don't worry, it's anchored to the wall with a nail and some wire.

In the end, our one-time makeshift solution was something we liked so much that we're keeping it to use again. Not every year, but it will definitely be back.

Sincerely looks like something you'd see on Instagram.

—7—

A few nights ago, it occurred to me that we should get a 2020 ornament. We always buy an ornament whenever we go on vacation, so decorating our tree at Christmas is like taking a walk down memory lane.

We didn't go anywhere this year, but it was such a significant event that I decided to order this ornament from Etsy. It says "the year we stayed home."

Because we were lucky enough to enjoy good health and a good financial situation, "the year we stayed home" was the most magical year of my life. 

Instead of going their separate ways to their separate activities, my younger kids were having school recess together in the yard and my older kids were hanging out and binge-watching shows together. The unexpected gift of so much time together led us to grow spiritually and emotionally more than I thought possible.

I think that's definitely worth having an ornament to remember it by, don't you?

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Best Gifts for Kids Who Are Obsessed with Vehicles

If you've got a kid who loves things that go, then you're going to want to print out this list and frame it.

Over the years our family has used all of these toys, which have not only been instant hits with our boys but have also stood up to lots of heavy use in our family of 8.

Fisher-Price Little People Stand 'n Play Rampway

Several years ago, my son discovered this at a friend's house and all of a sudden she was his best friend in the world. While he probably liked her alright, I'm pretty sure he was just using her for her Little People car ramp. This thing would entertain him for hours, at over 2 feet tall with two spiral hid-and-seek ramps that are sized for Little People cars but will work with any matchbox car. Batteries are optional in my opinion: even without the lights and sounds, this toy car ramp is still amazing.

Vehicle Tap Tap

This toy combines the first true loves of my second son: vehicles and hitting things with a hammer. And from a parent's perspective, it's pretty awesome, too. Kids develop fine motor skills while placing the little tacks and aiming the mallet. They work on matching to make the pictures on the cards or creativity to make their own vehicles. You'll need to supervise clean up a little to make sure all the tacks go back in the sturdy box (a box that won't fall apart is a big deal to me!) but the tacks themselves don't pose a safety risk because they aren't very sharp and slide easily into the corkboard surface.

Green Toys Ferry with Mini-Cars Bathtub Toy

My mother-in-law first saw this toy being played with at a children's museum and knew that it was durable enough for a children's museum, it was durable enough for our household. She was right. Green Toys are excellent quality (we also have the helicopter) and our kids have hours of fun driving the cars up and down the ramp of the ferry. We use ours as a playroom toy, but you can also take it in the bathtub, so it really doesn't get much better than this.

Under Construction Floor Puzzle

Your preschooler who loves trucks will spend hours assembling and reassembling this giant 24-piece floor puzzle. The puzzle measures in at 3 feet by 2 feet, and the puzzle pieces are sturdy enough that even though it's played with practically daily in our house, it's still looking good a year later. At the same time, we also bought the T. Shure railroad puzzle, which is just as amazing if your child also happens to love trains.

Open-Top 18" School Bus

When our toddler went through a phase where was obsessed with buses, we searched the Internet high and low to find him this plastic school bus. It's not just any bus! Most we saw were too small for toddler hands and too easy for things to get stuck inside, but at 18 inches this is big enough for some special play and the open top makes it easy to put things in and take them out without frustration. We knew he'd love it, and were proven right when he got up early on Christmas morning and started playing with it before we were even awake.

Melissa & Doug Nesting and Sorting Garages

Durable wooden cars, colorful garages you can stack and arrange in multiple configurations, opportunities for teaching numbers when they're playing... what's not to love about these Melissa & Doug garages? When we first received these, I was a little disappointed that the garages were heavy cardboard instead of wood, but after seeing how my toddler likes to stack them high and send them flying sometimes, I think that's actually a good thing.

Push & Go Friction-Powered Car Toy Set

While my boys own plenty of matchbox cars, these are unique in their collection. Not only are they vehicles you don't see everywhere (I don't think we've ever owned a street sweeper before,) but these chunky, durable cars do cool things with no batteries required. Pushing the car is all you need to make the combine reel spin, the sweepers activate, or the cement barrel roll. My boys and I love these vehicles.

City Life Car Play Mat

You know you already have too many matchbox cars, so put them to use with this rug! I promise you'll be shocked at how much time a kid can spend driving toy cars up and down these winding roads making vehicle noises. There are a lot of car mats out there of all sizes, but I especially like this one because at 60" by 32", it's a good size and shape for multiple kids to play on without taking up too much space in the room.

Buying toys for a kid who loves trucks, trains, cars, and things that go can be hard — after all, they have a lot of them already! But it's also really fun, and these great vehicle toys are sure to delight and hold up to years of heavy play.

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7 Quick Takes about Ways to Identify a Cannibal, How Scholastic Plans to Kill Me, and Amusing Questions I Get Asked at the Portrait Studio

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

I almost didn't get to write this. I was planning to do it on Thursday night, but then my littlest thought it would be fun to spend 6 hours in the E.R. instead. (He was wrong, but he's only one and a half years old. Now he knows.)

On Tuesday night, he woke up with a textbook croup cough, so I was up for an hour or so alternating between steamy bathroom and taking him outside to breathe the cold air.

Good news: it went away and he was able to sleep. Bad news: I left the door unlatched and it swung open after I went to bed so the furnace broke down trying to keep all of New England at 68 degrees for the rest of the night.

He was okay on Wednesday, but woke up at 3 AM on Thursday with really labored breathing and a new kind of cough. We spent a few hours there and did a few breathing treatments with the nebulizer, and when that didn't do anything, we were sent over to the E.R.

—2—

At the E.R. they checked for RSV, influenza, and pneumonia — all negative. He got some oral steroids and then we did a 6-hour routine of "nebulizer, then wait and see." (Christmas gift idea alert: toddlers love having loud machines strapped to their faces!)

Actually, he did pretty well considering that he hadn't really slept and we were there for so long. The angriest he got was when the tech took his Cheerios away to do the chest X-ray.

Anyway, in the end it turned out fine. His breathing calmed, they sent us home with enough medical paraphernalia that my kitchen looks like an illegal pharmacy now, and he's sleeping as I write this.

Parenthetically, Phillip just got a promotion and a raise at work which is nice, both because of this whole visit coming right out of our pocket (our HRA has run out for the year) and because of heating the whole neighborhood after the door got left open.

—3—

I overheard my 9-year-old and my 11-year-old talking in the other room. The conversation went something like this:

9yo: "If you are what you eat, you're a cannibal."

11yo: "But the people you eat have to be cannibals too, then, or you're not a cannibal."

9yo: "Right, they'd have to be. And if they're cannibals already then it means they eat other cannibals."

It's like critical thinking for the criminally insane over here.

—4—

Earlier this week we went to a Christmas party. We had dinner, sang some fun Christmas songs, watched the kids do a Nativity play, and we got to see Santa.

My 3-year-old, who is usually shy in public, surprised me when it was his turn by running with open arms into Santa's lap and yelling, "Hi, Santa!" To be fair, Santa was being played by our family friend Jessica, but I don't think he knew that.

And yes, you read that right: Jessica. I still need to ask her how that came about. Nevertheless, she did a great job, even if she did have one too many X chromosomes.

—5—

We got a package full of pre-wrapped presents from Phillip's parents. Usually all the grandparents have the Amazon packages sent to us and then we wrap them, but last year it got a little out of hand so they took pity and wrapped them at home before sending them to us.

They claimed it was to save labor, but it also may have been because we wrap ugly presents and theirs are way prettier.

For example, these are some of theirs:

Slightly smooshed from being shipped across the country, but still pretty.

And ours have 'to' and 'from' written directly on the wrapping paper with a Sharpie. For more details, please see this shocking tell-all article and that should make you feel plenty better about however you wrap gifts at your house.

—6—

At a time of year when I already have too many things on my mind, this came home from my son's school and made my head explode:

This nervous breakdown is brought to you by: Scholastic.

This is a joke, right? Different coins? Silly hats? Crazy socks? I have to know what day of the week it is today?

I'm sorry, but there's no way any of that is happening.

—7—

Last week you all helped me out by voting on what my family should wear to family pictures.

Between votes on Facebook and votes on the blog, the results were tied, so Phillip was the tiebreaker and this is what we wore:

Palette B won the vote!

We scheduled the shoot and planned to meet Phillip at the studio after he got done with work. He was on time, but I grossly overestimated my ability to get the kids ready on time and we were 14 minutes late.

I know it was exactly 14 minutes late because they told Phillip we had until 5:00 before our shoot would be cancelled, and in typical Evans fashion we came rolling in precisely one minute before that deadline.

The funniest part of the shoot was afterward, when an employee sat down with us to order cards, looked at our 6 kids, and asked me, "Are they all yours?"

No, I just like to sneak random strangers into our Christmas cards sometimes to see if my extended family members are paying attention.

Obviously.

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The Busy Mom's Guide to Simplifying December

Do you have a lot of traditions at the holidays? Our list is about a mile long, and the idea of skipping any of them in the name of simplifying is enough to give me a panic attack.

What's a busy mom to do, then?

Take shortcuts. Try these brilliant holiday hacks that shorten your time-consuming Christmas traditions into compact activities that give you the same end result as the real thing.

Baking Cookies:

Empty a 5-pound bag of flour into your Shop-Vac, reverse the suction, and blow it into the kitchen. Give the kids a storebought tube of refrigerated cookie dough to fight over.

Family Pictures:

Instead of telling your kids to "Say Cheese!" try saying "Alright everyone! Fingers in mouth or stare at something to your left!" For the first year ever you'll get family photos that look exactly the way you expected them to.

Christmas Cards:

Scratch out "Happy Holidays" at the top. Use Sharpies and correct them to say "Happy Groundhog's Day." Now you have plenty of time to address and mail them.

Shopping:

Circle the nearest parking lot 15 times looking for a spot, then turn around and go home. They wouldn't have had what you're looking for in stock anyway, so you've just accomplished in 20 minutes what would have ordinarily taken hours.

Pictures with Mall Santa:

Next time you're in a waiting room of some type, dump your baby on the lap of the random stranger next to you and take a picture of her screaming.

Decorating the Christmas tree:

Invite a local wino or hospital patient who's high on post-operative painkillers to put ornaments on your tree while you go run some errands. In the end, it will look exactly like your kids did it!

Advent Calendar:

The calendar itself is unnecessary. All you need to do is:

1. Set a timer for 5 minutes; tell the kids to see who can yell loudest "IT'S MY TURN TO OPEN IT!"
2. When the timer goes off, give everyone a piece of chocolate and stress-eat the rest of the bag locked in the bathroom.
3. Repeat nightly.

Optional: if you have a preschooler, give him an entire bag on Day 3 when he would have opened all the little flaps himself out of curiosity.

Making Gingerbread Houses:

Scatter icing, crumbs, and tiny candies all over the dining room. Make sure all of it is hard and tasteless.

Driving Around to Look at Christmas Lights:

Tell the kids to whine from the backseat that they're bored, there's nothing to see, and they want to go home during a regular errand you need to run.

Wrapping Gifts:

On Christmas Eve, rip 10 rolls of festive paper into crumpled shreds and throw them all over the living room. Hide the kids' unwrapped toys beneath the carnage and they'll still be surprised on Christmas morning.


Busy moms know that creating a super-magical holiday season often takes more time than they have available.

By using these tips to simplify common Christmas traditions, you too can continue making holiday memories on top of your already demanding schedule of making sure everyone has clean underwear and dislodging Shopkins from the printer.

Merry Christmas!

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11 Big Family Board Games for 6 or More Players

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on a link, I may receive a commission. See my full disclosure policy here.

I love board games, but I've noticed that many of them are designed for families of 4 and can't accommodate more players than that — not ideal if your family is twice that size.

Do you find your large family forming teams just so all of you can play? If so, this list of big family board games for 6, 8, 10, or more players is what you need.

King of Tokyo

2-6 Players

King of Tokyo is one of the best family games we've ever owned, and the gameplay is relatively quick (usually under 30 minutes.) The basic idea is that you're a monster battling the other monsters for control of Tokyo using a little luck and a lot of strategy. I've heard it called "battle Yahtzee," but personally I think the twists make King of Tokyo much more fun. Best for ages 7 and up.

Tsuro

2-8 Players

Simple enough for a preschooler to understand and enjoy, but older kids and adults can put a lot of strategy into this game of elimination by following The Path. Gameplay is short and unlike a lot of other games, Tsuro is more fun the more players you have. Also, the gameboard and pieces are absolutely beautiful. Amaze your guests whenever you pull it out, this is unlike any other game you've seen. Best for ages 3 and up.

Snorta

3-8 Players

This game has been a permanent fixture in our game closet for years. It is fun, silly, fast-paced, requires quick thinking, and guaranteed to make everyone laugh as you all try to make the right animal sound. Special rules for younger players let them enjoy it along with everyone else in the family. I was so sad to see this game was discontinued, but you can still find it on eBay or through 3rd-party sellers on Amazon. Best for ages 4 and up.

Scum

4+ Players

Scum is new favorite family card game. You can play with as many people as can fit around your playing table, and my teenagers like it just as much as my kindergartner. While anyone who knows how to count can play, there's also an immense amount of strategy you can put into it. The object is to get rid of all your cards, but you keep playing for 2nd, 3rd, and so on until everyone finishes, and you can play as many rounds as you want to. You can also play using a deck of regular playing cards or Rook cards (which in itself is another fun game for 2-6 players.) Best for ages 5 and up.

Apples to Apples Junior

4-10 Players

Apples to Apples Junior is a creative, rowdy, imaginative card game that encourages vocabulary and thinking skills. Using only the cards in your hand, you have to play one that "matches" a randomly-chosen adjective, then argue the case for why your word is the best fit (even if it's a stretch!) Even our kids who can't yet read like being on mom or dad's team, helping us pick the words to play.  Best for ages 7 and up.

Uno

2-10 Players

Every family, especially big ones, should have this classic card game on hand. It's easy enough for preschoolers to play because it's essentially just matching colors and numbers, but still challenging and fun for teens and adults. Each round is quick, but kids can play for a good long while before getting bored. Best for ages 3 and up.

Taboo

6+ Players

Taboo is a race to get your teammates to guess words, but there are "forbidden words" you can't use to do it. It's hilarious to listen to the creative ways kids describe things when they can't use the words they want! Even our kids who are too young to be able to give the clues still like being on a team and guessing along with everyone else. Bonus: this version of Taboo comes with a "squeaker" that sounds like a rubber ducky instead of the annoying buzzer that came with older versions. Best for ages 8 and up.

5-Second Rule

3+ Players

5-Second Rule sounds easier than it is: name 3 things in a certain category in 5 minutes. You will all be laughing at this game that encourages thinking on your feet. My kids like the funny noise the timer makes, and we can choose however long we want to play. We modify the rules so our younger kids can play too (i.e: the 5-year-old only needs to name 1 thing instead of 3.) Sometimes they don't know what the topics on the cards are ("name 3 soap operas") so we just skip to the next one. Best for ages 7 and up.

Mexican Train Dominoes

Up to 8 Players

Mexican Train Dominoes is a set of double-12 color-coded dot dominoes that come in a durable aluminum case that holds up to years of rough use (it has in our house.) There are instructions for lots of different types of domino games, lasting from 20 minutes to several hours. Even when we're not actually playing a game of Mexican Train Dominoes, my toddlers like lining up the trains and my older kids like building with the dominoes. Best for ages 4 and up.

Headbanz

2-6 Players

You probably played a homemade version of this at home or school when you were a kid. You slip a card into your headband and ask other players yes or no questions to figure out what it is. It's fun but also educational since kids have to think critically about the questions they ask and remember the answers until their next turn. Since the cards have a picture along with the word, non-readers can play, too. (There's also a card of "prompt questions" in case a kid gets stuck.) Best for ages 4 and up.

Pictionary

4+ Players

Another classic family game where the sketches and the guesses are both hilarious. Play is in two teams, with the more players the merrier. You don't have to draw well to play (I know, because I'm the worst artist I've ever met.) You have to be old enough to think fast and sketch under pressure, but just like with Taboo, kids who are too young still enjoy being a guesser on the team. Best for ages 6 and up.

If you've got a bigger-than-average family then it's just a simple fact: you need to fit more people in your car, at your dining room table, and in your board games! What are your favorite games for 6 or more people to play in your family?

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