It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

It’s the time when we round up our very favorite picks to create a list of the best board game gifts for 2019! 

This list has something for everyone on your list. Yes, all gift guides claim this, but I promise you that you’ll find something great on here whether you’re looking for yourself, your spouse, your kids, friends, grandparents, dog, or a white elephant! Okay, maybe not a dog, but definitely a white elephant!

Competition is a great thing. 

Whether its board games, sports, or even academics, healthy competition helps prepare kids for life’s challenges as they must exert effort for results, stick with things even when it gets tough, and learn to manage both success and failure. 

If you have kids yourself, you have probably seen first hand that losing gracefully does not exactly come naturally. And if you watch professional sports, you know losing is not something made suddenly easy in adulthood. 

Losing gracefully, as with most things, starts in the home. Teaching respectful sportsmanship in the home is of great importance and board games are a great place to start and continue learning those lessons.

Gaming with kids is always a bit of an adventure.

Happy New Year Friends! If you’re looking for a fun way to work more gaming into your New Year Resolutions, we’ve got you covered!

Sometimes a game comes out and we just know we are going to love it. 

Whether its because of its theme, mechanic, designer, or publisher, we just know that it’s one we can’t wait to put on our shelves back home. 

Other times, however, it’s not as easy. Maybe it’s something completely different from what we’re used to playing. Perhaps it seems too similar to what we already have. Or maybe we’re just not sure if it’s worth the price. Whatever the reason, there are a lot of games that hit the shelves at stores that we aren’t sure would work for us. That’s why when we can, we like to try a game before we buy it.

Due to a lack of board gaming friends with libraries we can borrow from, we’ve found a lot of different ways to test out games before we purchase them. Here are three of our favorites!