Christmas lunch has three problems that a normal dinner party does not. The relatives who only see each other once a year run out of genuine catching-up within about ten minutes, and what is left is the same three questions repeated at every place at the table. There is a lull after lunch, somewhere between the last plate being cleared and the first person suggesting a walk, where the whole table is full, warm and quietly out of things to say. And the table is never actually complete, because somebody is always back in the kitchen checking the ham, refilling a drink or wrangling a toddler who will not sit still.
None of that is solved by a better list of questions. It is solved by matching the format to the part of the day, so the game survives people arriving late, leaving early and everything in between.
Arrivals: make joining in cost nothing
While people are still arriving, coats are still coming off and lunch is not yet on the table, use Most likely to. It asks for a vote, not a story, so a cousin who walked in thirty seconds ago can join without having missed anything.
- Most likely to guess a present just by shaking it?
- Most likely to forget whose turn it is to pull the cracker?
- Most likely to still be in pyjamas at lunchtime?
The after-lunch lull: ask for a choice, not an opinion
This is the window the deck earns its place in. Everyone is full and nobody has the energy to construct a real answer, so use Would you rather. A binary choice takes four seconds and needs nothing from anyone who is half asleep on the couch.
- Would you rather wake up to a frosty morning or a scorching one on Christmas Day?
- Would you rather have Christmas lunch on the deck or in the air conditioning?
- Would you rather have Christmas dinner at midday or in the evening?
Once the table regroups: cash in the energy
By evening, the backyard cricket is over, the dishes are done and the table has come back together with somewhere to sit. That is when Tell us earns an answer worth hearing, because it rewards the room for being back in one place rather than asking someone to perform for it.
- Tell us: what is the best Christmas tradition in this family?
- Tell us: what is the strangest present anyone has ever received?
- Tell us: what is the best cracker joke you can remember?
Whenever the cook is back in the room: keep a Hot take in reserve
A hot take does not need continuity with whatever was said five minutes ago, which makes it the right card for the moment someone reappears from the kitchen. It restarts the table instantly instead of asking them to catch up on a story they missed.
- Hot take: backyard cricket is the real Christmas tradition.
- Hot take: cold ham the next day beats hot ham on the day.
Built to survive someone leaving the table
A board game needs everyone seated for the whole thing or it stalls. A pass-the-phone question game does not: whoever is holding it plays a card, and the game is exactly as paused as it needs to be while someone is at the barbecue or settling a toddler. Nothing about it depends on the table staying full, which is the actual condition of a Christmas gathering rather than the one board games assume.
One rule for a mixed-age table
Say once, before the first card, that anyone can pass without a reason, and mean it. A nine-year-old and a grandparent will use that rule differently, and neither of them should have to explain why.
The Christmas deck is written for the whole table on purpose: no card here forces a disclosure or puts one person on the spot, for the same reasons every Chinwag deck avoids it. That is what makes it safe to hand to whoever is sitting closest, whatever their age.
In the app today, free in Family Mode.
Christmas has one deadline that never moves. It is one of the six decks Family Mode plays without a purchase, so see it before the day gets away from you.
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