Christmas games for adults: seven games for after Christmas dinner
13 oktober 2026 · Bijgewerkt 5 oktober 2026
The children are in bed, the dishwasher is running and there is still a bottle on the table. That is exactly when you do not want a game that makes you read a booklet first. You want something that keeps the table awake. That is what this list of Christmas games for adults is for.
We have arranged the games by moment. At the top are two games for a full table: after dinner and with friends on New Year's Eve. Then come two for two players: both are duels, one full of bluffing and the other a calm puzzle. The last three are for the long days off in between, when nobody has to be anywhere.
Is the whole family at the table, grandma and nephews included? Then you will get more out of our Christmas games for the family. And if you are looking for heavier games for a regular games night, separate from the holidays, those are in board games for adults.
Hitster: music after Christmas dinner
Grab your phone, switch on the speaker, and you are playing within a minute. You scan a card with the Hitster app and the song starts playing via Spotify. Then you place the card in your own timeline, where you think the year belongs. If you flip it over and you are right, you get to keep it. The first to have ten cards down wins.
The great thing is that you do not need to be a music expert. You only need to know roughly whether something sounds like the eighties or the noughties, and everyone at the table has an opinion on that. Halfway through the evening, half the room is singing along to a song nobody could place any more. Up to ten people can join in. Unsure about a rule? The Hitster rules are all set out for you.
Hot Streak: noise until midnight on New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is long, and between the oliebollen (Dutch New Year doughnuts) and the fireworks there is quite a gap. Hot Streak fills it with noise. You bet on a race between the strangest mascots you have ever seen: a hot dog, a bag of chips and more characters like that. Before the start you place your bet and set up your secret actions. After that you have no say any more.
As soon as the starting gun goes off, the race simply runs. All you can do is cheer, shout or put your head in your hands. That way everyone takes part, including the friend who says he does not like games. A game takes about twenty minutes, so you can easily play a few before midnight. It works with two to eight players. Jon Perry designed it, and on BoardGameGeek it is in the top five party games. This edition is in English.
Agent Avenue: two of you between the holidays
Boxing Day is over, the house is quiet again. In Agent Avenue you are both retired spies on the same tidy street, and each of you is trying to unmask the other. Every turn you put down two cards: one face up and one face down. Your opponent picks one, you get the other, and those cards decide how far your spies move along the street.
The excitement is in that face-down card. Do you show something good so the other player leaves the bad card behind, or the other way round? After a few games you know each other's tricks, and that is when it really starts. You can play with 2 to 4 players aged 8 and up, but with two of you it is a real duel of about twenty minutes. This edition is in English.
Azul Duel: head-to-head on the sofa
Prefer puzzling to bluffing? Then grab Azul Duel. Michael Kiesling, who also came up with the regular Azul, made this version especially for two players. You decorate the ceilings of a palace. Taking turns, you take coloured tiles from the market, and in this duel you also choose the pattern they will be laid in.
The sting is in what you leave behind. A tile you take might be exactly the one your partner needed, and they only notice a few turns later. Light and dark play a part too: your design might look its best by day or by night. A game takes about three quarters of an hour, so there is easily time for another one before bed. The box is in English, but the Dutch rules are on the product page.
Stardew Valley: The Board Game for the grey days
Outside it is wet and dreary, inside Pelican Town is on the table. Anyone who knows the video game will recognise everything straight away. In this board game, one to four players work together to restore the old Community Center and stop Joja Corporation. Everyone chooses a role, such as farmer, fisher or miner. Then you plant crops, look after animals, give gifts to the villagers and search for artefacts.
Still, it is not a game for just pottering about. Each season has goals laid out, and they have to be completed before time runs out. A game takes one to two and a half hours, and the box says ages 13+. That is exactly why it suits an afternoon between Christmas and New Year, with a pot of tea on the table. Eric Barone, the creator of the video game, designed it together with Cole Medeiros. This edition is in English.
View Stardew Valley: The Board Game
Brass Birmingham: one big game for a long evening
And then there is the group that finally has time for something big between the holidays. In the BoardGameGeek rankings, Brass Birmingham is right at the top, above every other board game. With two to four players you build factories, canals and railways in England during the Industrial Revolution. The game has two halves: first the canal era, then the rail era. Each round you take two actions, such as building, expanding your network or taking out a loan.
Selling goes through merchants at the edge of the board, and for that you need beer. So a brewery is suddenly worth quite a lot. Allow one to two hours, and longer the first time, because there is a lot to explain. The box says 14+. This is the heaviest game on the list and it is in English, so let someone who already knows it do the explaining. Martin Wallace, Gavan Brown and Matt Tolman made it.
Pandemic Legacy Season 1: a campaign until New Year
Between Christmas and New Year you have what you miss the rest of the year: days in a row with the same people. Pandemic Legacy makes use of that. With two to four players you fight diseases across the whole world together, and every game is a month in a year. If you lose a month, you get one more chance. After that the story continues regardless.
What you do stays. You stick stickers on the board, cities change, characters develop, and sometimes a card gets torn in half. That way you build up your own story that no other group plays in quite the same way. A game takes about an hour, and the whole campaign takes twelve to twenty-four games. You will not manage that in one holiday, but you will get a good way. On BoardGameGeek it is currently in third place of all board games. It is the English edition in the blue box (the red one has the same contents).
Which Christmas game suits your evening?
Look mainly at how many people there are and how late it will get. With a full room and a speaker, Hitster gets you furthest. If your group wants to keep cheering until midnight on New Year's Eve, Hot Streak is the Christmas game for adults that makes the most noise.
With two of you, choose between bluffing (Agent Avenue) and puzzling (Azul Duel). And do you really have days off with the same people? Stardew Valley is the calm choice, Brass Birmingham the challenging one, and Pandemic Legacy the game you will still be playing in January. You will find more ideas for the holidays in our Christmas games.