Great Stocking Stuffer Games

Hive pocket — Get a mini version of Hive!

With just a couple days to go before Christmas, it’s time to make sure Santa has his stocking stuffers in order. So if you’re helping Santa out this year, here’s a few ideas of card games and dice games that will fit great in those Christmas stockings.

There are a couple of fun dice games that come in small canisters tubes that fit perfectly in stockings:

Both games are simple dice rolling games where players press their luck. In Martian Dice players compete to abduct chickens, cows, and humans while defending from tanks with their ray guns. Players roll all 13 dice and set aside dice that they want to keep and keep rolling to see how many items they can abduct without going bust (rolling more tanks than ray guns).

In Zombie Dice players are trying to collect as many brains as they can before shotgun blasts end their turn. Besides the theme, the big difference in Zombie Dice is that players only roll 3 dice on their turn. Those 3 dice are randomly pulled from the canister. The dice have different combinations of brains, footsteps, and shotgun blasts on them that change the probabilities of what players will roll. Once again players roll until they choose to stop and score brains or go bust from 3 shotgun blasts.

Card games are also great for stocking stuffers because they’re so compact. There are a number that come in tins that are fun to stuff in Christmas stockings.

We’ve reviewed 7 ate 9 and Super Circles before and you can see our quick reviews of these fun, light card games in a combined video review.

Little Devils card game — Little Devils can pack a punch.

Little Devils is a simple card game where players are trying to push all cards onto their opponents for negative points. It’s a trick taking card game that’s simple to play and has a unique twist where the second player to play a card each round sets how the trick is won. The number of negative devil points on each card varies from 0 to 5 so players have to think carefully when to play which cards. Yes, a lot of the game depends on which cards you start out with, but making good decisions on when to play each card can swing that luck. And since it’s played over a number of rounds, the luck will even out amongst the players. Fun little card game.

Crazy Creatures of Dr. Gloom is another card game where players score negative points. If the round ends with cards in their hands, players get negative points. But it’s the unique way players get rid of their cards that makes this game fun. Players get rid of their cards by playing them next to the color-associated machine card. There are 4 machines on the table (red, blue, green, yellow) with a plus or minus sign on the card. If it’s a plus, players have to play a card of equal or higher value to what’s already next to the machine (opposite for minus). The twist is being able to manipulate the machines to change them between their plus and minus sides which may block other players from being able to play their cards. It’s simple and quick to play with a mix of luck and strategy and has fun art on the cards – making it a great family card game.

Here’s also a couple party games that could easily fit into Christmas stockings.

Anomia is a fun party game that tends to cause brain freeze as players race to shout out things when a matching card symbol appears (see our full review). Who Would Win is great for those who like to debate crazy things. Would Darth Vader or Barbie win at a dog show? If you’ve got some debaters in your family or circle of friends this could be a great stocking stuffer gift.