Need a Christmas gift idea for the family?

As we begin to settle into 'home' life, we can enjoy a little more time that an absence of van routines allows. Last night then, we dusted off 'The Train Game' or as it is titled officially, 'Ticket to Ride Europe'.

Now before anyone declares that this is going to be a complete 'nerd alert' about a board game, I would like to add that this is genuinely a great family game (Iike Carcassone). The game took an added interest, as when we opened out the board, Jasper and Maya were able to identify lots of places that we have visited, and all of a sudden, the game had a certain extra relevance. If you are wishing to have a good family game this Christmas, then may I suggest either Carcassone or Ticket to Ride. The bad news is that you will need an A'level in instruction reading to understand either game, but once you have emerged from that pain, the games are remarkably simple and lots of fun for family time and way better than some of the "traditional" board games such as Monopoly, Cluedo etc.

Here is our board covered in trains and routes that have become familiar to us. The problem for us was that the game highlighted how petite our little pootle about Europe really is. We are doing well with the left hand side of the board, maybe we will do the right hand side of the board another year?

Ed