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Christmas card games and gifts
Christmas brings a houseful of people and a week of days off. This guide has two halves. The first is what to play: a game for the whole family, one for grandparents and grandchildren, solitaire for a quiet morning, and longer games for the grown-ups. Nearly all of them need only an ordinary deck of cards. Each is explained here or on one of our rules pages, and most have a free practice game in your browser. The second half is gifts: small games for a stocking, a game for the family to open together, and gifts for a young child, the family's most serious card player, grandparents, two people who play together, and someone who wants to learn.
The short answer. To play with everyone on Christmas Day, Cheat, a bluffing game for 3 to 10 players. For grandparents and young grandchildren, Kings in the Corner. For a stocking, Spot It! or Sushi Go!. For someone who already plays every week, a cribbage board to keep or a plastic deck that will outlast every paper deck in the house.
- The whole family on Christmas Day
- Grandparents and grandchildren
- A quiet morning on your own
- Grown-ups, after the children are in bed
- Stocking stuffers (picks 1 to 4)
- A game for the family to open together (picks 5 and 6)
- For a young child (picks 7 and 8)
- For the family's most serious card player (picks 9 and 10)
- For grandparents (picks 11 and 12)
- For two people who play together (pick 13)
- For someone who wants to learn (picks 14 and 15)
- Common questions
The whole family on Christmas Day
These work when most of the house wants to play at once.
Cheat (3 to 10 players)
Cheat, also called I Doubt It, is a bluffing game. You try to get rid of all your cards by putting them down face down and saying what they are, and you are allowed to lie. Anyone who thinks you lied can call you out. It needs one ordinary deck for up to four players; with five or more, shuffle two decks together. Children of about eight and up can play.
- Deal. Deal out the whole deck, face down, one card at a time round the table. Some players may get one card more than others. Look at your own cards.
- Start with aces. The player on the dealer's left puts one or more cards face down on a pile in the middle and says how many aces they are: "Two aces." The next player puts down 2s, the next 3s, and so on up to kings, then aces again.
- Lie if you have to. The cards you put down do not have to be what you say. If it is your turn to play 7s and you have none, you still put down at least one card and say it is a 7.
- Call "Cheat!" Anyone who thinks the player just lied calls "Cheat!" (or "I doubt it!"), and must do it before the next player puts their cards down. Turn over the cards just played. If any of them is not what the player said, the player who lied picks up the whole pile from the middle and adds it to their hand. If they told the truth, the player who called picks up the pile.
- Carry on. Play goes on to the next player and the next rank.
- Win. The first player with no cards left wins. If someone calls "Cheat!" on your last cards and you lied, you pick up the pile and the game goes on.
Some families let a player name the same rank as the last player, one higher or one lower, instead of always the next rank, and some let a player pass instead of lying. Agree before you start.
One habit worth teaching: keep count of the cards you hold. With one deck there are only four of each rank, so if you hold three kings and someone puts down two "kings", at least one of theirs is a lie. If your family would rather not reward fibbing, play Spoons instead.
Spoons and Slapjack
Our Thanksgiving guide explains two more games for a big group, step by step: Spoons, for 3 to 13 players and one deck, and Slapjack, which children as young as four or five can play.
Crazy Eights (2 or more players)
The game UNO grew out of, played with an ordinary deck. You play a card that matches the top card of the discard pile by rank or by suit, and any 8 can be played at any time to change the suit. With a big group, shuffle two decks together. The rules of Crazy Eights · Practice game
Grandparents and grandchildren
Games the youngest at the table can play with the oldest, at the same pace.
Kings in the Corner (2 to 4 players)
Kings in the Corner plays like Solitaire for a table of people. You build piles down in alternating colors, red on black and black on red, as in Solitaire, and the first player to get rid of all their cards wins. A child who knows their numbers and colors can play, and a grandparent who knows Solitaire already knows half the rules. It needs one ordinary deck.
- Deal seven cards to each player. Put the rest of the deck face down in the middle. This is the draw pile.
- Lay out four cards face up, one on each side of the draw pile: above, below, left and right. Each starts a pile. The four corners stay empty for now.
- On your turn, make as many of these moves as you can, in any order:
- Play a card from your hand onto a pile if it is one lower and the opposite color: a red 6 on a black 7, or a black jack on a red queen. Aces are low, so nothing goes on an ace.
- Put a king from your hand in an empty corner. It starts a new pile, and cards go on it the same way, beginning with a queen of the other color.
- Move a whole side pile onto another pile, if the bottom card of the pile you move is one lower and the opposite color of the top card it lands on.
- Fill an empty side space, left by a pile you moved, with any card from your hand.
- End your turn by drawing one card from the draw pile. If you cannot play anything, just draw, and your turn is over. When the draw pile runs out, play on without drawing.
- Win. The first player with no cards in hand wins.
Some families draw a card at the start of each turn instead of at the end. To play several deals, count the cards left in each other player's hand as points against them. A common count is 10 for a king, 2 for a queen or jack, and 1 for any other card. A player who reaches the total you agree on, often 25 or 50, is out, and the last player left wins.
Go Fish and Old Maid
Two classic first card games. In Go Fish you ask another player for a rank, such as "Do you have any kings?", and collect sets of four. In Old Maid you take turns drawing a card from the next player's hand, put down pairs, and try not to be left holding the last queen. The rules of Go Fish · Practice game · The rules of Old Maid · Practice game
A quiet morning on your own
Solitaire is for the early riser before the presents, or anyone who needs half an hour away from a full house. Each of these six has a rules page and a practice game in your browser that explains the rules as you play.
- Solitaire (Klondike), the one most people mean by Solitaire: build columns down in alternating colors and move every card to four home piles, ace up to king. Not every deal can be won. Rules · Practice
- Clock Solitaire has no choices to make at all. The cards decide, so a child can play it alone, and about 1 deal in 13 comes out. Rules · Practice
- Golf Solitaire: clear seven columns onto one pile, playing a card one rank above or below the last. Rules · Practice
- Pyramid Solitaire: take a pyramid of 28 cards apart in pairs that add up to 13. Rules · Practice
- FreeCell: every card is face up from the start, so careful planning wins almost every deal. Rules · Practice
- Spider Solitaire: a longer game with two decks, building runs of one suit from king down to ace. Rules · Practice
Grown-ups, after the children are in bed
Once the house is quiet, four players can settle into a longer game, and two can play across the kitchen table. Our Thanksgiving guide says more about choosing between the four-player games.
- Euchre: two teams of two, a short 24-card deck, and a quick deal. Rules · Practice
- Hearts: four players, each alone, avoiding hearts and the queen of spades. Rules · Practice
- Spades: two teams guess how many rounds they will win. Rules · Practice
- Pinochle: two teams and a special 48-card deck, about an hour a game. Rules · Practice
- Canasta and Hand and Foot: big, slow rummy games for teams, with two decks or more. Canasta rules · Hand and Foot rules
- For two: Gin Rummy, with short deals that are easy to stop, or Cribbage, the game with the pegboard. Gin Rummy rules · Cribbage rules
Gifts for card players
The rest of this guide is gifts, grouped by who they are for. We chose them from the makers' information, independent reviews and player consensus, not from our own testing, and we show no prices, because they change. Game names belong to their makers, and SelectACard is not affiliated with any of them. Many of these picks also appear in our other guides, which compare them with more choices.
Stocking stuffers
Small enough for a stocking, and quick enough to play before breakfast.
Spot It! Classic (Zygomatic)
Best for a stocking for anyone from age six up, and a game that is over in minutes
A tin of 55 round cards, each printed with eight pictures. Any two cards have exactly one picture in common, and the game is to spot it first and call it out. The rules give several short games to play with the same cards. The maker lists 2 to 8 players, ages 6 and up, and 15 minutes.
Gives up: it is a matching game, not a card game in the usual sense, so it teaches nothing that carries over to other games. It rewards quick eyes above everything else, so a fast child can beat the whole table every time.
Sushi Go! (Gamewright)
Best for a stocking for a family with children of about eight and up
The smaller, original version of the Sushi Go Party! in our Thanksgiving guide. Everyone picks one card from their hand at the same time, puts it face down, and passes the rest of the hand to the next player, so nobody waits for a turn. Cards score in different ways, such as pairs or the most of one kind. Retailers list 108 cards, 2 to 5 players, ages 8 and up, and about 15 minutes a game.
Gives up: room, at five players at most. For a bigger family, Sushi Go Party! seats eight. Each kind of card scores its own way, so a first game needs someone reading the rules aloud, and the scoring takes some adding up.
Sleeping Queens (Gamewright)
Best for a child who is learning to add, and the grown-ups playing with them
Miranda Evarts invented Sleeping Queens when she was six, and Gamewright first published it in 2005. Queens lie face down in the middle of the table. You play a king to wake one, a knight to steal another player's queen, and a dragon to stop a knight. Number cards can be thrown away in pairs, or as an addition sum, such as a 2, a 3 and a 5 for 2 + 3 = 5, so the game slips in some arithmetic. The listing gives 2 to 5 players, ages 8 and up, and about 20 minutes.
Gives up: the age on the box. A six-year-old invented it, but the maker says 8 and up, so younger children will need help with the adding. It is also mostly luck, which suits children better than grown-ups who like to plan.
Bicycle Home for the Holidays Playing Cards
Best for a stocking: an ordinary deck with Christmas pictures, for every game in this guide
A standard 52-card Bicycle deck, poker size as the listing gives it, decorated with homes dressed for the holidays in evergreen, crimson and gold, as one retailer describes it. It plays every one-deck game on this page. Bicycle also sells Peanuts and Disney Mickey and Friends holiday decks, if a fan in the family would like those better.
Gives up: it is sold as a limited edition, so once it sells out, a deck that loses a card cannot be replaced with a matching one. We found no independent review of it.
A game for the family to open together
A boxed game to open on Christmas morning and play the same afternoon. Five more that seat a crowd are in our Thanksgiving guide.
Skull King (Grandpa Beck's Games)
Best for a family that likes Spades or Whist and wants something new, up to 8 players
Everyone plays one card and the best card wins the round, as in Spades. A game is ten deals: one card each in the first deal, two in the second, and so on up to ten. Before each deal is played, every player guesses how many rounds they will win, scores points for guessing exactly, and loses points for missing. Special cards, such as pirates, mermaids and the Skull King himself, outrank the ordinary number cards. The listing gives 2 to 8 players and ages 8 and up.
Gives up: a quick start. The special cards beat each other in a set order that a first game has to learn, the score needs a pencil and a careful scorekeeper, and ten deals take a while.
Skyjo (magilano)
Best for a mixed-age table that wants a change from UNO, up to 8 players
Each player has a grid of face-down cards. On your turn you take a card and either swap it into your grid or discard it and flip one of your face-down cards, aiming for the lowest total. It takes 2 to 8 players, and the maker says ages 8 and up. Our family card games guide compares it with UNO, Phase 10 and others.
Gives up: control, because luck can decide a game, and time, because you keep a running score until someone reaches 100 points.
For a young child
A first set of card games, and something to hold the cards with.
Hoyle 6-in-1 Kids Card Game Pack
Best for a young child's first card games: six in one pack
One pack holds six classic games: Go Fish, Old Maid, Crazy Eights, Slap Jack, Memory and Matching. The listing says ages 3 and up and 15 minutes or less, and the description says the cards are made for smaller hands. Our rules pages and practice games cover Go Fish, Old Maid and Crazy Eights, so a grown-up can learn them first.
Gives up: the cards are made small, for small hands, so they will not double as a grown-up deck, and we found no independent review of how long they last.
Gamewright Original Little Hands Playing Card Holder
Best for a child who cannot yet hold a fan of cards
A plastic holder with a wide handle. The cards go between two plastic paddles, so a small hand can manage them. It is sold for ages 3 and up, which makes it a good fit for Go Fish and Old Maid.
Gives up: room. One review site lists it as holding four to five cards, so it suits a small hand, not a big one. Stores have run short of it at times, so check that the listing shows it in stock.
For the family's most serious card player
Someone who plays every week probably owns the basics. These are upgrades they may not buy for themselves.
House of Cribbage Continuous Cribbage Board/Box, Rosewood and Maple
Best for a Cribbage player: a board to keep for years
A rosewood board with white maple inlay and three continuous tracks of 120 holes, with room for up to three players. Sliding lids close over storage for two decks of cards, and a small drawer holds nine metal pegs (three gold, three silver and three copper plated). Our cribbage boards guide compares it with four others, including cheaper ones.
Gives up: the cost, which is the highest of the five boards in our cribbage guide, and there are no playing cards in the box. One buying guide calls it bulkier than a travel board, so it is one to keep at home.
Copag 1546 100% Plastic Playing Cards
Best for a weekly player of any game: cards that outlast every paper deck in the house
Copag cards are plastic all the way through, not paper with a coating, so they do not crease, and they can be washed when a game ends in pie. They come in bridge and poker size, with a jumbo or a standard index, and they are widely used in cardrooms. Our waterproof cards guide compares them with other plastic decks.
Gives up: stiffer than paper out of the box, so it takes a few games before they fan nicely, and they cost more than a paper deck.
For grandparents
Two gifts that make a long afternoon of cards easier on the hands and the eyes.
Yellow Mountain Imports Extra-Wide Beechwood Card Holders (set of 2)
Best for big hands of cards, such as Canasta, and for anyone whose grip tires
A pair of solid beechwood racks, each 13.8 inches wide with four slots that rise in height and a felt-lined bottom, as the maker lists them. The cards stand in the rack, so you do not have to hold them up. Our card holders guide has more choices.
Gives up: privacy, because an open rack can show your cards to the player beside you, and table space, because each rack is 13.8 inches wide.
Bicycle Jumbo Index Playing Cards (2-pack)
Best for anyone who finds the corner numbers hard to read
Regular poker-size Bicycle cards with the numbers and suits in the corners printed larger (jumbo index). They play like any deck, so they work for every game in this guide. The pack holds a red deck and a blue deck. Our large-print cards guide compares it with bigger cards.
Gives up: only the corner numbers grow. The cards stay poker size and paper, so for eyes that need more than that, see the larger decks in the large-print guide.
For two people who play together
A game made for exactly two. Our two-player guide has more, including games for an ordinary deck.
Jaipur
Best for a couple, or any two people who play together often
A trading game designed for two players only. You take cards from a shared market, collect goods such as cloth, spice and gems, and sell them for points. The first sales of each good are worth the most, so the two of you race each other, and the first player to win two deals wins the game. It takes about five minutes to teach.
Gives up: it is for two only, so it stays on the shelf when the family gathers.
For someone who wants to learn
Two books: one for new card games, one for card tricks.
Card Night (Will Roya)
Best for someone who wants to learn several games from one book
Card Night teaches 52 classic games with step-by-step, illustrated instructions. It has two indexes, one by difficulty and one by the number of players, so you can find a game for the people you have. The publisher names Hearts, Bridge, Rummy and Go Fish among them. Our card game books guide has more.
Gives up: depth on any one game. With 52 games and the story of famous decks in 256 pages, each game gets only a few pages, so it will not settle every argument about the rules.
The Royal Road to Card Magic
Best for a teenager, or anyone, who wants a step-by-step course in card tricks
Jean Hugard and Frederick Braué's book has over 100 tricks and more than 120 illustrations, according to its publisher, Dover. It explains shuffles, cuts and other sleights step by step, from the basics to harder moves. For the cards to use, see our magic decks guide.
Gives up: it is a reprint of a 1951 edition. It teaches from drawings, not video, and the harder moves take practice to learn from a page.
Common questions
What card game can the whole family play at Christmas?
For everyone from about eight up, Cheat, for 3 to 10 players with one or two decks. With younger children at the table, play Spoons or Slapjack from our Thanksgiving guide. For grandparents and young grandchildren, Kings in the Corner.
What should I get someone who loves card games?
Start with what they play. A Cribbage player will keep a good board for years, a weekly player of any game will use a plastic deck, and a family that plays Spades or Whist may enjoy Skull King. If they seem to own everything, a book such as Card Night teaches games they may not know yet.
What card games fit in a stocking?
Spot It!, Sushi Go! and Sleeping Queens all come in small packages, and a holiday deck of ordinary cards plays every game on our rules pages that needs one deck.
What card games can I play alone over the holidays?
Any of the six solitaire games above. FreeCell rewards planning, because every card is face up from the start. Clock Solitaire needs no decisions at all, so a child can play it alone.
Is Kings in the Corner the same as Solitaire?
No, but it borrows Solitaire's main rule: cards go down in order, alternating red and black. It is played by 2 to 4 people, each with their own hand, and the first player out of cards wins.
We got a new card game for Christmas. What is the easiest way to learn it?
For a boxed game, read the rules aloud and play one practice deal with every card face up, talking through each play. For a game with an ordinary deck, every rules page on this site is written for someone who has never read a rule book, and most have a practice game where you play against the computer while a coach explains each rule as it comes up.