3 must-play fun holiday dice games for the whole family, office, or friendsgiving

Host a small friends’ gathering, office holiday party, or a big family Christmas game night made better with games that won’t result in flipping over the table

Holiday tradition dictates everyone come together for either the office gift exchange, obligatory Christmas dinner at the in-laws, and other events that are supposed designed to bring holiday cheer and festive fun.

We have some ideas using our favorite Christmas dice games that are way shorter than Monopoly and won’t result in someone flipping a table over.

The ultimate Christmas dice game for big families and office parties is Bunco

Nothing about Bunco’s past makes it a true Christmas dice game, but it is a big, social game perfect for large groups. Use Bunco at the office party where you’ve got lots of tables, or at home spread around the house — even in different rooms!

Bunco’s rules are pretty simple:

1. Each player starts by rolling three standard dice to match whatever the round number you’re on, so 1•1•1 is a 21-point game-ending “Bunco!” on round 1. If you rolled 1•1•1 on round two, that’d be a 7-point “Mini Bunco.”
2. Players take turns rolling in teams of two, four people to a table. The winning teams are whoever reaches 21 first on each round.
3. Winning teams move to a “winners table” (and, by definition, losers move around to their own table). Then gameplay repeats.

Bunco quickly becomes more fun than it might sound on paper. It’s an easy dice game to add to your holiday collection. It’s simple enough for people to chat through and yet there’s still a thrill of excitement when you watch you or your teammate score a Bunco on the first roll.

More rules are covered by our friends at PlayBunco.com. There, you can also play the game online for free to see how it works. They also have some other holiday theme ideas for your Bunco party.

The easiest dice game to play with kids is Left-Center-Right

After the kids have ripped through unwrapping presents, all the gifts with batteries are already dead, and everyone’s consumed all the sugar in the house, you’re going to need to play a game this holiday season that’s easy to learn, quick to understand, and doesn’t require a ton of attention.

If you can get the kids to sit still and out from under the Christmas tree (or, if the adults are just too tired to learn the ins and outs of a more complex game like Mexican Train Dominoes), Left Center Right (LCR) is the game.

LCR requires luck and a good dice roll as players take turns rolling three specialized dice marked with an L, C, R, or a •. After each roll, you pass tokens either to the player on your left, right, or into the center “pot”, depending on your roll. A dot means you get to keep your tokens. The number of dice you use varies and it can get fun when you steal the one die a player has, or when you hope each roll isn’t your last.

The math in LCR works out that most dice rolls aren’t boom-or-bust, and it keeps family and friends engaged as play moves quickly. The kids will appreciate that they don’t have to learn a lot of rules, and you can even wager some candy or cookies for the winners.

Here’s a bonus idea for the perfect gift exchange game

Bunco and Left Center Right are both so simple they only take a few dice and a piece of paper to serve as a score sheet. If you’re looking for a good gift exchange dice game that’s under $20 and perfect for coworkers, Bunco comes in some kit sets. But we think most of these are overpriced for what they are.

LCR benefits from specialized LCR dice, but they don’t make for an exciting, fun gift (though they would be a good stocking stuffer). It’s hard to look your coworker in the eye to say, “I got you three dice. Better than two dice, right?”

Instead, Mexican Train Dominoes is a great holiday season gift that fits neatly . The kits are more involved with various hubs, train pieces, a Double-12 domino set, and tokens. Mexican Train is a classic domino parlor game.

If you’ve never heard of it, Mexican Train’s not too hard to learn and has a rich history dating into the 19th century. Players align the ends of special Double-12 dominoes (96 pieces, with dominoes that have pips ranging from 0-12 on them) in a “train”. There’s a special “public train” and trains get “blocked” if and when players can’t make a move.

You can check out all the rules and play a quick game at MexicanTrain.com.