The best board games to gift this 2024 holiday season

If you ever played with those word refrigerator magnets back in the day, Ransom Notes will give you an instant shot of nostalgia. It also has what I think is the most important quality in a party game: no complicated rules, setup or explanation required. Each round starts with an open-ended question card, like “describe a frightening medical condition.” Players get a handful of magnetic word tiles that they then arrange into a (usually slightly nonsensical) answer to that round’s prompt. Each “ransom note” can be as elaborate (or not) as you want. You might have the perfect set of words to craft a plausible answer but, more often, you’ll have to get a little creative with your answer. Sometimes, a word or two is all you need.

Either way, the mix of word tiles, which leans a bit on the PG-13 side but isn’t as foul-mouthed as more “adult” party games like Cards Against Humanity, is such that hilarity will almost certainly ensue. Officially, each round is supposed to have a “winner,” with the game ending after a predetermined number of rounds are finished. But it’s just as fun if you forget trying to keep score and just let everyone try to come up with the funniest and most random notes they can dream up. — Karissa Bell, Senior Reporter