Of course, I played Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land when I was little. I distinctly remember that, but don’t remember if we owned them or not, or just played them at school or a friend’s house. I do remember getting board games at Christmas time. Maybe not every year, but often enough. Sometimes it was a full-fledged, honest to goodness real board game and sometimes it was just one of those brain teaser puzzle stocking stuffers, but always an analog game of some sort. Even a Rubik’s Cube (how 80’s!).

We had, on the shelf in the closet, some of the classics, naturally. Clue, Battleship and Monopoly, Trouble and Chess, and an old Checkers set. Like any good Gen Xer, we wore those copies out pretty good, using up most of Clue’s detective “notebook” sheets and losing some of the better Monopoly movers. I think we even cracked the Trouble bubble, but it still worked. One side of Battleship got an extra ship, the PT boat if memory serves.

One year, just out of memory’s reach, we got a Jaws game, the one where you have to fish out different items from the great shark’s mouth. I don’t remember ever playing it, exactly, more like playing with it. “Nu-nuh…Nu-nuh.” How do people keep getting attacked by sharks, don’t they hear the music? Wouldn’t mind trying this game today.

Simon was our first “electronic” game. Clearly remember trying to beat it and playing doubles with my sister. Hated that low hum of losing. Some stocking stuffers were the electronic football, baseball and soccer games. Many late nights after bedtime playing those games.

One fantastic year I opened up a Dark Tower electronic board game. I don’t really remember how it played. I do not remember playing it very often. The batteries were stolen for other things rendering this gem to shelf status.

In late elementary school I was introduced to AD&D and that became a pretty important hobby for a few years. A lot of presents revolved around polyhedral dice and lead character and monster figures, of which I had many.

Soon we would be the first on the block to have an Atari 2600 and that machine sucked up a very large quantity of time. Board games became a distant second for quite some time, a re-discovery in adulthood with a need to tune out for a bit.

What were some games you got for the holidays? What games sparked joy in your childhood?