Yes, yes, this is married life!

But with Christmas looming and my family not being one to sit staring at a box of moving pictures for the entire holiday season I'd like to know if there are any good board games aside from the usual suspects.

I think we'd enjoy something where you have to think a bit (like Cluedo, for example) rather than something which is just based on luck (like Monopoly).

We've previously enjoyed things like Trivial Pursuit and pub Quiz but we'd like an alternative to the norm if possible.

Any ideas?

For petrol heads - try Formula 1 - its by Waddingtons and was originally released in the sixties - still quite amusing today and definitely a bit different

Clicky

Having bought a set of Scrabble for exactly the same reason a few years ago - I suggest Scrabble! Everyone knows the rules, especially in these days of the smartphone ripoffs Words With Friends etc, and you can play with kids or adults ( drinking games?)

Ah yes, forgot to mention that we always play a few rounds of Scrabble. We also have Yahtzee.

The F1 game looks fun, but I doubt the women of the household will agree.

God I hate Scrabble....and Monopoly.....

'You're in the movies' is good fun if you have an Xbox. I know that's not quite what you asked!

Can't beat Chess or Backgammon, although only 2 players. We play Balderdash at christmas, probably the funniest game, especially after a few egg noggs. One of us will lose it at some point when its our turn to read out the possible answers. Ahh roll on Christmas!

Scattergories is quite good.

Try "game of life" good family game

Logo game ! Great craic... Do it

Talisman.

escape from Colditz

Does it have to be a board game, how about card games? (not Bridge though please) Uno is good, as is Pit! Or even Snap! played as loudly as possibly. Mille Bourne is another one (car theme)

My vote goes to RoboRally

Imagine that you're a supercomputer. Now imagine that you're bored. So you dream up a little contest for you and a couple of your supercomputing buddies. Your task is to move one of the stupid little robots out on the factory floor through a series of checkpoints scattered throughout the factory. The wrinkle, however, is that the factory floor is filled with all kinds of inconvenient (if not down-right deadly) obstacles located in various locations: conveyor belts, crushers, flame-throwers, pushers, teleporters, oil slicks, pits, et cetera. But the real fun comes when the robots cross each other's path, and suddenly your perfect route is something less than that...

What's wrong with Bridge?

I love a good card game, poker and cribbage being a couple of my favourites.

The main problem with card games is that my sister and my wife are not big fans and my mother feigns ignorance of any card game knowledge and then picks it up within minutes and beats everyone.

Some good suggestions here guys. I saw a game called Where Is Moldova? in John Lewis yesterday which looks fun (and of particular interest to me because Geography is a strong point of mine).

I considered Risk but I imagine my wife and sister will hate it.

I used to own a game called Mad which I remember being brilliant fun (the aim of the game being to go bankrupt) but it's not in production anymore and the only one I can find is over £100 on US eBay.

Scrap that, just found a couple on the UK eBay with a few days left.

We had the same thoughts last year.

Kids did some trawling, charity shops mainly, and found the Game of life, The 60's F1 Game that Nigel linked to and The London Cabbie Game. We also picked up the Logo game in WH Smiths for just £3 due to the box being damaged

The Cabbie game was probably the most fun of that bunch but then we also played Scatagories with just pen and paper. That went on for ages but then so does UNO. That game is so simple but can be so much fun, especially if you tweak the rules a bit.

Seriously, don't just look on ebay. Stuff can sell for silly money on there. A trawl of the charity shops will reveal most board games. There are often so many available that you can even be picky and choose condition.

I think the most we paid for any game was £8