Fun family games

 Are you looking for a fun game to give as a gift for a family with kids this Christmas?  If so, I have a couple suggestions!  I recently played two games that I quite liked and thought were very creative, fun games that worked well for adults and kids alike.  Both games are recommended for ages 8 and up, but I think that with a little help a smart six or seven year old could play them, too.  And there's no reason you couldn't play with just adults, either - as I said, they were pretty fun.

The first one is called "Walk the Dogs" and is available here: http://simplyfun.com/products/walkthedogs/
It has great little dog figurines that you line up in like a dog conga line in an attempt to get the most points, which you get by having several of one breed in a row and also just by sheer numbers of dogs.  You have to avoid the evil dog catcher and sometimes you can steal a dog from someone else's doggie conga line.  It's a quick game - each round is only 15 minutes or so, but you can play lots of consecutive rounds without getting bored.  For the family in your life that loves dogs and games, it's a winner.  Scorekeeping requires some basic math skills, but an adult or older kid could help younger ones.  There is definitely some strategy involved that is helpful and can give adults and older kids an advantage, but it's possible to play without it, if there are kids who don't really get how to go about it in a savvy way.  And since there are "dog bone points" for those with the fewest dogs, nobody ever gets too far behind in the points.

The second game is called "Dixit" and is available here: http://www.amazon.com/Asmodee-5511302-Dixit/dp/B001OH9EDW/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1355025430&sr=1-1&keywords=dixit
This is a game that involves the imagination, but you don't have to be terribly imaginative to play (for example, Andrew, a very concrete thinker who is not prone to flights of fancy, did just fine when playing).  It's kind of like Apples to Apples with pictures instead of words, for those who are familiar with that game.  Every player has a hand of five pictures.  When is is your turn, you choose one of your pictures and make up a little phrase that describes what is happening in it.  You place your card facedown to start a pile.  The other players choose one of their pictures that could also be described by that phrase and add them to the pile, also facedown.  The original player then shuffles the cards together and lays them all faceup.  Everyone then votes for the one they think is the original player's card.  If everyone gets it, then that's bad news for the original player's points, as is if nobody gets it - the description has to be good enough for at least one person to get it right and creative enough that not everybody gets it right.  Points are awarded for guessing the right one or for having people vote for your card.  Because no reading or math is involved, it works well for all ages.  When I played it, I played with Andrew, his sister, my 10-year-old niece, and my 8-year-old niece.  We were all pretty even for points in the end, despite some of us being very imaginative folks and some of us not, and some of us old and some young.  The artwork on the pictures is great and there are plenty of expansion sets if you decide you really like the game.  It's fun and different!