Small Board Games for Easter Baskets
When I was little, Easter baskets were a great tradition that easily catapulted Easter into my top 3 holidays - obviously behind Christmas and Halloween. Of course, Easter egg hunts certainly pulled their weight as well. Altogether, Easter was always going to be another big tradition I looked forward to sharing with my own kids.
The great thing about the Easter basket is that everything is thrown into the same basket. Similar to a Christmas stocking, but with more space, there’s just no telling what’s going to be in that thing. Toys and candy are probably a given, but the game-changer is that there’s also space for bigger items - which is certainly nice for our obsession with books and board games.
I’ve already written about our favorite rabbit books for Easter, so now it’s time to focus on games. But not just any board game will fit into an Easter basket. At least not our Easter baskets. I’m sure there are some intimidating monstrosities of a basket out there that you could comfortably fit Risk inside, but we need to consider space around here.
For that reason the major limiting factor for this game list was the size of the boxes. I gathered up every single one of our small-box games in our house - to make sure they’d fit the average basket - and weeded out the games for older folks. But this still left me with dozens of kids games. At that point I proceeded to ask myself if they reminded me of Easter. I didn’t have any particular themes in mind, but I suppose my mind went straight to two things: colors and animals.
I suppose there aren’t many strictly Easter-themed games out there, and not even many strictly bunny-themed games. But something tells me the kids won’t mind. They probably won’t even consciously notice that the bright colors and the cute animals on this list feel Eastery - but surely their subconscious minds will thank us for it. And then they’ll come back as adults and hug us and say “thank you for Easter”. Right?
Last of all, it’s important to keep in mind that, just like all of our lists, this list has some of our favorite games on it. We wouldn’t recommend them and include them on one of our lists otherwise. And these particular games all fit in a range of about 4 to 10 years. Some are certainly focused towards a younger audience, and our youngest needs help on others, but basically all of them are still happily played by both our 5-year-old and 8-year-old. And Mom and Dad are happy to play them all too - a fact that shouldn’t be underestimated one bit.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. Clicking on these links will lead you to view the games’ listings on Amazon.com.
Color It!
Designed by Lena Burkhardt & Günter Burkhardt and Published by HABA
I’m not going to lie, this is the Easter basket idea I’m most proud of. If you’re crafting a basket for a little one, Color It! is definitely something you should look into. Bright colors and Crafts and Crayola crayons are forever linked at the hip with Easter, and Color It! is literally a board game about coloring.
It’s a simple and relaxing game where basically all you have to do is roll the dice and color a section of your picture a certain color. There are ways to complicate the rules - like not allowing two of the same color to touch - but mostly it’s a soothing game to play that does a good job with practicing colors and working on that finger strength with little ones. The other very cool thing is that HABA is continuing to share lots of Color It! compatible coloring sheets - including partnerships with other game companies.
Pusheen the Cat: Purrfect Pick
Designed by Steve Warner and Published by Ravensburger
This game is not only the most adorable game on this list, it might also be my personal favorite game to play. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t familiar with the sensation that is Pusheen before this game. But consider me a convert. I certainly see what people love about the world so much. It is truly irresistibly adorable, and the property was put into very good hands for this game, because it’s legitimately very fun.
The Pusheen figure included in this game is also very popular in our house. It’s a very cute and heavy rubber cat, and both of our kids will fight over who gets to hold her. In the game, you place Pusheen on the game board and take turns collecting cards around her. Meanwhile, there are “snapshots” that you can purchase with your cards that are worth a certain number of stars, and the first one to 10 stars wins. I love how simple it is to learn, and it really makes for a great family game.
Barnyard Bunch
Designed by Justin Lee and Published by HABA
This is a new game for little ones from HABA that features adorable wooden farm animal pieces. For some reason or another, they’re all trying to run away from the farm, and it’s your job to make sure they don’t get too far from the barn. It involves color practice, because every animal standing on a particular color runs away when you roll it.
The recommended age on this one is 4+, so there’s only very light planning taking place. For the most part, you’re judging which animal is furthest away and choosing to move them closer to the barn when you get the chance. In some ways, it’s kind of like a reverse tower defense game. And it’s a great way to get some cute farm animals in your Easter basket.
Animix
Designed by Mathieu Bossu and Published by Blue Orange
Animix is one game on this list that our 5-year-old would definitely need a partner for to play. But, on the other hand, it’s perfect for our 8-year-old, and still very fun for Mom and Dad as well. That’s because it features really interesting scoring mechanics and strategy. Plus, it’s a very quick game which is typically very much appreciated around here.
There are several different animal species in this game spread out on a grid, and all of them score points in different ways. Maybe some score for the largest column or the largest row or how many are on the outside of the grid - each animal is different. And only one player scores points for each animal - unless there’s a tie. To score points for the animal, you try to collect sets in secret. For example, whoever has the most wolves at the end of the game gets to score all the wolf points.
It’s simple and quick, but still interesting and challenging - which is a good recipe for a favorite game. The fact that every species is scored differently, and that you don’t use all the species each time you play, really adds a lot of replayability. And it’s a big reason why we like this one so much.
JumpIN’
Published by Smart Games
Finally! Bunnies! There simply aren’t many board games that: A) are small, B) are for kids, C) feature bunnies, and D) are good. JumpIN’ checks all of the boxes, and might be your best chance to get a bunny game in an Easter basket.
It’s published by Smart Games, the makers of lots of fantastic solo puzzle games for kids. They are always a great way to introduce logic to little ones. In JumpIN’, you’re trying to hop the rabbits to safely - jumping over mushrooms and movable foxes - and hide them away in their rabbit holes. In some ways you can think of it like a puzzle game like the popular Rush Hour - and it’s a very cute one for little ones.
Rabbit Rally
Designed by Sylvain Ménager and Published by HABA
More rabbits! Like I said, good rabbit-specific games for kids are few and far between, so take advantage of this one on Easter while you can! Rabbit Rally is about rabbits that want to reach a nearby carrot patch, but there’s a river in their way. That’s why they start building bridges to help them get across and grab the tasty carrots.
The cool thing about this game is that it features spatial reasoning and estimating distances in a way you don’t often see in games. It’s an incredibly useful skill for kids to have though. The way it works is you first roll and get a bridge piece, then you must place a stone some distance away from where your rabbit is. If you placed it too far away, the bridge doesn’t work and your rabbit doesn’t get to move. And of course it features the adorable wooden HABA game pieces you know and love.
Hisss
Designed by Brigitte Pokornik and Published by Gamewright
Here’s a double-whammy for you! Colors and animals. Of course, snakes might not be the cutest, Eastery animal around - but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We talk about this game a lot, and we included it not only on our list of games about colors, but also our list of the best games for 4-year-olds. It’s truly stood the test of time as one of our family’s favorite games.
The concept is simple, because all you’re doing is building snakes. The colors of the snakes have to match on the end where you connect them, and a snake is finished when it has a head and a tail. It’s perfectly simple and easy for kids of any age to enjoy - but even our 8-year-old son never seems to tire of it. And I hear other parents rave about it all the time. Kids just love these snakes.
Farmini
Designed by Marie Fort & Wilfried Fort and Published by LOKI
LOKI has made a lot of adorable small-box games that would be great for slipping into an Easter basket - and I suppose you could say that Farmini is the most natural fit with the animal theme. And, best of all, it’s a lot of fun too. There’s a good challenge to this game so the whole family likes it a lot. But it’s also very easy to learn.
On your turn you simply choose one card from the middle of the table and either use it to build your farm, or add animals to it. Generally what you are trying to do is build enclosed pens with animals or cornfields inside. Sometimes wolf cards appear and scare away animals that aren’t yet inside an enclosed pen. I love games like this where you have to use strategy on the fly based on what’s made available to you. And it comes in just the most adorable tiny box.
Trash Pandas
Designed by Lisa Eskue & Michael Eskue and Published by Gamewright
Trash Pandas has been a favorite around here for quite a while. In the past, it also made our list of the best games to take camping because of its theme. And I suppose it’s the theme that makes us love it so much. It’s about raccoons collecting trash and food, and of course it has the funniest name ever. Who can deny how adorable raccoons are?
Trash Pandas is a press your luck dice rolling game where you’re trying to collect food scraps and outscore your opponents. And the cards you are collecting are just as adorably named as the game itself. Bananas are called “nanners” and chocolate is called “yum yum”. It’s all quite brilliant, and it’s a really fun game too. If you’re looking for a family game featuring cute animals - it doesn’t get more adorable than the trash panda.
Zoo Run
Designed by Florian Sirieix and Published by LOKI
Zoo Run is another family game from LOKI that comes in a bite-sized box and features cute animals. And this one is actually two games in one. There’s a competitive game and a cooperative game, and they both work great. I suppose we typically lean towards cooperation in our house, but the slightly higher difficultly of the competitive game is a good way to capture the interest of slightly older kids too.
Whether you’re playing the competitive version or the cooperative version, the game is built on a matching mechanics. You have a set of cards, and you’re trying to line them up in a way to build as many animals as possible. There’s always at least one animal you can build, but often there are combinations that make more than one animal. It’s certainly very cute, as LOKI always has consistently beautiful art, and our kids love the puzzle challenge it offers them.
Press Here The Game
Designed by Herve Tullet and Published by Chronicle Books
The ultimate combo for fans of kids books and kids games - Press Here is of course based on the very popular interactive picture book. It’s also obviously a celebration of colors - and a good fit for a beautiful, color-filled Easter basket.
It’s recommended for ages 3+, so this is one of the games primarily aimed at a younger audience. But there are also adjustments you can do to make it slightly easier or more difficult. But the general idea is that you are supposed to place your colorful game chips on the game board in a way that makes sense - a way that logically fits in with the patterns on the 50 different colorful game boards to choose from.
Kids who love the book like ours do will definitely be excited about recognizing this one. And I love the fact that it’s not only a good way to practice colors - but logic and patterns as well. Consider playing the game cooperatively, and focus on the discussions around where to put the colors - like little puzzles to solve together.
Do you like to slip a game into Easter baskets too? Have you chosen a game for this year? Have you tried any of our suggestions? Let us know in the comments!
