HI TWITTER. If you're thinking of cracking out the Monopoly this Christmas, please consider something (anything) else. The best 'party' game I've played recently is called Just One. Everyone writes one clue to help one person guess the word, but duplicate clues are cancelled.

That's it... that's the rules. It's REALLY EASY and stupidly fun, especially if you've had a few.

If you do want something with a board and pieces, Ticket to Ride is really good. There are many versions, so make sure you don't accidentally buy an expansion on its own!

If you don't have a large family/group of friends, there are also some really good two-player games out there - some don't take very long, and others take a bit longer.

First of all, it's technically a video game, but Mario Party. Love it, don't play it enough.
Patchwork (make a quilt with tiles)
Foothills (Welsh railways!)
Carcassonne.
The Mind (also good for more players!).
Said it before, but TTR also works very well with 2 players.

Sagrada (create stained glass with dice)
Azul (tiles tiles tiles)
Santorini (a game about fucking over your opponent)

There are others.

Brendon has also suggested a few here. If you have kids, there are 'child friendly' versions of some games, or you can tweak the rules to make them less complex (like removing farmers for Carc.) https://twitter.com/brendonconnelly/status/1200417972629770243

My Little Scythe is a kid-friendly version of the rather dry looking Scythe (Scythe looks like a big ol war game but it's just a game about being popular). The theme-change was a stroke of genius.