I feel like it is my duty to tell everyone about my favourite game. It is called Apples to Apples, and if anyone is looking for a great family game to buy someone for Christmas, this would be the one.
The way it works is that every player begins by taking seven red cards, which are all nouns (for those who didn't take English, that would be a person, place, or thing). For example, you might have:

-A High School Bathroom
-William Shakespeare
-Hangnails
-New Orleans
-The JFK Assassination
-Tornadoes
-Fourth of July

Then people take turns flipping over a green card, which would be an adjective, such as "Dramatic". Everyone has to look through their cards to find which one is best described by that adjective, and hand it in to the middle. Then the person who flipped over the adjective decides whose card is the most Dramatic, with people trying to convince him/her that their card is the best. The person who gave that card gets the point.
We love this game and it's great for a group of four to twenty people. No writing anything down, no time limits, no board, it's the best!!! Buy it!!! Now!!!