• GiftTRAP: The game offers up some wonderful treasures such as a shopping spree in Paris, having your portrait painted, six weeks leave to work as a paid volunteer, the chance to drive a tank for a day or a beautiful diamond ring. Players have to guess which gifts their fellow players would prefer. You also hope to get the gifts you like best. It's a good game for people who know each other, or people who want to get to know each other better.

CARD GAMES:

Shuffle, deal and let the fun begin!

• Frog Juice: The object of this GameWright game is to get the most points, but you do it by capturing ingredients for spells and potions as well as cards that give you special powers. Shades of Harry Potter. The game requires both luck and skill, as well as imagination and competition.

QUICK & EASY:

• SimplyFun, the home-party game company that offers games that are easy to learn and quick to play, has several new offerings for the holiday season. (For more information visit www.simplyfun.com.)

• Simply Catan: Settlers of Catan is one of the most popular of the Euro-style games, but it is rather complex. This version simplifies things. It is still a settlement building, trading and adventure game. Players earn resources such as wool, wood, brick and wheat and use them to buy or barter to create cities and settlements.

• Sudoku Challenge: A board-game version of the popular puzzle, this game does not include predetermined set-ups, so playing with other people makes each game different. Players place numbered tiles and collect points. The box also includes a Zoodoku version for the kids.

• The Crazy Mixed Up Zoo: A memory/switching game that involves turning over zoo animal cards, mixing them up and guessing the changes. The person who makes the best monkey sound gets to start the game.

• Sneaks: In this variation on the old spoons game, players pass around cards until they get a set, then they grab a little sneaker from the pile. The object is to become the "sole" survivor.

TRIVIA:

Ever since the original Trivial Pursuit, trivia games have been popular. Here's a look at some of the newest ones:

• Trivial Pursuit Totally '80s: Remember hot-pink leg warmers, slap bracelets and the moonwalk? This game offers a gnarly walk down memory lane as, following the standard Trivial Pursuit formula, you collect wedges in various categories. Totally tubular!

• Game of Knowledge: With separate questions for kids and adults, this is a game for the whole family. Questions cover six categories from "Our World" to "The Media," "Science" and beyond. From University Games.

• The Worst Case Scenario — Game of Surviving Life: Based on the "Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbooks," this offering from University Games guides players through a lifetime of sticky situations. You may learn how to stop an overflowing toilet, handle a romantic breakup or deal with an earthquake.