Think about space and time too. A large jigsaw needs a table or board where it can stay out for days, which is not always practical. Puzzles can be a calming, screen-free way to spend a wet afternoon, and working on one together is a quiet way for a family to sit down side by side without a fixed finish time.

Solo puzzle games are useful when you need to keep one child occupied without a second player. The Genius Square and Genius Star are self-contained, so a child can roll, place and solve on a tray table or a picnic blanket without anyone else joining in. Card games such as Flip 7, available from The Happy Puzzle Company, come into their own when the whole family wants a quick round at a campsite or in a holiday cottage.

To compare word games by pace and age suitability, and see which reward speed versus vocabulary, take a look at the word games at The Happy Puzzle Company online.

The image matters as much as the count. Scenes with plenty of variety, such as busy street scenes or landscapes with lots of colour, give you clear areas to work on and tend to feel achievable. Puzzles that are all one colour, or that repeat a pattern, are far harder because you cannot rely on the picture, so save those for someone who likes a proper challenge.

Stocking fillers are where the smaller puzzles shine. Self-contained games such as the Genius Square, along with pocket brain teasers, drop neatly into a stocking and give someone a challenge for the quiet bit of the morning. For children, a game matched to their age, from Bee Genius for the little ones to WordSnap XL for older siblings, tends to get more play than yet another plastic toy.

Matching a game to a child''s age saves a lot of guesswork. For four and five-year-olds, look for chunky, simple games with clear rules and short rounds, so there is not much waiting between turns. Bee Genius, pitched at younger children, is one example that uses big pieces and a single, easy-to-grasp goal.