Most Christmas gifts have a shelf life measured in days. A cribbage board has one measured in decades.
We make ours by hand in Kelowna, BC, and it is consistently the thing people come back to tell us about — usually a year or two later, usually because it is still on the table.
Why a cribbage board makes a better gift than it sounds like
Cribbage is a two-person game that takes fifteen minutes and does not need a screen. That is the whole pitch, and it is a strong one.
It gets played at the kitchen table, at the cabin, on the boat, in the RV, and by people who have been beating each other at it for forty years. Unlike most gifts, it creates a reason for two people to sit down together on a regular basis. Very little else under the tree can claim that.
And it does not wear out. A well-made board outlives the person who gave it, which is why they end up being passed down.
What makes one board better than another
There is a wide gap between a board pressed out of laminate and a board cut from hardwood, and you can feel it in about two seconds.
The wood. Ours are cut, sanded and finished by hand, one at a time. Real hardwood has weight to it, and the grain is different on every board, which means no two are identical.
The peg holes. Drilled cleanly and spaced properly, so pegs sit firmly instead of falling out when someone knocks the table.
Storage. Our handcrafted personalized cribbage board comes with pegs, cards and a storage compartment, so the pieces stay with the board rather than migrating into a drawer.
The engraving. This is the part that turns it from a game into a gift.
What to engrave on it
The instinct is a name. A name is fine. These are better:
- A family name and a year. “The Marchetti Family, est. 1994”. This is the one that gets passed down.
- A place. The name of the cabin, the lake, the address where the games actually happen.
- Two names. For the pair who have been playing against each other for decades. Add a running score if you are feeling brave.
- A line only they will get. The thing someone always says when they win. Inside jokes engrave surprisingly well.
- A date. An anniversary, a retirement, the year someone moved into the place where the board will live.
Keep it short. Engraving reads best at a handful of words, and a board that says one specific true thing beats one that says three general ones.
Who to give one to
Parents and grandparents. The most reliable recipient there is. Many of them already play, and an engraved board is a straightforward upgrade on whatever they have been using since 1988.
The person who has everything. They do not have one with their family name on it.
The cabin, the boat, the RV. A board is the right kind of object for a place with no wifi.
A retirement. Someone who has just been handed a great deal of unstructured time will find a use for it.
A sports household. Our custom cribbage board, sports team edition is a 3D board built around a team, which lands well with the person whose entire personality is one franchise.
A client or a retiring colleague. It works as a corporate gift too, for the same reason it works at home — it gets used rather than shelved. See corporate Christmas gifts for clients and staff.
Order it before December
Every board is made by hand and every engraving is made to order. That is not a queue that moves faster because it is the third week of December.
If a cribbage board is the gift you want to give this year, the useful thing to do is order it while you are still thinking about it calmly. Ordering it in a panic is how you end up giving something else.
Have a look
The full range of handmade wood lives in the Wooden Collection — cribbage boards, walnut charcuterie boards and personalized coasters, all made in the same workshop.
If you want it inside a gift box rather than on its own, start with Christmas gift boxes, or read our Christmas gift ideas guide for what to pair it with.
Questions about a custom engraving? Ring us on 250-863-9781.
