It’s nearly that time of year again, and now, there is even better reason to dust off your old board games: new research has found that playing board games can also boost brain health.

The 68-year-long study, published in the Journal of Gerontology, showed that a higher frequency of playing board games was linked to higher cognitive functioning.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh assessed more than 1000 people of the same sex, health and activity levels and education born in 1936. These people were tested for cognitive functioning at the age of 11 and then again at 70.

Participants were asked to rate how often they played games, including crosswords, bingo, cards and chess, between one (daily) to five (less than once a year or never). Those who played board games more often throughout their life had sharper mental thinking compared to those who rarely played or who began playing digital games later in life.

Let us (and science) convince you to get out the board games this Christmas