A Dallas game that teaches children Mahjong lands on Oprah's Favorite Things

Mini Mahjer, a game made to teach children American Mahjong, has been named to Oprah's Favorite Things for 2025, D Magazine reported on November 7, 2025. The company's own home page shared the news the same week, pointing readers to OprahDaily.com for the full list and to the special print 2025 Holiday Edition of Oprah Daily, due on Tuesday, November 11.

In a short post the same morning, Kathy Wise of D Magazine called it a big week for the game and named Mini Mahjer among the local brands leading the way in a city she sees at the center of it all.

“Dallas is currently the capital of the American mahjong revolution.”Kathy Wise, in D Magazine

Two teachers and a family table

Mini Mahjer was created by Marian Brisch and Kristin Erwin, two American Mahjong instructors who, by their own account, had taught thousands of adults before turning to children. Brisch brings her years as a kindergarten teacher and Erwin a background in business, their site says. D Magazine adds that the two met through their shared side work teaching classes, at a time when Erwin was a consultant at Ernst & Young.

The idea started at their own games. When the women gathered to play, their children wanted in, but the full game, with its 152 tiles, was too much for them, D Magazine reported. Erwin proposed turning it into a family game, and the pair spent months building it. They began from the lines players use most on the National Mah Jongg League card and set up a tiered path that relaxes the stricter rules for beginners and brings them back in stages, according to the magazine. An experienced player, it noted, can play the League's card at the same table as a child playing Mini Mahjer.

On its site, the company describes Mini Mahjer as the first board game designed specifically to teach children American Mahjong. Its own Mini Mahjer card carries simplified, shortened winning combinations across Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels, with kid-friendly tiles and accessories and an instructional guide. It is meant for children 6 and up, or any beginner new to the game.

From a trade market to a gift list

Brisch and Erwin launched the game in September 2024 in three youthful designs, and each set comes with what a family needs to play: tiles, racks, cards and a mat, D Magazine reported. Friends and former students bought the first sets. At the company's first trade market, in January 2025, scouts from Tory Johnson's Deals & Steals took notice, and an appearance on that Good Morning America segment five months later sent orders soaring. Brisch told the magazine the game reached seven-figure sales in its first year.

As of this writing, the game is sold only through the company's own website, according to D Magazine. The founders hope to reach stores, but the bigger goal, the magazine wrote, is classrooms: they have been meeting with school district leaders, both locally and out of state, and Brisch, drawing on her teaching years, is writing a curriculum for teachers. "Mahjong is a natural STEM tool," she told the magazine, one that builds problem solving, perseverance, pattern recognition and the grace to win or lose well.

Why Dallas

Wise's post carried a second piece of news. She announced that she was launching Mähj, a new national magazine about the game, with quarterly issues inspired by its seasons and winds, starting with spring and Dallas. Pre-orders opened the same day. Readers should know that the line about Dallas, quoted here, comes from the founder of that magazine.

Order of the Tile is not affiliated with Mini Mahjer and does not sell sets. Families who want to see the game can find it on the company's website and on its social pages.

Prim's view

Every Mahjong teacher knows the scene. The grown-ups are at the table, the tiles are clicking, and a small face appears at elbow height asking what the flowers are for. Most of us shoo that face off to bed. Brisch and Erwin built it a door instead, and I find that lovely.

The Oprah list is a fine bit of sparkle, and I am happy for them. But the line in this story I keep rereading is the one about school districts. A child who learns to sort a rack at seven is a player for life, and a teacher with a curriculum can seat a whole classroom at once. That is how a revival stops being a trend and becomes a tradition.