Making Christmas

I stopped at the local game shop thursday night and looked around for small, animal-themed games.  Like usual, I forgot to bring my reading glasses, so I couldn't see all the small print.  And when I found two and went up to the register, the guy asked me what age group I was buying these for.  I said we're adults but sometimes the kids' games just have fun twists.  So, okay, when I got home, I had Making Christmas (ages 6+) and Zoo Run (ages 4+).  However, each appeared to have an unusual card mechanic I had not seen before. 

So, saturday rolled around and we cracked them open.  Making Christmas was based on the classic Nightmare Before Christmas movie.  Well, they just licensed some characters, but as you recall, when the halloween creatures were trying to imagine Christmas, they put icky toys into presents and scared all the kids.  Good times.

Anyway, the game has a little board that cleverly fits in the small box only because it was broken into four pieces, jigsaw-puzzle style.  There are spaces for a 3x3 grid of cards, and 3 "goal cards" down the left hand side.

Gameplay is quick and easy.  There are a few different toy designs, each spanning two cards.  The goal is to complete the toys shown on the goal cards, and then take the goal cards and keep them in your score pile.  Each turn, you can make one of two moves: swap two cards on the board, or replace a card on the board with a card in your hand and then draw a new card.  Just match the goals, score the goals.  The one twist is that a few of the goal cards will accept ANY toy made from a horizontal pair or a vertical pair, and those cards have a little yellow arrow icon that means you get to go again.

The bottom goal is this photo shows a goal that accepts any vertical pair, thus the big question mark.

A fun little way to pass some time.  No big strategy to it.