The Very Merry Christmas Game Review
Reviewed by David Savage
When we are now in to the Christmas season, a time for family and what better way to have some Christmas fun family time than playing a board game. We were sent a Christmas themed board game to try out – The Very Merry Christmas Game from Rascals.
The Very Merry Christmas Game is a game for 2-4 players (or teams), ages 8 to adult. The idea of the game is to move around the board collecting presents for your stocking; the player with the “best” set of presents cards (need 6 to win) at the end of the game is the winner!
The box contains:
42x Cracker Cards
32x Present Cards
4x Santa Playing Pieces with Plastic Holders
2x Dice
1x Game Board
1x Party Hat
1x Rules
On opening the box, I took out the Rules leaflet; this is a 4 page A4 leaflet that covers quite a lot (including 2, 3 and 4 player games). This wasn’t too daunting and the instructions were very easy to read and understand.
We played with 2 players, and it slightly varies from the 4 player game as even though only 2 players the remaining used stocking still have to filled with presents for the game to end.
To play, the player with their birthday closest to Christmas starts first. The idea is to move around the board collecting presents and placing them in your stocking on the board (there are 6 to collect to fill your stocking). The winner is not the first to great 6 presents but the player who has the best presents (each present card has a star rating of 1 to 5; the player with presents that add up the highest number of stars is the winner.
All sounds simple enough but there are pitfalls along the way; if you get a sprout card and still have it at the end of the game (there are 2 available), you automatically lose (if you get both sprout cards you are automatically the winner). There are cracker cards that allow you to take presents from others or pass off your unwanted presents to them. You can peek in others stockings to look at their presents (if you land on the right space), and unless you like singing try not to land on the Carol Singers spaces as you will be required to sing a Christmas carol – failure sees another player take one of your presents! If you are in possession of the party hat you don’t have to sing!
Overall, we had great fun playing this game. With singing, present stealing and gifting and trying to get the best gifts if great family fun and would make an excellent board game for when the family gathers on Christmas Day! Once you grasp the rules it is very easy to play. We will definitely playing it more in the run up to Christmas and over the Christmas period.
Highly recommended.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £20
Available to buy from Amazon here.
