WARNING!
This book may transport players to the wonderful world of Christmas, populated by elves, reindeers, colorful packages, and woodcutters. Are you ready to play a leading role in this magical night?
IF SO, HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN LOOK FORWARD TO…
An adventurous “Goose Game” set in a gift factory. But don’t forget, the packages must be handled with extreme care…
The easiest way to reach Santa Claus’s House is to take the train along one of four routes, but make sure you don’t get off at the wrong stop… the sleigh might leave without you!
To bake perfect gingerbread, you need to use four basic ingredients. If you want to become the best baker in the village, be the frst to track them down and run straight to the kitchen to get baking!
The hard-working postmen at the Post Offce are already up to their ears in letters to Santa Claus. Give them a hand in sorting them by challenging yourself to a compelling game of “Frustration”.
Help four brave reindeer win a daring race through the mountains. Four crisscrossed routes will lead you to the fnish line, but watch out for the obstacles, some of them are truly daunting!
Christmas night is fnally here and the village is sparkling with snow! Walk along the magical streets of the “Nine Men’s Morris” grid. But don’t get distracted waiting for Santa Claus to arrive or your adversary will take advantage!
The extremely intricate Christmas Decorations Lab conceals unexpected perils: ladders will take you up a foor, ropes will suddenly bring you down. It is the perfect place to try a game of “Snakes and Ladders”!
The woodcutters of the Christmas Village always have a lot to do. They have a hard job. Hiking along the paths in the woods to gather wood can be tricky because there are always pitfalls waiting around the corner. Use your cunning to help them reach box no. 100!
Wait! Where are you going?
There are some important preparations to make before you start playing!
Go to the last page to fnd out.
How to play: Each player selects a playing piece and places it on package no. 1. The players then take it in turns to roll the die. Whoever rolls the highest starts by throwing the die once more to see how many boxes they can move their piece. However, be careful: there are lots of obstacles in the gift factory!
Number of players: from 2 to 4
Materials: 1 die, 1 playing piece for each player
Aim of the game: be the frst to reach Santa Claus’s sack
Factory
Watch out for packages with tools: if you land on one, you miss a turn. And as if that weren’t enough, be careful you don’t land on a package with a broken glass. This symbol means “FRAGILE” and whoever lands on it must stay there until another player takes their place. What happens if you land on the dented package in box no. 31? Alas, you
must go back to package no. 1! The fnal obstacle is Santa Claus’s sack. With just one last throw of the die, players must roll the exact number to reach the sack, slide their gift into it and win. However, if the number you roll is too high, once you land on the sack you must go back the extra spaces.
Number of players: 4
Materials: 1 die, 1 playing piece for each player, 2 sock tokens each Aim of the game: be the frst to reach Santa Claus’s House
TheChristm
How to play: After each player has chosen their playing piece, they take it in turns to roll the die. Whoever rolls the highest starts the game and can also choose which route each of their adversaries has to take. The pieces are then placed on the assigned starting boxes. The frst player rolls the die again and moves forward the number of spaces as rolled on the die. The way may seem free of perils, but each player can complicate things for their adversaries by using the two
tokens featuring socks. Here’s how they work: every time a player lands on a box with a sock on it, whether it be on tracks or a pedestrian path, they give one of their tokens to an adversary they want to slow down.
This player is forced to move their piece, placing it on the railway stop chosen by their adversary. At their next turn, they must roll the die and
follow along the pedestrian path. It is important to be very careful: any player who ends up rolling the die at a railway stop must take the pedestrian path and if they were already on this route, they must go along it once again but backwards. Getting to Santa Claus’s House is not so easy now, is it?
Number of players: 4
Materials: 1 die, 4 playing pieces, 8 red gift tokens and 8 green gift tokens
Aim of the game: be the frst to gather all the ingredients and get back to your kitchen to bake the gingerbread
How to play: First of all, cover all the ingredients along the route with the red and green tokens. Remember: you must fnd four ingredients to bake gingerbread. Once you have all chosen a playing piece, place them along the starting boxes of the matching colors. To decide the order of play, each player rolls the die. Whoever rolls the highest makes the frst move. The frst player rolls the die once more and moves their piece forward the number of spaces as rolled on the die. You can move in any direc-
tion you want. Every time a player lands on a box covered by a token (but they must get there by rolling the exact number of spaces!), they uncover the box to reveal the hidden ingredient. If it is an ingredient the player needs, they can collect it by placing the token on the picture of the corresponding ingredient in their kitchen. Otherwise, they cover the box once more with the token and continue along their way. Players,
keep your eyes peeled to remember the position of the ingredients each time! When you have gathered all four, you must return to your kitchen as fast as possible to bake the gingerbread, but again you must roll the exact number to land. Otherwise, you must go back the extra number of spaces.
Bake
Gingerbread!
The Christmas Village Post Offce
Number of players: from 2 to 4
Materials: 1 die, 4 playing pieces of the same color for each player
Aim of the game: be the frst to get all your pieces all around the route, from the start to Santa Claus’s letterbox
How to play: Each player chooses one of the four corners of the Post Offce and positions their playing pieces accordingly. To decide the order of play, each player rolls the die. Whoever rolls the highest makes the frst move. The frst player places their playing piece at the start of their route, i.e., on the box with an owl carrying the same letter of their playing piece in its beak. Then they can roll the die: if they roll a 6, they can bring another play-
ing piece into the game and roll the die again. If, however, they roll a lower number, their frst piece moves along the number of boxes that comes up on the die. Each player can place another of their playing pieces on the route only when they roll a 6 on the die. Two pieces of the same color can land on the same box, but if you land on a box already occupied by an adversary’s piece, the latter is sent back to their base and must wait for a
new turn to come back into the game. After fnishing the entire route, the playing pieces can go onto the path of the boxes with snowfakes on them which leads to Santa Claus’s letterbox and, thus, victory. The winner is the player who manages to place all their playing pieces on the boxes with snowfakes, but they must land on them with just one roll of the die getting the exact number, otherwise the turn goes to the next player.
Number of players: 4
Materials: 1 die, 1 playing piece for each player, 1 carrot token for each player
Aim of the game: be the frst to reach the fnish line
How to play: Each player chooses a reindeer playing piece. They each roll the die in turn. The player who rolls the highest starts the game and can also choose which route each of their adversaries has to take. Once all of the pieces have been placed on the board, the frst player rolls the die once more and starts moving along their route. Each player has a carrot token available. Before starting they must place their carrot on any box along their own route, unless the box already features another symbol. If you land on your carrot by rolling
the exact number on the die, you get a boost of energy and, at your next go, the number you roll on the die is doubled. Watch out: the road to the fnish line is full of perils! If a player lands on a box with a cabin they must spend the night there and miss two turns. Or, if they land on a bonfre, they must rest and miss one turn. Be very careful of the snowmen: anyone who lands on their boxes will
The Reindeer Race
be too frightened to go on and must go back to the start! If you land on a ski lift, however, you can speed up by rolling the die once more to continue along your route.
The fnal obstacle is the last box: players must reach the mountain fnish line by rolling the exact number on the die, otherwise they must go back the extra spaces.
Number of players: 2 (or 2 teams of multiple players)
Materials: each player has 9 playing pieces of the same color
Aim of the game: get the adversary down to just two playing pieces or make them unable to play
How to play: Each player takes it in turn to roll the die. Whoever rolls the highest can make the first move and place a playing piece on one of the blue circles located on the junctions and the corners of the squares. Then the second player places their first playing piece on another circle. The players then continue in this manner, taking it in
turns and trying to block each other. The aim is to stop your adversary from placing three pieces in a row in any direction, be it vertical, horizontal or diagonal. When all the pieces have been placed on the playing area, the players can move, once more taking it in turns, just one section at a time.
Christmas Night
They move from one circle to another along the same line, as long as it is not already occupied. Whoever manages to place three pieces in a row can take one of their adversary’s pieces. The winner is the frst player to leave their adversary with less than three pieces in play or make them unable to play.
The Christmas Decorations Lab
Number of players: from 2 to 4
Materials: 1 die, 1 playing piece for each player Aim of the game: be the frst to reach box no. 95
How to play: Each player selects a playing piece and places it on box no. 1. They each roll the die in turn. Whoever rolls the highest starts. Then the first player rolls the die once more and moves their piece forward the number of spaces as rolled on the die. You’ll find out there is always a lot to be done at the Christmas decorations laboratory!
When you get to a ladder or rope, you must go up or down, following the direction of the arrow. Also, be careful of boxes no. 12 and no. 56: if you land on them you miss a turn; on box no. 12 you stop to have your lunch and on box no. 56 you are delayed looking for the key to open the store room door.
But, above all, watch out for box no. 62: to wrap the Christmas presents you miss two turns at the ribbon desk. Finally, if a player throws the die near the finish line and gets a number that would bring them past box no. 95, they must turn back the number of extra spaces.
Number of players: from 2 to 4
Materials: 1 die, 1 playing piece for each player
How to play: Position the playing pieces in a row on the starting box. The frst to start will be the player who rolls highest on the die. Then, the game starts with the frst player rolling the die again. If they get 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, they can move their piece forward the number of spaces as rolled on the die or they can decide to roll again. Until, within the same turn, they roll a 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, they can add this number to the previous score and move their piece forward that total number of spaces. But watch out, danger is always lurking around the corner! If a player rolls a 1 during their frst turn, they will get no points and will skip the turn. If, on the other hand, a player rolls a 1 in one of the subsequent turns, all of
Aim of the game: be the frst to reach box no. 100
the points accumulated in the previous rolls will be lost and the player must start again from their next turn. You will need to use your cunning to decide when it’s too risky to lose the progress you have made! Also be careful not to land on the wobbly bridges or the raindrops: on the former, you won’t be able to roll the die until the next turn and, on the latter, you will have to go back to the start! If, on the other hand, you land on the lunch or binoculars boxes, the former gives you double points on your
next roll of the die, while the latter gives you the chance to switch places with an adversary of your choice. Finally, if you land on a tree, you must challenge another player: who will knock down the tree with the fewest swings of the axe? Taking it in turns, both of you will roll the die until you get a total of 12. The winner is the player who reaches 12 with the least number of throws and they can then move forward 12 spaces. The defeated adversary, on the other hand, will be forced to go back 12 spaces.
PLAY I NG P I ECES
On the opposite page you will fnd all the playing pieces you need to play the games. Here they are:
To make the playing pieces, pop them out of the page along with the stands, using the latter to stand them upright by assembling them together. The tokens are ready to use once they have been popped out. When you have fnished playing, you can place the pieces and tokens back in their spaces, ready for a new game.
Even the die looks like something from the gift factory! All the elves probably helped make it, each with their own skills, because this is much more magical than an ordinary die! To put it together, pop out the four pieces and stick them together as shown in the diagram opposite. To use it, throw it as you would an ordinary die and read the number on the top face, moving your piece along that number of spaces.
Now you’re ready to start playing. Have fun!
The Christmas Decorations Lab
Christmas Night
The Woodcutters’ Forest
The Christmas Village Post Offce
The Reindeer Race
Let’s Bake Some Gingerbread!
The Gift Factory
The Christmas Village
1 1 3 3 5 5
6 6 4 4 2 2