Jolly Christmas Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Goal of the Game
• Game Setup
• Quick Game Overview
• The Starting Round
• Playing a Round
  • 1) Placing Elf Cards
  • 2) Taking Decoration Cards
  • 3) Refill
• End of the Game
• Scoring
• Ornament Cards
• Tree-topper Cards
• Scoring Example

Components

• 85 decoration cards
• 14 tree-topper cards
• 5 elf cards
• 6 order cards

Goal of the Game

Win Jolly Christmas by filling your Christmas tree with complete strings of lights, cleverly placed ornaments, and by placing the best tree-topper. Also keep an eye on what your opponents may need... to snatch it away from them!

Game Setup

1. Give each player one elf card. Return any unused elf cards to the box.
2. Shuffle the tree-topper cards and place a number of them, equal to the number of players plus one, face up on the table. If playing with three players, place four cards face up. Return the remaining tree-topper cards to the box.
3. Shuffle all the decoration cards and place them in a face-down stack in the center of the table.
4. Next to the stack of decoration cards, place a number of order cards in ascending order, starting with the 1. The number is equal to the number of players plus one.
5. Flip one decoration card face up from the stack onto each order card. Place the decoration cards perpendicular to the order cards so that you can still read the number.
6. Choose a starting player.

Quick Game Overview

Each player makes their own Christmas tree by collecting decorations. Throughout the game, we will continually place our elf next to one of the open decoration cards. The chosen decoration cards are placed in the players' Christmas trees, and new decoration cards are revealed. The elves determine the player order for the next rounds. We play fourteen rounds to fill our Christmas trees. Finally, the tree-toppers are placed on the trees and points are counted. The player with the most points wins the game!

A decoration card shows: the type of card, the half a light, the number of points to earn, and the way to score.

The Starting Round

The very first round starts differently from the following rounds. The designated starting player is the first to place their elf card under one of the open decoration cards. Each other player then does the same, clockwise from the starting player. The round proceeds the same as the others. This is explained below.

Playing a Round

Rounds are played in three steps: 1) Placing Elf Cards, 2) Taking Decoration Cards, and 3) Refill.

1) Placing Elf Cards

The order in which players may play their elf cards depends on the position of the elf cards played in the previous round (except the starting round). Start the round with the player whose elf card is on the lowest order card (closest to one), and proceed along the row. On your turn, take your elf card and place it on the opposite side of the row of decoration cards. This claims a new decoration card and your position in the player order for the next round.

When everyone has played, all elf cards are again on the same side of the decoration row.

Note: a decoration card can only be claimed by one player.

2) Taking Decoration Cards

All players may now take the decoration card they claimed and place it in their Christmas tree. The card must be adjacent to a previously placed card in your tree (unless it's your first card). You may place cards to the left or right of a card, or on top of two earlier placed cards. You do not need to complete a row before building upward. You build your Christmas tree in the following way:

• A new card can be placed on the base layer, as it is not yet 5 cards wide.
• A new card can be placed on the second layer, where there are already two cards underneath.

Size of the tree. The Christmas tree has to be made up of five layers of cards. Four layers of ornament cards and one tree-topper:

• Five cards in the base
• Four on the second
• Three on the third
• Two on the fourth
• One tree-topper on top

3) Refill

Discard the unchosen decoration card and refill the order cards with new decoration cards from the deck.

End of the Game

After fourteen rounds, it's time to place the tree-topper on the tree. Everyone now has fourteen cards in their trees. Place the tree-topper on the top two cards in your Christmas tree. To determine the order in which players may choose a tree-topper card, look at the complete lights in the trees. The player with the most complete lights chooses a tree-topper card first, followed by the second highest, and so on. In case of a tie, refer to the player order from the last round. You must choose a tree-topper card, even if it gives you no points.

(Illustration: a complete light is formed where the half-lights of two adjacent cards join; a light that does not join up is not complete.)

Scoring

Time to score! Add up points for the following:

1. Complete lights. Each complete light is worth 1 point.
2. Ornaments. Each ornament has its own way of scoring. Look at each type of ornament in your tree to see how many points they score.
3. Tree-topper card. Check if you have met the tree-topper's condition to get the bonus points.

Ornament Cards

Santa: Players are awarded points depending on who has the most Santas in their Christmas tree. If you have the most Santas, you get 4 points per Santa. The player who has the second-highest number of Santas gets 3 points per Santa, and so on. You need at least one Santa in your Christmas tree to count for scoring. If there is a tie, both players get the points.

Example: if there is a tie for 2nd place, both players score 3 points per Santa. The player who normally scores 3rd place now scores 4th place, 1 point per card.

Christmas Balls: Christmas balls come in three different colors. You can score points by forming sets with different colors. Important: each color may only appear once in a set. If you have two Christmas balls of the same color, they cannot be part of the same set and won't count for that set. You may have multiple sets in your tree. Scoring:

• A single Christmas ball scores 2 points.
• A set of two different Christmas balls scores 0 points.
• A set of three Christmas balls (all three different colours) scores 4 points per Christmas ball, so a total of 12 points.

Bell: Each bell scores 3 points if there are two different types of ornaments under the bell. None of these cards can be another bell. Although Christmas balls can look different, Christmas balls are the same type of ornament. So, you score no points if there are two Christmas balls under your bell.

Gingerbread man: You score a gingerbread man depending on the number of them in your Christmas tree. One gingerbread man scores 0 points. Two gingerbread men score 1 point per card. Three of them score 2 points per card, etc. From five gingerbread men onwards, the number of points per card does not increase. For example, if you have six, you still score 4 points per card.

Reindeer: Reindeer feel most comfortable in groups in the Christmas tree. A group consists of reindeer that are directly adjacent to each other.

• One reindeer does not yield any points.
• Two reindeer in the same group each score 2 points (so 4 points together).
• Three reindeer in the same group each score 3 points.
• Four or more reindeer in the same group each score 4 points.

Note: from four reindeer, the point value per reindeer remains the same. For example, if you have five reindeer in a group, you still score 4 points per reindeer, so 20 points in total.

Snowflake: A snowflake scores 3 points if there are no other snowflakes adjacent to it.

Tree-topper Cards

Letters: The letters represent a type of ornament of your choice. To score points on the tree-topper card, you must place ornaments on the indicated spots. If there are more of the same letters, then these must all be the same ornaments. In this example, you score six points if you have snowflake, bell, snowflake, bell on the second row.

Christmas Balls: With this tree-topper card you score the indicated points if you have three Christmas balls of the same color in your Christmas tree. It doesn't matter what color, as long as you have three of the same. You cannot score this (or any tree-topper) twice, so you cannot score once for red balls and once for blue balls.

Cross: When you see a tree-topper with a cross through an ornament, you score the points on the tree-topper card if you do not have that type of ornament hanging in your Christmas tree.

Complete lights: You score the points of the tree-topper card if you have complete lights on the indicated spots in your Christmas tree. The color of your lights does not matter.

All ornaments: You score the indicated points of the tree-topper if you have all six types of ornaments hanging in your Christmas tree (the color of the Christmas ball does not matter).

Scoring Example

1. The player earns 4 points for the complete lights.
2. The player earns 4 points for the tree-topper, because it has three of the same color Christmas balls.
3. The player scores 4 points for the Christmas balls themselves. That's two single Christmas balls (two points each), and one set of two Christmas balls (zero points).
4. The player earns 4 points for the Santas because the player has the third most Santas in the Christmas tree compared to the other players. This is 2 points per Santa.
5. The player does not earn any points for the bell because there are not two different types of ornaments hanging under the bell.
6. The player earns 2 points for the cookies (1 point per cookie).
7. The player scores 9 points for the group of reindeer (3 points per reindeer).
8. The player scores 6 points for the snowflakes. Three points per snowflake that is not adjacent to another snowflake.

This gives the player a total score of 33 points!