Santa's Game

Santa’s Game is a card game with Christmas theme and a variety of Christmas characters. It is based on Czech version of public domain card game Crazy Eights (“Prší”). Santa’s Game introduces new rules and additional cards. Although the theme is Christmas oriented, the game is wonderful to be played at any time during the whole year.

It is quick and easy to learn, yet can be more fun and strategic than appears on a first sight. Being in a category of games based on random draw, clever strategy can sometimes eliminate randomness a lot.

Game contains 110 cards and rules.

Cards are divided into 5 suits, 22 cards per suit. There are four suits of colored cards (red, green, blue, yellow) and one suit of special cards (grey). Colored cards are: Reindeer/Number 1 to 9 (72 cards), Gift (8 cards), Christmas Tree (8 cards). Special cards are: Santa Claus (8 cards), Santa’s Sleigh (8 cards), Snowman (4 cards), Elf (2 cards).

At the beginning of the round, each player receives 7 cards. The goal is to get rid of all the cards in player’s hand by matching last played card on a discard pile.

Player’s turns are taken in a clockwise direction. A player can make only one action during each turn. An action is considered to discard a card, to take a card from the deck, to pass the penalty and to take penalty cards. Each turn player discards only one card to a discard pile (with the exception of Santa's Sleigh, where is player allowed to discard multiple cards). Each card has a function, which is executed after player discards it.

Based on a card on a discard pile, player can only discard the same color (red, blue, green and yellow) or the same value of the cards (same number, Gift, Tree). Special cards (grey) may be discarded over any card, except if player is receiving penalty. If player does not want or cannot discard any card, they must take one card from the deck.

Cards:

Reindeer – represents numbers 1 to 9

Gift – any chosen player at the table gets 2 penalty cards

Christmas Tree – the next player’s turn is skipped

Santa Claus – changes color

Santa’s Sleigh – discards more Reindeer at the same time

Snowman – passes the penalty to next player in the sequence

Elf – returns player to the game