Holidays: Christmas

In Patchwork, two players compete to build the most aesthetic (and high-scoring) patchwork quilt on a personal 9x9 game board. To start play, lay out all of the patches at random in a circle and place a marker directly clockwise of the 2-1 patch. Each player takes five buttons — the currency/points in the game — and someone is chosen as the start player.

On a turn, a player either purchases one of the three patches standing clockwise of the spool or passes. To purchase a patch, you pay the cost in buttons shown on the patch, move the spool to that patch's location in the circle, add the patch to your game board, then advance your time token on the time track a number of spaces equal to the time shown on the patch. You're free to place the patch anywhere on your board that doesn't overlap other patches, but you probably want to fit things together as tightly as possible. If your time token is behind or on top of the other player's time token, then you take another turn; otherwise the opponent now goes. Instead of purchasing a patch, you can choose to pass; to do this, you move your time token to the space immediately in front of the opponent's time token, then take one button from the bank for each space you moved.

In addition to a button cost and time cost, each patch also features 0-3 buttons, and when you move your time token past a button on the time track, you earn "button income": sum the number of buttons depicted on your personal game board, then take this many buttons from the bank.

What's more, the time track depicts five 1x1 patches on it, and during set-up you place five actual 1x1 patches on these spaces. Whoever first passes a patch on the time track claims this patch and immediately places it on his game board.

Additionally, the first player to completely fill in a 7x7 square on his game board earns a bonus tile worth 7 extra points at the end of the game. (Of course, this doesn't happen in every game.)

When a player takes an action that moves his time token to the central square of the time track, he takes one final button income from the bank. Once both players are in the center, the game ends and scoring takes place. Each player scores one point per button in his possession, then loses two points for each empty square on his game board. Scores can be negative. The player with the most points wins.

Jingle Bell Roll is a cozy, holiday dice game for 2-6 players, full of festive cheer, quick turns, gift-giving, and delightful combos!

Players take turns rolling 7 Christmas dice up to three times, setting aside symbols they want to keep. Dice show festive icons like Milk, Cookies, Stockings, Gifts, and Bells—each with unique scoring rules.

After rolling, players may play Gift Cards from their hand to boost their score or manipulate dice results. Players then choose when to stop rolling and score their dice, earning points and handing out Gift Cards for each Gift symbol they score. Rolling enough Bells lets players add Letters to Santa in your Mailbox, which gives bonuses like permanent dice faces to score every round. The game ends after 6 rounds, or immediately if a player rolls 7 Bells—whichever comes first! Choose from 10 unique characters from the world of Holiday Hills to help you score more points.

A deceptively cute, deceivingly challenging abstract strategy game for two players.

The Mensa award winning, Game of the Year, boop, is back with a new Holiday edition and has really leveled up game play (literally!!).

The hoomans are hanging ornaments on the highest boughs of the tree, but those clever cats are leaping up and boopin’ them right off. You can win “Naughty” by knocking off 3 of your opponent’s ornaments or “Nice” by lining up three cats in a row!

The 4-tiered game board ‘tree’ presents a surprisingly mind-bending 3D challenge for players. And the alternate win condition of knocking off 3 of your opponent's ornaments creates new strategic problems to solve, elevating the play experience to a new high!

—description from the publisher

The holiday-themed 12 Days takes the familiar "Twelve Days of Christmas" song and twists it into a quick-playing card game. Over twelve rounds, players try to re-gift unpopular cards while keeping cards that are strong enough to win the day, while also keeping a careful eye for bonus scoring at the end of the game.

The gift deck consists of eighty cards: one partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, and so on up to twelve drummers drumming, as well as one card each for Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Shuffle this deck, then deal each player twelve cards. Each round a new holiday card is up for grabs, with the cards ranked from 1 to 12 and being worth 1-12 points. In a round, a player:

Gifts a present to the player to his left,
Opens presents and tries to win the day with the best present, and
Buys a new gift to refill his hand.

More specifically, all players simultaneously pass one face-down gift card to their left-hand neighbor. Then everyone chooses one gift card in hand and reveals them simultaneously. Whoever plays the lowest gift card wins that round's holiday card; in the event of a tie for lowest, with the Clauses counting as zero, then the next lowest card wins. Each player then draws one card to bring their hand back to twelve cards.

After twelve rounds, players score points for each holiday card they've collected. In addition, whoever holds the most gift cards for each rank scores as many points as that rank, with all tied players scoring in the event of a tie. Whoever has the most points wins. Happy holidays!

It's time to defend the house! When the McCallister family jets off for the holidays, they accidentally leave nine-year-old Kevin behind. And now, the notorious Wet Bandits are casing the neighborhood, hoping to score some valuable loot! Team up as the burglars in Home Alone Game to try to steal the goods, or play as Kevin to unleash an arsenal of creative contraptions to protect the house. Who will triumph: the little guy or the bad guys?

—description from the publisher