The holiday season is here once again and many are preparing to celebrate by putting up decorations. For us, that includes traditional greenery, familiar ornaments that have been added to over the years, and, of course, lights! Thanks to 25th Century Games and their release of Christmas Lights: The Card Game, holiday lights can be enjoyed all year round and not just as decor!

Christmas Lights is unique in the fact that the box not only contains the game but also includes several bonus games! The main game was designed by Chad Head and Adam Collins with eleven additional games designed by Chad Elkins, Daniel Zayas, Christopher Chung, Randy Romig, Don Riddle, Edward Terwilliger, and Teum Ham. It was released in 2018 by 25th Century Games after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Dave Perillo provided all of the artwork for the game. Perillo has also worked on such titles as Where’s the Money, Lebowski? and Monopoly: Planet of the Apes. Perillo’s art style gives the game a cheerful vintage vibe, which is what drew my attention to it in the first place. Christmas Lights is now receiving a second edition print run with some rules streamlining, minor graphics tweaks, and a whole new bonus game! If you’re like me and have the first edition, the new rules can be found on the Board Game Geek website.

There are three different decks needed for a game of Christmas Lights: the Event, Pattern, and Bulb decks. Each of these decks should be shuffled separately and placed on the table within reach of all players. Each player then receives five Bulb cards and two Pattern cards. Players may look at their Pattern cards, but they must be kept secret from all other players. Bulb cards should be placed facing outward so the player may not see them, but all others at the table can. Before the game can begin, all players will also need to be dealt a character card. Take the number of character cards equal to the number of players and shuffle them before dealing them out at random. One of these cards must be the Santa card. The player who receives the Santa card is deemed the first player.

Christmas Lights is a game all about memory, set collection, and communication. A player’s hand is held facing away from them so they will not be able to see their own cards but can see everyone else’s. Players take turns trying to build sequences of light bulbs from their hidden objective cards (Pattern cards). During their turn, a player will choose up to two cards to play into their pattern. These cards must match the sequence or be discarded. Wild cards (Broken Bulbs or Bubble Bulbs) are the only exception. Players may then choose to swap a card from their hand with any card in another player’s hand. To gain information about their hand, players may offer up one to two cards for “sale” in the Sale phase in exchange for answers to yes-or-no questions. At the end of their turn, players may draw cards up to their maximum hand size to refill their hand, but this is not required. It should be noted that in certain circumstances a player may want to keep their hand size down so they can draw less or even zero cards if they so choose. Once a player has completed their first pattern card, they must place a Plug card to “plug in” their lights and continue onto the next sequence. Certain cards cause an Event to be triggered. These events can both help or hinder players as well as have individual or group consequences. Once a player finishes their entire sequence of both Pattern cards, the game ends at the end of the round.

As previously mentioned, there are multiple bonus games included in both the first and second editions of Christmas Lights. These games vary in player counts but do include both solo and team games. Quite a few of them also allow for a full player count of six. Many of these games may seem familiar as they are adaptations of other popular card games such as Go Fish, Old Maid, and Crazy Eights. The second edition specifically introduces a new 2-5 plyer game called Blink by Kenny and Scot Eaton. There is also a Krampus character card promo that was released in 2019 via the Promo Paradise Kickstarter campaign. Upon receiving Krampus, I must admit he has become my favorite character to play and is one I often fight for!

Whether you like colored lights, white lights, lights with small bulbs, lights with large bulbs, vintage lights, or LED lights, there is something about Christmas lights that brings magic to the holiday season, and 25th Century Games brings that magic to your table with Christmas Lights: A Card Game. This quick holiday-themed card game is certainly more than meets the eye as there is quite a bit of depth to the game and it stands in its own right regardless of theme. Though the main game can be played with two players, it is not my favorite way to play with smaller player counts. Personally, I feel a lot of the player interactions are missing that would be had with more players and the experience is completely different. When playing with smaller player counts, I really enjoyed Randy Romig’s Untangle and Daniel Zayas’ Jingle Bell Run. That being said, Christmas Lights really seems to shine for my group with four or five players. With the exception of the Event Cards, the game is virtually language-independent making it a great game for parties and family gatherings with a variety of ages. With so much packed into such a small box, this collection of games is an excellent choice for stocking stuffers or tucked into a bag to take along on holiday trips!

All photos of 25th Century Games products were taken and edited by Krista.