A holiday-themed game with strong enough mechanics to play year-round? Yes please! Holly Jolly is the newest holiday release from 25th Century Games. The 2-4 player card game was developed by Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle who have collaborated on several great games in the past including Wasteland Express Delivery and the eagerly awaited Legends of Sleepy Hollow. Holly Jolly mixes the mechanics of set collection, engine selection, and just a touch of press your luck into a point salad blend that really shines. All of this is presented with a strong Christmas package that we greatly enjoyed.

A large part of that holiday theme is brought to life in the game’s illustrations provided by Robin Banks. The retro cartoon art style had us reminiscing about childhood tv specials. It has a nostalgic feel similar to a product that might have been released in the ’40s or ’50s, yet can still appeal to gamers of all ages. From hanging ornaments to the toys under the tree, this is Banks’ first credited game-related work that we could find, and yet they did such an amazing job we cannot wait to see where their creative works will next be found.

Normally one wants to avoid tangling their lights and tinsel when getting ready for the holidays, but, with Holly Jolly, that is the very first thing one does when setting up the game! Once the tinsel and light cards are shuffled into one draw deck, the first three cards are drawn and placed above the trunk card to form the start of the tree. Ornament cards form their own deck and will be used to shape the outer branches as per the diagram in the rulebook. Finally, star cards (one per player) are placed atop the tree while four present cards are placed beneath to be later claimed by players. It is important to note that any stocking cards being placed beneath the tree are meant to be kept face down as they award secret points at the end of the game. Once this is done the tree is complete and players can begin the game by placing the next three cards from the ornament deck face up to create the draw queue. We love that even the setup is thematically present in this game and have a hard time imagining it being rethemed as anything else!

On a player’s turn, they will choose either a light or tinsel card from the draw queue and play it onto the Christmas tree. When playing the card, it must be placed on top of any of the other light or tinsel cards on the tree (the card types don’t have to match). The player will then add up the value of the visible cards that match their played card type to determine which ornament, star, present, or stocking they will collect. Once collected, play will pass to the left and will continue in this manner until either the ornament or gift deck runs out. All remaining players will get the chance to take their final turn for that round in order to score any available points they can and to ensure everyone has had an equal number of turns. At the game’s end, each player will tally up their scores based on the cards they’ve acquired. The player with the most points wins.

Holly Jolly is a game that took us both completely by surprise. Many holiday games tend to have the theme so lightly pasted over the mechanics that it fails to connect and causes the game to fall flat. On the other end of the spectrum, there are holiday games so entrenched in the theme that the mechanics suffer. Holly Jolly, however, seems to be a very well-balanced blend of both theme and mechanics and was quite a bit of fun to play! Following in the yuletide-themed footsteps of 25th Century Games’ Christmas Lights, Holly Jolly raises the bar for holiday games further and might just do it even better! The game is immersive enough with the Christmas theme to entice us without overdoing it to the point of being a huge turn-off. We also enjoyed that the game scales well at all player counts. It simply adds or removes certain cards to accommodate the number of players without changing any of the mechanics. There are currently several promos available for Holly Jolly that add their own twist to the game. When playing with them we found that these micro expansions don’t overcomplicate the game with their addition and, while they provide minor changes, the game is still terrific with or without them. While still new to us, and perfectly timed with its arrival at our door to see plenty of play this season, we are pleased to see such a strong offering in Holly Jolly and can easily say it will certainly be finding its way into several stockings and under a few trees this year! With how much everyone has enjoyed it, we feel we can safely say that it will take almost no coaxing at all to have friends and family play this game long after the snow outside has gone.

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