There are few things more festive than Christmas lights. We call them “Christmas lights” but in reality, light is something that crosses race, region, and religion. It is a symbol of hope and joy. So how do you translate that into a game? You don’t. I tend to wax philosophic more so now than much of the year, most people don’t think all that terribly deeply about something as ubiquitous as a Christmas light. Christmas Lights: A Card Game, is (shockingly) a card game about creating strings of Christmas lights.
Each player gets two Pattern cards, each with a string of five different coloured lights. The goal is to play the five lights in order. Play a plug card. Then play the five lights shown on your second pattern. (again, in order.) sounds easy, right? Well try it without being able to see your own cards. You read that right, you don’t get to see your own cards, except your Patterns. Your bulbs are held facing your opponents, and you have to deduce or guess what to play. If you’ve ever played Hanabi it’s a similar sort of thing. Just to tie back to my opening paragraph, Hanabi is also a game that celebrates lights, just in the form of fireworks. Coming back to this game; if/when you figure a card out, you may “mark” it any way you like. Hold it sideways, upside down, in your other hand, anything as long as you can’t see them and everyone else can. Just remember that the more obvious you are, the more likely an opponent is to steal that card from you.
There are a few ways that you can find out or figure out what cards you have as you play. One your turn you may Play one or two cards from your hand. If they match the next card in your sequence, you keep it, if not it gets discarded. Next, you may Swap one card from your hand for one in another player’s hand (which you can see, and therefore know what it is). You can choose one or two cards from your hand to play face up to Sell for the answer to a yes or no question, unsold cards are discarded. Finally, you Refill your hand from the deck.
Beyond the basic Bulbs, there are some special cards as well. The Broken Bulbs can be played to temporarily fill an empty space in your string, allowing you to move on to the next coloured Bulb and replace the Broken Bulb later. Bubble Bulbs are wildcards that may be used in place of any colour, but you must draw an Event card if you do so. Every Event card is unique and throws a metaphorical curveball snowball into play. For example, Light Switch allows each player to draw a Bulb and look at it before putting it into their hand, while Boxing Day lets them discard a card and draw a new one without looking at the new card.
I would be doing our American readers a disservice here if I didn’t take a moment to explain Boxing Day. Boxing Day has a long and varied history, with most versions of that history being more or less accurate. But in modern terms, it can be compared to American Black Friday, in that it is one of the biggest shopping days of the year in countries like Canada, with deep sales and long lines; but less near-riot door crashers. I love that it’s included in this game.
The game ends when a player finishes their second string of lights, however, play continues until it reaches the starting player again giving everyone equal turns.
The basic game here is a ton of fun. I’m not sure I’d plop it down in front of the average 6 year old, as the recommended age suggests. But most other groups would likely enjoy it. The artwork hints at a nostalgic style but not heavily in the cards. The box succeeds wonderfully at being reminiscent of the boxes Christmas Lights were packaged in during the 1950s and 1960s, and I do very much love that. There are also another 12 bonus games included that I may just review when I pull this out to play again next year. But for now, I’m enjoying the original.
You can find 25th Century Games online at 25thcenturygames.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/25thCG.
Today’s Christmas song is a bit less cheery than some, but it is incredibly poignant with the state of the world the last two years. Listen closely to Christmas Lights by Coldplay.