Holly Jolly Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Holly Jolly, a Christmas-themed set collection board game published by 25th Century Games. In Holly Jolly, players are trying to acquire the most points by drafting cards from the tree.

At the time of this writing, Christmas was only a few weeks away. The smell of pine, fresh egg nog, and the sound of excited children were still fresh in my mind. I think it’s fair to say that there are not too many board games centered around this holiday. So, I was definitely interested in trying out a new set collection game from the veteran design team of Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle.

Holly Jolly will have you gathering around the Christmas Tre to decorate it and apparently, swipe some ornaments and presents while you are at it.

The game centers around a shared Christmas tree made up of 3 lights/tinsel cards, surrounded by 9 ornament cards. Below the tree are 4 present/stocking cards.

On a player’s turn, they draft one card from the 3 available lights/tinsel cards and place it over one of the three lights/tinsel currently on the tree. Note: there is no mechanical difference between the tinsel and light cards. Then, the player adds up the sum of the numbers of the 3 lights/tinsel cards currently on the tree. If that number exactly matches an ornament on the tree, the player can collect it. If not, they can take a present/stocking from below the tree instead. Cards are refilled and then the next player takes their turn.

Turns will go by in this manner until either the ornament or the stocking/present deck runs out. The player with the most points wins.

Despite being a seldom used theme, I thought the designers did a great job of incorporating a Christmas feel into Holly Jolly. It’s also helped driven home by the fun artwork