The Twelve Games of Christmas by Ellie Dix
Overview
The 12 Games of Christmas are designed to be sold as a pack in which you open one box, flap or envelope every day. Inside each envelope there are some cards and the rules for a new game. Each new game can be played by combining the new cards with the cards you’ve already acquired from previous days. At the end of the 12 days, you’ll have 12 games you can play using your full set of cards.
NB: Each game should have a name, but I haven’t created those yet.
The Format
I’ve been thinking of the set as working in one of two ways:
- Like a collection of books. Each ‘book’ would be an envelope with a spine.
- Like an advent calendar with drawers.
Note:
- There needs to be a place to store the growing deck as you move through the days and to store the complete deck when all days have been opened. Is there a box that will accommodate everything and be strong enough for a standalone game box?
- The cards need to be small enough to be easily placed in an 8X8 grid on a table but big enough to be easy to hold as a hand of cards.
Prototype Cards
The cards are very much in prototype form. The suits are not fixed – they can be any colour/icon combination. The terrains are not currently as I’ve envisaged them. At the moment, some of the terrain colours are too close to the suit colours (e.g. Tinsel). I really want the terrain sections of the cards to be aerial illustrations of terrains or places. I imagine a snowy field with mulltiple footprints over it (a bit like in Winnie the Pooh’s Snowy Day book), a sparkly night sky with a sleigh pulling across it, a wrapping paper strewn elf workshop and maybe a town with gingerbread houses… or something similar. I’ve very much put placeholder images as I couldn’t find things online that matched what was in my head!
Below you can download the prototype cards, if you’d like to play the games yourself.