As someone who read Dr. Seuss books as a child, I was surprised when I found that there has actually been a game created all about the Grinch stealing Christmas. Merry Grinchmas is a very simple, two to six player game that is perfect for younger members of your family to play around the holidays, or whenever they are feeling interested in Dr. Suess!
Merry Grinchmas is a very simple game to set up and play, as it’s intended for a younger audience. You and your friends are actually all trying to defeat the Grinch, who is trying to steal all of the gifts from the lovely children in Whoville. This is done through gathering tokens and fulfilling the wishes of the little boys and girls who are living in the town.
On the board, there are spaces for various tokens which showcase different gifts. There is also an inventory of cards which show the children’s wishes. To complete the children’s wish cards, one person must have all of the items they want; normally shown by the colors on the tokens. Some children want two of the exact same item, however, meaning you will need to trade that in to earn the card. Once you have fulfilled a gift card, that character goes around the tree.
Each turn starts with the Grinch. You spin the spinner for the Grinch, then move the character to that space. There are a bunch of different things the Grinch can do; steal from a house if they land on it (which often belongs to a player, so it’s stealing from a player), gain an item from the gift inventory, or complete a card. Completed cards go on his mountain, as do the items that he gains. Then, you can take your turn, spinning the spinner, moving, and doing the same as The Grinch can do on his turn.
The issue is, if the Grinch takes an item from the item inventory or completes a gift card, that’s just blank for your turn, and everything is only refilled when it comes to the next player getting a go. This can give the Grinch a bit of an advantage in Merry Grinchmas, but as there is more than one person playing against him, this can even out.
The game ends when you and your friends have completed the circle around the Christmas tree in Whoville. You must then count the stars on each of these cards and compare them to the number of stars that the Grinch has been able to collect with their completed gift wishes. If players have the most stars, they win, otherwise the Grinch wins!
The design of Merry Grinchmas feels straight out of the book. It’s an adorable, simple, and lovely game that works so well for little ones — a great game to play during the holidays.
You can find Merry Grinchmas on Amazon.
The game is interesting. I like it very much.