Santa’s Workshop (Second Edition) Review

As another Christmas season comes to a close, Santa’s elves compete to be the most productive toy makers before the big day!  Their reward?  A summer vacation with the big man himself! Do you embody the spirit of Christmas or will you end up with a lump of coal in your stocking? Find out if you have what it takes to craft a memorable Season of Giving in Santa’s Workshop!

2-5 Players 30-60 Mins Age: 6+

Designer: Keith Ferguson

Artists: Andrew Bosley, Jacqui Davis, Matt Paquette. & Co.

Publisher: Elf Creek Games

He Sees You When You’re Sleeping

Santa’s Workshop by Elf Creek Games is a 2-5 player worker placement game in which you play one of Santa’s industrious elves working hard to make enough toys to satisfy the capitalist cravings of today’s youth.  Doing so not only means another successful Christmas, but the workshop helpers who show the most Christmas cheer will find themselves joining Santa himself on his annual post-Christmas vacation in a warm, sunny locale.  Players not only make toys, but also care for Santa’s reindeer and place ornaments on the Christmas tree. In the advanced game there’s the added fun of working in the coal mine…. We’ll get to that.

The primary task players will be attempting is constructing toys, this is done by selecting a card from the Mail Room, effectively, these are letters to Santa containing the requested toy, the materials needed to make it and the points value, or “Christmas Cheer” earned for its completion. The basis of the game works much like any other worker-placement experience, with players placing their workers (elves) on action spaces on the board to gain the material needed to either contribute to one of the toys they’re working on, donating for other elves to use (in the standard game) or using it to train their elves (advanced variant), allowing them to take more materials in future turns. This straightforward mechanic keeps the complexity to a minimum while remaining satisfying and rewarding.

From the outset, Santa’s Workshop cheerfully presents (pun intended) itself as lightweight family-friendly fun. The core elements for an enjoyable, fleshed out and well developed gameplay experience are on display and the whole package feels like it was made by a group who love Christmas and wanted the perfect game for families to enjoy on the big day without any harried rules explanations, player elimination or Monopoly money to ruin everyone’s day.

He Knows When You’re Awake

What appeals to me about Santa’s Workshop? To begin with, the two levels of play, standard and advanced, are a big plus! Having family members who are either young, less into games, or both makes this variant the ideal platform from which to launch a board game bonanza right into their non-board-gaming face. It’s light, quick and easy to learn and fast and simple to set up and start playing, out family group went from opening the box, to setting up, learning, playing completing and then packing away the game in less than two hours at four players.  After a single game I’m confident a four player experience wouldn’t take much more than 40-50 minutes or so. Standard is ideal for young kids or family members who aren’t familiar with board games, and exactly the audience you may find yourself breaking this out with when family gather for Christmas Day.

The advanced version is the game at its best and the only way I will likely play it moving forward, providing deeper decision-making and more varied options and gameplay over the standard game.  For instance the ability to level up, or improve your elves abilities, resulting in grater rewards or having Elves mine coal.  That’s right!  Coal mining!  To be fair, the concept is that kids on the naughty list receive a lump of coal in their stocking on Christmas morning (hey, I don’t make the rules). Santa’s Workshop is dripping with theme that actually feels like it matters here.  It’s a Christmas game that I’d be happy to play at any time of year.

It’s a safe, approachable, joy-filled game for the whole family where player choices matter, placing a worker may end up helping your opponents, and yet, you may find yourself willingly helping your opponents in exchange for the reward you get yourself for doing so.  Just be sure to check how much you’re helping vs. how often you can manipulate the board so that they are helping you instead.  For instance, if I place a worker on the first space of a row to obtain fabric, the next person who does the same will bet more fabric, but also reward me with a point, as my elf “helped” them to be more productive.

Santa’s Workshop is a player-friendly experience that puts fun and satisfaction first, this is evidenced by simple design decisions such as unused resources resulting in victory points at the end of the game, player choices helping out their opponents and the varied was in which players can obtain points to win.

He Knows If You’ve Been Bad Or Good

The meeples for the different elves can be difficult to discern from one another. And my copy had all three of the same meeple for one of the player colours.  To be honest, it doesn’t really matter too much as long as you are able to track which elf is which.

There were times that felt like there weren’t many viable options depending on player count, but this is the nature of many worker placement games, and a valuable lesson for kids, you can’t always get what you want.

So Be Good For Goodness Sake

The art is appropriately whimsical and inviting, encouraging players to evoke their favourite animated Christmas movie or storybook. Artists, Andrew Bosley, Jacqui Davis and Co. are to be commended on delivering a beautifully illustrated game with cute, colourful characters and even a 3-dimensional Santa’s Sleigh which provides a useful in-game function.

Many of the components are shiny, silvered, or metallic cardboard tokens, which helps give the game a more premium feeling.  A nice touch that the designers didn’t have to go the the trouble of doing, but is appreciated all the same.

You’d Better Not Pout, You’d Better Not Cry

Santa’s Workshop is a delightfully well thought out Christmas-themed game that fills a gap in my collection, (that gap being Christmas-themed games).  I enjoyed my time with it immensely and was grateful to have it to play on Christmas Day itself. I’m also looking forward to breaking it out now and then during the year, just because its so much fun to play and makes for a shorter gaming experience on those days when I want to play something to be entertained, rather than to win… though, if you’re listening Santa, I’ve very much like to get a giant box of winning for Christmas this year?  What’s that?  Yeah, you’re right, this coal is the gift that really keeps on giving.

Merry Christmas to all those who enjoy, celebrate or otherwise acknowledge the day in any way, shape or form.  I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on Santa’s Workshop, please let me know your favourite Christmas-themed game in the comments below, or join us on Above Board’s Facebook group or take a peek at our Instagram page.  In the meantime, be safe, take care and enjoy a much deserved break this Christmas!  All the best!