It was a desperate call for help; a full-blown family game night emergency. Our friends from church, the Whites, had been over to our house just a few days before. After dinner, we set up our own holiday-themed family board game and the more we played it with them the more delighted they became. So, it was most gratifying to us when they called us up begging to borrow the game for their own family to play. They had their grand children over to the house and ‘Santa’s Sleigh Ride’ was exactly what they wanted to share with them.

Christmas in both of our childhood memories meant playing board games with our family. Both Laura and I would look forward to this time of year when — in each of our families as we were growing up — our respective parents and siblings would pull out the board games and gather around the table or on the floor to roll the dice, move our pawns around the board and share laughter with one another.

There have been many gifts that were given and recieved on Christmas Day down through the years and, in truth, I can only remember a very few of them and still have even fewer still. Gifts come and go but the memories that Laura and I have of those games played on those winter nights with our parents and family still remains bright in our memories.

We wanted to make something for the holidays that would give us that same feeling we had when we were children … something that grandparents could play with their grandchildren that would provide them with memories that would last a lifetime and beyond. It had to be simple enough for young players and yet have some challenging stragety for the adults and grandparents. And, above all, it had to be easy to learn and fun for all.

The result is ‘Santa’s Sleigh Ride’ — a traditionally styled family board game which we play every year now over the holidays and which our friends are only now discovering. You can watch the video at the website to get the idea behind the game: Santa having failed his Canadian Sleigh Drivers License Test needs to find a ‘designated driver’ elf to make the big ride. Each player is an elf in a sleigh trying to find which houses match the color of their sleigh and pick up matching ‘proof of gifting’ tokens (POGs) upon successful delivery to that house. However, other elf’s sleighs can bump your sleigh — either pushing you off a house where you are about to deliver or using that bump to push them a little further along their own route. To land on the right space, however, may require taking shortcuts — each one requiring you to draw a ‘reindeer games’ card that may help or hinder you. It’s fun, fast, and plays in less than an hour even with young children. We even include rules to give the children an edge over the adults at the table and the game can be played between two to six players at once.

We heard back from the Whites. Not only did their grandchildren love the game but insisted that they all play the game again after returning from the movies… quick, before they had to give it back.

At this point, the game is only available directly from us — but we’ll personally sign your gorgious full color game board on the back of the first hundred or so! Yes, some assembly is required … but you can download the complete rules and instructions on how to create the game pieces and cards immediately upon completing your purchase and we’ll ship the board to you usually the next day.

Give your family a gift this Christmas that will last throughout their lifetimes … memories of your time together filled with laughter and fun. That is, after all, why we became Santa’s elves and made this game!

We’re feeling in a holiday mood here at the Hickmans — giving away a free, fully-playable download sample of our Santa Sleighride board game so that you can play with our toys before you buy them!

We received our first premium boards for our ‘Santa’s Sleigh Ride’ holiday board game last weekend and so I found myself spending some time in the Toy Workshop (a.k.a. my garage) cutting out the boards and assembling them in their mailing tubes for shipment. Laura and I are signing the first 100 boards and so that took up a little extra time in the workshop. Still, as you can see, happy is the toymaker when he’s out in the workshop making his toys to share with the world.

We’ll be updating our shipping options to include faster delivery but the sooner you order your game, the sooner you’ll get to play the full game on these beautiful, washable game boards … signed and straight from our own workshop at reindeergamer.com!

When I was a little boy in Utah, my parents taught my brother and I how to play a game out in the snow. It was called ‘Fox and Geese’. We would go out into the snowy yard next to our home – or the home of my grandfather’s home where I first remember playing the game — and trample down the snow in a circle about twenty feet across. Then we would stomp down the snow across the circle until we had spokes like a wheel all crossing in the center. Someone would be declared the fox in the middle of the circle and the rest of us would stand at the spokes of the wheel on the outside. We would try to reach the middle as the ‘geese’ while the ‘fox tried to tag us before we got there. To be honest, as young as I was, I’m not all that certain I understood the rules or nuances of the game. To me, the whole point was to run squealing away from whoever was the ‘fox’ and stay on the paths.

Those childhood memories were part of what lead Laura and I to the basic design of the board. The North Pole being at the center of the game and then the reindeer paths leading from it to the outer circle. Those crossing paths in my childhood mind always represented chances and risks because once you were caught on one of those there was no turning around.

I wanted to share that with you because it is an example of how this board game speaks to the child in me –  recalling those days in my little snow suit giggling, laughing and, in part, thrilled at being chased through the snow by my brother, my mother or my father. Christmas is about memories warm and softly recalled. Maybe that’s another reason this game means something to me beyond the rules and the dice.

This is the holiday games junction of Tracy and Laura Hickman. We love playing games for the holidays! We love making games for the holidays even more! Come enjoy our holiday offerings…

Santa’s Sleigh Ride

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the shop
The elves were quite worried that Santa would drop.

He’d failed his eye test just the previous night.
Had his license revoked all because of bad sight.

“I can’t fly my sleigh,” old Saint Nicholas cried.
“Someone else has to take the toys on the big ride!”

A great many elf hands All shot toward the sky
As it seemed the toy makers All wanted to fly.

But Santa Claus wondered, “Just who would be best.”
With a wink he said, “I know! We’ll have a great test!”

“Each elf will deliver — In his special way –
and whoever is fastest THAT elf drives my sleigh!”

Santa Claus has failed his Canadian Sleigh Drivers License test!

He is going to need someone to drive his sleigh for him until he can get a new pair of glasses. So, tonight, he is having a contest between several of his most promising elves to see which one can be the fastest to deliver all the presents on their lists.

Being Santa’s sleigh-driver is an honor that elves would do anything to achieve … and they’re not above bumping a sleigh or two of other elves that get in the way of their dreams!

So everyone grab your sleigh and your part of the list … tonight we deliver Santa’s presents and the first one to finish will become Santa’s
designated sleigh driver!