
- BGG rank
- BGG #2
- BGG rating
- 8.5
Ark Nova
- 1–4 players
- 90–150 min
- Complexity 3.8/5
- 2021

Rules assistance for Christmas Tree: Essen Special Cards
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

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Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Christmas Tree: Essen Special Cards is an expansion for Christmas Tree released in 2018 for 2–4 players and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Nagy Balázs and its main mechanics are Open Drafting.
Christmas Tree: Essen Special Cards is a mini-expansion for Christmas Tree that consists of two extra objective cards. Usable: With the normal and advanced game. Objective: 6 points for each formation containing 3 ornaments: 2 glass ornaments with the same color and shape on both sides of a gingerbread/wrapped candy. Setup: Shuffle the 2 Special cards into the deck. During the game: At the beginning of the round, after the ornament cards are dealt, if you have a Special card in your hand, put it face up into the middle of the table and draw a new ornament card from the remaining deck. After you have chosen your objective cards as usual, place them from the Special card(s) separately (in the advanced game, after the objectives went around.). The Special cards are objective cards, but not in a standard way. During the evaluation of the objectives at the end of the round, you can choose one (or two) Special card(s) from the table (if there is any), instead of one (or two) original objective card(s). You will evaluate the chosen Special card(s), instead of the chosen original card(s) (but the other players still can use the original objectives). This way you will score the same number of objectives as usual, but you will have the option to choose a Special objective card - which maybe better fits your christmas tree - instead of one of the original objectives.
Christmas Tree: Essen Special Cards supports 2–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The catalogue lists Christmas Tree: Essen Special Cards for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Christmas Tree: Essen Special Cards belongs to these categories: Card Game and Expansion for Base-game. Its main mechanics are Open Drafting. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Christmas Tree: Essen Special Cards are: Nagy Balázs. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Christmas Tree: Essen Special Cards as an expansion for Christmas Tree. Expansions add new content, rules or scenarios to the base game and usually cannot be played on their own, so you need Christmas Tree to use it. Check that your edition of Christmas Tree is compatible, as some expansions were revised between editions.