Gamehelpsantasworkshopsecondedition

Overview

Welcome to the North Pole! Santa is preparing for Christmas Eve, and his elves have plenty of work to do.

In Santa's Workshop (Second Edition), you lead a team of elves competing to earn a vacation with Santa. Build toys, collect materials, tend reindeer, decorate your Christmas tree, and earn points for helping around the workshop.

The player with the most points at the end of the game wins!

These rules describe the Standard Game, recommended for ages 6+. The Advanced Game uses additional components and different rules.

Game Components

1 Game Board
5 Player Mats
15 Elf Figures (3 per player color)
5 Score Markers
1 Santa Figure
1 Santa's Sleigh
1 First Player Marker
45 Toy Cards
18 Standard Reindeer Cards
25 Ornament Tokens
24 Fabric Tokens
24 Wood Tokens
24 Metal Tokens
24 Assembly Tokens

Setup

Workshop Setup

Place the game board in the center of the table, using the Standard Game side with the green-bordered score track.
Separate the Fabric, Wood, Metal, and Assembly tokens into supply piles.
Place Santa on December 19 of the calendar track.
Place Santa's Sleigh beside the game board.
Shuffle the 25 Ornament tokens and place them face down, with their colored sides visible, at the Christmas Tree.
Shuffle the 45 Toy cards into a face-down deck.
Reveal 6 Toy cards, placing one in each Mail Room slot.
Shuffle the 18 Standard Reindeer cards into a face-down deck.
Reveal 3 Reindeer cards, placing one in each Reindeer Stable stall.

Player Setup

Each player receives:

1 Player Mat in their chosen color, with the Standard Game Christmas Tree side facing up.
3 matching Elf Figures.
1 matching Score Marker, placed on 0 with its 100-side down.
2 starting Toy cards, placed face up beside their Player Mat.

The player who has had the fewest birthdays takes the First Player Marker. If tied, the youngest tied player goes first.

Game Overview

The game lasts 6 rounds, called days.

Each day, players take turns clockwise, placing one Elf at a workshop station and immediately performing its action.

Each player has 3 Elves, allowing 3 actions per day.

After all Elves have been placed, the day ends and the workshop resets.

Santa conducts an inspection after every 3 days:

First Inspection: After Day 3.
Second Inspection: After Day 6.

After the second inspection, the game ends and final scoring takes place.

Taking Your Turn

On your turn:

Choose one of your unplaced Elves.
Place it at an available workshop station.
Immediately resolve that station's action.

Then the next player takes their turn.

Some stations may hold only 1 Elf per day. Others may allow multiple Elves, sometimes in a required order.

Station Types

Single-occupancy stations: A small closed bracket means only one Elf may use that station during the day.

Open stations: A large open bracket allows any number of Elves to use that station during the day.

Some workshop areas have numbered stations that must be filled in sequence.

Building Toys

Toy cards represent children's Christmas wishes.

Each Toy card shows:

The toy's name and illustration.
The required Wood, Metal, Fabric, and Assembly tokens.
The points earned when the toy is completed.

You begin with 2 unfinished Toy cards and may have no more than 5 unfinished Toys at any time.

Adding Tokens to Toys

Whenever you collect a Material or Assembly token, you must immediately either:

Place it on an unfinished Toy card that requires it.
Donate it to the Donation Center.

You cannot save tokens for future turns.

Tokens may be added in any order, but once placed on a Toy they cannot be moved to another Toy.

A Toy can remain unfinished across multiple days.

Completing a Toy

When every required token has been placed on a Toy:

Immediately score the points printed on its card.
Return the tokens on that Toy to the supply.
Flip the completed Toy face down and place it beside your Player Mat.

Completed Toys remain there until Santa's next Inspection, when they are loaded onto the Sleigh.

Completed Toys no longer count toward your limit of 5 unfinished Toys.

Important: Once you acquire a Toy card, you cannot discard it to make room for another.

Material Shops

There are 3 Material Shops:

Fabric Shop: Collect Fabric tokens.
Wood Shop: Collect Wood tokens.
Metal Shop: Collect Metal tokens.

Each shop contains 4 stations that must be occupied in order, from 1st through 4th.

Material Shop Rewards

Station	Tokens Received
1st	2
2nd	3
3rd	4
4th	5

All tokens taken match the Material type of the shop.

Cooperation Bonus

Whenever an Elf is placed in a Material Shop, every player immediately scores 1 point for each Elf they already have in that same shop.

This includes your own previously placed Elves.

Example:

The first Elf takes 2 tokens.
The second Elf takes 3 tokens, and the owner of the first Elf scores 1 point.
The third Elf takes 4 tokens, and the owners of the first and second Elves each score 1 point.
The fourth Elf takes 5 tokens, and the owners of the first three Elves each score 1 point.

These points are awarded whenever a later Elf joins the shop, not only at the end of the day.

Any collected tokens that cannot be placed on your unfinished Toys must be donated.

Assembly Hall

The Assembly Hall provides Assembly tokens used to complete Toys.

It operates exactly like the Material Shops.

Stations must be occupied in order.

Station	Assembly Tokens
1st	2
2nd	3
3rd	4
4th	5

Whenever an Elf is placed here, every player scores 1 point per Elf they already have in the Assembly Hall.

Assembly tokens must immediately be placed on unfinished Toys or donated.

Donation Center

The Donation Center encourages elves to share their extra resources.

Donating Tokens

Whenever you receive Material or Assembly tokens, you may donate any number of them.

For every token donated:

Place the token in the Donation Center.
Immediately score 1 point.

This applies even when the donated token came from a bonus or another workshop location.

Collecting Donations

You may place an Elf in the Donation Center to collect available tokens.

You may take any tokens currently there, but only as many as your unfinished Toys actually need.

Collected tokens must immediately be placed on your unfinished Toys.

You cannot:

Take more tokens than you need.
Store donated tokens for future turns.
Earn donation points simply by leaving unused tokens in the Donation Center.

Unused tokens remain available for other players.

Mail Room

The Mail Room is where new Toy requests arrive.

There are 2 available station actions:

Take up to 3 Toy cards.
Take up to 2 Toy cards.

You may never exceed the limit of 5 unfinished Toys.

If both stations are available, you may choose either one.

Choosing Toy Cards

Select Toy cards one at a time.

For each card, you may choose:

One of the 6 face-up Toy cards in the Mail Room.
The top card of the face-down Toy deck.

Whenever you take a face-up Toy, immediately replace it with a new card from the deck.

If you already have 5 unfinished Toys, you cannot place an Elf in the Mail Room.

You cannot discard an unfinished Toy to replace it.

Empty Toy Deck

If the Toy deck runs out, take the completed Toys from Santa's Sleigh and reshuffle them into a new Toy deck.

Reindeer Stables

The Reindeer Stables provide Reindeer cards and bonus Materials.

The Stables contain 3 stations, which must be filled in order from 1st to 3rd.

When placing an Elf here:

Choose any available face-up Reindeer card.
Place it face down beside your Player Mat.
Collect the number of Material tokens indicated by your station.

For each Material token received, you may independently choose:

Wood
Metal
Fabric

These tokens must immediately be used on unfinished Toys or donated.

Reindeer Collection

Reindeer cards are worth points at the end of the game based on the number of different Reindeer collected.

Cards with the same Reindeer name are duplicates.

You may keep the identities of your collected Reindeer secret, but must reveal how many Reindeer cards you have if another player asks.

Reindeer Card Refill

Reindeer cards are not replaced immediately when taken.

At the end of each day:

Move any remaining face-up Reindeer cards to the bottom of the Reindeer deck.
Reveal 3 new Reindeer cards, one for each stall.

Christmas Tree

The Christmas Tree lets you collect Ornaments and earn bonuses.

When placing an Elf at either available Christmas Tree station:

Choose any face-down Ornament token from the shared supply.
Reveal the reward on the back of that Ornament.
Immediately gain the indicated reward.
Place the Ornament, colored side up, on an empty space of your personal Christmas Tree.
Gain the reward printed on the tree space you just covered.

Ornament rewards may provide Materials, Assembly tokens, cards, or points, according to their icons.

Your personal tree has 6 Ornament spaces.

Once all 6 spaces are filled, you can no longer visit the Christmas Tree location.

Why Ornaments Matter

Ornaments provide two benefits:

Immediate rewards from the Ornament and the covered tree space.
Christmas Cheer during Santa's Inspections.

All Ornaments placed on your personal Christmas Tree continue counting toward Christmas Cheer at both Inspections.

End of Day

After every player has placed all 3 Elves, the day ends.

Perform the following steps:

Return all placed Elves to their owners.
Move remaining Reindeer cards in the Stables to the bottom of the Reindeer deck.
Reveal 3 new Reindeer cards in the Stables.
Advance Santa along the calendar track.
If Santa reaches an Inspection space, resolve Santa's Inspection.
Pass the First Player Marker clockwise to the next player.

The new First Player begins the next day.

Santa's Inspection

Santa performs an Inspection after Day 3 and Day 6.

During an Inspection, players receive bonus points based on their Christmas Cheer.

Calculating Christmas Cheer

Christmas Cheer is the sum of:

The number of completed Toy cards currently beside your Player Mat.
The number of Ornaments placed on your personal Christmas Tree.

Christmas Cheer = Completed Toys + Ornaments

The point values of completed Toys do not matter for this calculation. Each completed Toy counts as 1 Cheer.

Inspection Rewards

Cheer Rank	Points
1st	8
2nd	4
3rd	2
4th	1

Players tied at a rank each receive the full points for that rank.

Players with the next lower Cheer total receive the next ranking reward.

For example:

Two players tied for highest Cheer each score 8 points.
The player with the next-highest Cheer scores 4 points.
The player after that scores 2 points.

After an Inspection

Move all completed Toy cards from beside the players' mats into Santa's Sleigh.

These cards no longer count as completed Toys for the next Inspection.

However, all previously placed Ornaments continue to count.

First Inspection

Occurs after the first 3 days.

Count all Toys completed during Days 1–3, plus all Ornaments placed so far.

After the Inspection, place completed Toys in the Sleigh and prepare for the next day.

Second Inspection

Occurs after Day 6.

Count only Toys completed since the first Inspection, plus all Ornaments placed throughout the game.

Award Inspection points and move completed Toys into the Sleigh.

The game ends immediately after the second Inspection.

End of Game Scoring

After Santa's second Inspection, players receive final bonus points for:

Tokens on unfinished Toys.
Collected Reindeer cards.

These points are added to all points scored during the game.

Unfinished Toys

Score 1 point for every Material or Assembly token already placed on your unfinished Toy cards.

You do not score the printed Toy point value unless the Toy was completed.

Example:

If your unfinished Toys contain 6 tokens in total, score 6 points.

Reindeer Scoring

Count the number of different Reindeer names you collected.

Score according to the following table:

Different Reindeer	Points
1	1
2	3
3	6
4	9
5	12
6	16
7	20
8	25
9	31

Duplicate Reindeer:

For every Reindeer card beyond the first copy of the same Reindeer, score 2 additional points.

Reindeer Scoring Example

Suppose you collected:

Dasher
Dancer
Vixen (2 copies)
Cupid
Blitzen (2 copies)

You have 7 Reindeer cards but only 5 different Reindeer.

5 different Reindeer = 12 points.
2 duplicate Reindeer = 4 points.

Total Reindeer Score: 16 points.

Winning the Game

Your final score includes:

Points from completed Toys.
Points from cooperation bonuses in the Material Shops and Assembly Hall.
Points from donations.
Other immediate point bonuses.
Points from both Santa's Inspections.
Points for tokens on unfinished Toys.
Points from Reindeer cards.

The player with the most points wins and earns a sunny vacation with Santa!

Tiebreaker

If players are tied for the highest score, the tied player with the most points from Reindeer cards wins.

If they are still tied, they share the victory.

Quick Reference

Each Day:

Place your 3 Elves, one at a time.
Resolve each station's action immediately.
Build Toys, collect Reindeer, decorate your Tree, and earn points.
Return Elves and reset the Reindeer Stables.

Important Limits:

Maximum 5 unfinished Toys.
Maximum 6 Ornaments on your personal Tree.
Collected Material and Assembly tokens cannot be stored.
Tokens placed on Toys cannot be moved.
Completed Toys score immediately.
Material Shops and Assembly Hall must be filled in order.
Reindeer cards are refilled only at the end of the day.

Game Length:

6 days total.
Inspection after Days 3 and 6.
Final scoring after the second Inspection.

Strategy Tips

Use cooperation bonuses: Placing Elves early in Material Shops can generate points when other players use those shops later.
Finish Toys efficiently: Completed Toys provide immediate points and contribute to Christmas Cheer.
Donate unwanted resources: Each donated token earns 1 point.
Plan your Mail Room visits: You cannot hold more than 5 unfinished Toys.
Diversify your Reindeer: Different Reindeer are generally worth more than duplicates.
Decorate early: Ornaments count toward both Inspections and provide immediate bonuses.
Watch the Inspection timing: Completing Toys before Days 3 and 6 end can improve your Cheer ranking.
Consider unfinished Toys: Tokens placed on incomplete Toys still provide points at the end of the game.

Game Credits

Game Design: Keith Ferguson
Development: Paul Salomon
Production: Brent Dickman
Illustration: Andrew Bosley and Jacqui Davis
Graphic Design: Matt Paquette & Co.
Rulebook Consultant: Jason D. Kingsley

Rules based on the official Santa's Workshop Second Edition Standard Game rulebook.