Holiday traditions are usually pretty chill, right? You drink some cocoa, watch a movie you’ve seen twenty times, and maybe argue about where the tinsel goes. But then someone pulls out a Christmas Spot It game, and suddenly the living room turns into a high-stakes gladiatorial arena. It is wild how a deck of circular cards can turn a group of rational adults into a shouting, pointing mess of competitive energy.
You know the vibe.
The game—originally known as Dobble in Europe and created by Denis Blanchot—is a mathematical marvel disguised as a simple matching exercise. Each card has a handful of symbols, like a tiny reindeer, a snowflake, or a lopsided gingerbread man. Here’s the kicker: between any two cards in the deck, there is always exactly one—and only one—matching symbol. It sounds like magic. It’s actually finite geometry. Specifically, it’s based on something called a "projective plane."
Why your brain glitches during a Christmas Spot It game
Ever find yourself staring at two cards, sweating, knowing there is a match, but your brain just... stops? You’re looking at a candy cane on your card and a candy cane on the center pile, but your mouth won't say the word. That’s because the game plays tricks on your visual perception and your brain's naming speed.
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Size scaling is the biggest culprit.
In a standard Christmas Spot It game, the matching symbols are almost never the same size on both cards. One might be a massive, screen-filling Santa, while the match on the other card is a microscopic red dot in the corner. This messes with our neural shortcuts. Our brains are wired to look for identical patterns, but when the scale changes, the "recognition" software in our head hitches.
Kids often dominate this game. It's honestly humbling. Research in developmental psychology suggests that younger children sometimes have better "iconic memory" and are less bogged down by complex word retrieval than adults. While you’re trying to remember if that green thing is a "Douglas fir" or just a "tree," the seven-year-old has already screamed "TREE!" and snatched the card. They see the shape; you see the concept.
The math behind the holiday madness
Let’s get nerdy for a second. If you’ve ever wondered how the creators ensure there’s always a match, you’re looking at the work of Jacques Cottereau. He was the math enthusiast who realized that a system of points and lines could be translated into a card game. Most versions of the game use a structure where $n^2 + n + 1$ symbols and cards exist, where $n$ is a prime power.
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For the standard game, $n=7$. This should result in 57 cards and 57 symbols, with 8 symbols per card. Interestingly, the commercial version usually ships with 55 cards. Why? Nobody is 100% sure, but rumors in the gaming community suggest it was either a production constraint or just a quirk of the final deck design.
In a themed Christmas Spot It game, the symbols are swapped for seasonal icons. You’ll see stockings, ornaments, bells, and elves. The challenge increases because many of these items share the same color palette. When everything is red, green, and gold, your peripheral vision struggles to distinguish a red mitten from a red sleigh. It’s a literal sensory overload.
Variations that will actually test your friendships
If you’re just playing "whoever sees it first takes the card," you’re missing out on the chaos. There are better ways to play.
Try "The Poisoned Gift." In this version, you’re not looking for your own match. You’re looking for a match between the center card and your opponent’s card. When you find it, you dump the center card onto their pile. The goal is to have the fewest cards at the end. It turns the game from a race into a weirdly aggressive game of hot potato.
Then there’s "Triplet." You lay out nine cards in a grid. The first person to find three cards that all share the same symbol wins that set. It requires a much higher level of focus. You aren't just comparing A to B; you're scanning a 3x3 matrix for a recurring theme.
Spot It vs. the rest of the holiday game shelf
Most holiday games are slow. Monopoly takes three days and ends in a lawsuit. Charades is great until your uncle refuses to act out anything other than "Die Hard."
The Christmas Spot It game works because it’s instant. There’s no setup. You don't have to explain complex rules to grandma. You just say, "Find the match, say it out loud." It’s inclusive. A five-year-old has a legitimate, statistical advantage over a forty-year-old who has had two glasses of eggnog.
It’s also incredibly portable. Most versions come in a small tin. You can throw it in a coat pocket and bring it to a boring office party or a long flight. It’s the ultimate "filler" game.
Pro tips for winning (if you’re that person)
If you absolutely must win against your niece this year, stop looking at the cards as a whole. Your eyes tend to fixate on the center of the circle. This is a trap.
- Scan the edges first. Most people miss the symbols that are partially "cut off" by the curve of the card.
- Don’t blink. Sounds silly, but the split second your eyes are closed is when someone else makes the call.
- Use one-syllable words. Don't say "Christmas Ornament." Just yell "BALL!" It’s faster. The rules usually say you just have to identify it, not give its formal Latin name.
- Focus on color blocks. Instead of looking for a "reindeer," look for "brown shapes." Your brain processes color faster than specific details.
Honestly, though, the best part of a Christmas Spot It game isn't the winning. It’s the noise. It’s the sound of three generations of a family screaming "SNOWMAN!" at the top of their lungs at 10:00 PM on Christmas Eve.
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Putting your skills to the test
If you're looking to pick one up, check for the official Zygomatic or Asmodee versions. They have the best print quality, which matters when you're trying to spot a tiny snowflake in a dim living room. There are also plenty of printable "DIY" versions online if you're in a pinch, though the math on some of those knock-offs can be a bit wonky (nothing ruins a game faster than two cards that actually don't have a match).
Next time you sit down to play, remember that you’re dealing with a mix of visual processing speed and high-level geometry. If you lose, just blame your "slow lexical retrieval" and try again.
To get the most out of your next session, try rotating the cards 90 degrees every few rounds. It resets everyone's spatial awareness and prevents that one person from "memorizing" the layout of certain cards. Also, keep the deck hidden until the moment you start—anticipation is half the fun, but it also keeps the "scanners" from getting a head start.
Focus on the small symbols. That's where the game is won or lost. Most players are distracted by the giant Santa in the middle, leaving the tiny holly leaf on the edge completely ignored. That’s your opening. Grab the card, move to the next, and keep the momentum going before anyone else realizes what happened.