And This Is How It All Began…

The Original

‘Twas December 2007, and I had been working for about two months as a foreign language teacher when I made my first game-like activity – a fun negotiating exercise with a touch of Christmas.

Since then, this game has changed well over a hundred hands, both learners’ and teachers’, but the core concept has remained the same – the reindeer, represented by Rudolph Rednose, and the elves, represented by Elfis McFrost, have rebelled against the unfair conditions under which Santa Claus, Chief Ho-Ho-Ho Officer, runs his North Pole Operations, and the only thing that can save Christmas is smooth negotiations to get his sweatshop – I mean, workshop – up and running again.

Even then I was aware of how creativity, improvisation, and in this specific case – role-play, can positively affect participants in my courses.

Needless to say, the game was a huge success, and inspired by the thrill we all felt every time we played it, I haven’t stopped creating games (and/or game-like activities) since.

The Upgrade

Originally, the game came in the form of basic printable cards for each role, but since I decided to share it with you today, I upgraded the design a bit to meet the PREXcoaching® standards.

I designed the case file in Affinity, with the icons from SVG Repo. I am especially proud of the neat little North Pole stamp I made. Plus, I figured out how to use the Knife Tool on my own. And coming from a completely different background, this feels like a huge win for me.

Content-wise, everything is more or less the same. However, I changed the name of the Head Elf. Originally, it was Alabaster Snowball, but since a book was published with that name in 2023, I decided to change it to preserve originality.

The game is presented as a case file, with the cover followed by the instructions page intended for the moderator (teacher, coach, or any other type of educator). Each subsequent page is a role card featuring the corresponding Statement of Position.

Ideally, the optimal number of players is three, but the game can also be played by two players, i.e., Santa and Rudolph or Elfis. If necessary, an HR moderator can be introduced as a supervisor/mediator, and the number of players can be further expanded with additional union members acting as the Head’s deputy or even deputies.

You can host this game as a teacher to practice negotiating skills or related grammar structures such as conditionals, or you can use it in workshops or team sessions to promote team building, cooperation, and flexibility, as well as hone negotiation skills, communication skills, language skills, etc.

Download the game here and enjoy!

Give me a Ho-Ho-Ho shoutout if you liked it!