Gelt Galore
- Selwyn Ward
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
The Jewish festival of Chanukah/Hanukkah is actually one of the more minor festivals in the Jewish religious calendar. It's certainly much less significant than Rosh Hashonah (Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Pasech (Passover) or even the less widely known festivals of Shavuot, Sukkot or Purim. What's elevated the festival to wider observance and popular appeal is its proximity in the calendar to Christmas, and the corresponding practice of gift giving that's developed in parallel to the established Christmas tradition. So you don't have to be Jewish to have heard of Hanukkah (Festival of Lights) or to identify a Menorah - the nine-branch candelabrum traditionally over the course of the festival; second only to the Magen David (Star of David) as the most widely recognised symbol of Judaism.
There have been plenty of board games themed around the celebration of Christmas - for example, Bullfrog Games' Holiday Fever and Griggling Games' Santa's Bag - and even more games that are Christmas-adjacent by dint of being inspired by Dickens' A Christmas Carol or by actual carols sung over the holiday - for example, Spirits of Christmas (Humble Bard Games), Mickey's Christmas Carol (Funko Games) and Bah! Humbug! (Small Furry Games). There's a traditional Jewish game played with a dreidel (spinning top that functions like a four-sided die) but we haven't otherwise seen many games marking Hanukkah, and that's where Anya and Irina Kagan's Gelt Galore comes in...
Gelt Galore is a Hanukkah-themed trivia and party game published by Gifts Galore. Shown here on Board's Eye View is the new small-box 'Pocket Edition' of the game that first appeared in 2025 a larger box. The game takes 3-10 players, which is more realistic than the '3-24' suggested in the earlier version. It's designed to be played as a light party game but all the trivia questions are firmly focused on the Hanukkah festival itself and its traditions. The earlier version of the game apparently came with a dreidel but this edition substitutes a custom eight-sided die. Whereas a dreidel would ordinarily show four letters of the Hebrew alphabet - נ (nun), ג (gimel), ה (hei), ש (shin) - the d8 just has the numbers 1-4 each featured twice.
The idea is that you roll the d8 to determine the colour/category of trivia card you have to answer. Get the answer right and you draw a 'perk' token from a bag. 'Pot o' Gelt' cards typically let you or another player draw a perk or receive a 'treat' (coin) without answering a question. The game also includes a round where players take treats, pass a treat or swap perks with another player, depending on what they roll.
It's the trivia questions that are the heart of Gelt Galore and these vary from those demanding mere True or False answers, where obviously you have a 50/50 chance of getting the right answer merely through a random guess, through to some very tough questions which demand really detailed knowledge of the Books of Maccabees in the Tanakh (Hebrew/Aramaic Jewish Bible) and/or Jewish American history. There's a 'Tater Tots' deck you can substitute when playing with children or those less familiar with the holiday, but even these questions certainly aren't all super-easy.
Competitive players will want to keep score; so, at the end of the game, treat tokens are worth 1 point, perk tokens are each worth 2 points, and there are set collection bonuses for various multiples and combos of the three varieties of perk token. In addition, you keep hold of the cards you answer correctly and there's a 2 point bonus for the player who has collected the most cards in each of the colours. And because Gelt Galore is intended as a social party game, the rules suggest playing with the option of substituting actual treats for the cardboard treat tokens; chocolate coins, for example. That's not a meshuggah idea, but if you do that, don't be surprised to find some of the players eating their winnings partway through the game :-)
The crowdfunding campaign for Gelt Galore is live now on Backerkit. Publishers Gifts Galore are promising that backers will get their games in time for this year's Hanukkah. Click here to check out the campaign.
(Review by Selwyn Ward)
