Christmas Deck

The Christmas Deck is Lascuarenta.es (The Forty)'s winter edition, made for the games that only happen at Christmas: the long lunch on the 25th, the afternoon with the cousins you only see once a year, and the New Year's Eve session that starts with coffee and ends at dawn.

The four Spanish suits keep their silhouette intact and change their outfit. Coins are golden discs engraved with a snowflake, cups are chalices with holly and red baubles, swords carry ribbons and fir branches on the hilt and clubs are logs wrapped in ribbons and mistletoe. Each suit's ace is a full composition, with fir, ribbon and star, in the style of old greeting-card sheets.

The court cards are the clearest nod to the holiday: the coins feature elves, the reindeer and Santa Claus; the cups, swords and clubs bring in the Three Wise Men and their camel. The house rule still applies: the rank and the corner marking read before the illustration, so the deck stays playable on a phone screen.

It's a seasonal deck, but it doesn't expire: once you own it you can use it in any game and any month of the year, just like the Halloween deck.