· Christmas · Planning
Elf Workshop Kanban: free Christmas planning game
Toy orders pile up. Assign elves, respect the limits and ship every toy by Christmas Eve.
What is Elf Workshop Kanban?
Four days before Christmas Eve, four elves with different skills (woodwork, sewing, painting, gadgets) and a board of toy orders that keeps filling up. Each morning, tap an elf, then a toy: an elf makes 2 units a day on a toy that matches their skill and 1 on any other. Finished toys ship at night, late ones are missed. There's more work than time, so put deadlines and promises first.
Elf Workshop Kanban is a free Christmas planning game. It's four days before Christmas Eve, and the workshop board keeps filling with toy orders: a rocking horse due tomorrow, a robot dog that needs seven units of work, painted kites due tonight. Each order needs one skill (woodwork, sewing, painting or gadgets), and some are ★ promises.
Each morning you assign your four elves: tap an elf, then a toy. An elf makes 2 units a day on their own skill and 1 on anything else, and several elves can team up on a big toy. At night finished toys ship and late ones are missed. The head elf then reviews your plan: idle hands, wasted work, off-skill jobs and promises left waiting.
At a glance
- Category
- Seasonal
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Play time
- 3–5 min
- Price
- Free, in your browser, sign-up optional
How to play
- Assign the elves
- Each morning, tap an elf, then a toy. One toy per elf per day; several elves can share a toy.
- Match the skills
- An elf makes 2 units a day on their own skill, 1 on anything else.
- Ship on time
- Toys ship the night they're finished. A toy unfinished on its due day is missed; a missed ★ promise costs one of 3 hearts.
- Score
- 300 per ★ toy, 150 per other toy, +200 if every promise ships.
Scoring
300 points for each promised (★) toy shipped, 150 for any other toy, and 200 more if every promise ships by Christmas Eve.
A toy unfinished on its due day is missed; a missed promise costs one of 3 hearts.
What it trains
- Prioritising
- Deadlines and promises before nice-to-haves.
- Capacity planning
- Seeing how much the team can really do, and dropping what can't ship.
- Matching skills to work
- The right elf on the right job, without idle hands or overstaffing.
Strategy and tips
- Deadlines first
- Look at what's due today and tomorrow before anything else.
- Promises before nice-to-haves
- A ★ order costs a heart if it's missed: protect those first.
- Right elf, right job
- Skill matching doubles the output. Put elves off-skill only to help a toy that can't make it otherwise.
- Don't overstaff
- Two elves on a toy that needs one more unit waste a unit: spread them out.
- Drop what can't ship
- When a toy can't be finished in time, stop working on it and save the hours for one that can.
Why play Elf Workshop Kanban?
Every team has more work than time. Capacity planning is the skill of seeing how much your people can really do, matching the work to their strengths and deciding, early and calmly, what ships and what doesn't. Elf Workshop Kanban trains that judgement in four short days, with feedback on every plan.
Frequently asked questions
Is Elf Workshop Kanban free?
Yes. It is free and runs in your browser, with no download. Signing up is optional.
How is it different from Kanban Rush?
Kanban Rush is about limiting work in progress on a board. Elf Workshop Kanban is about planning: who works on what, with different skills, deadlines and priorities.
Can I ship every toy?
Not always. There's more work than the elves can do, so the game is about choosing well. Every ★ promise can be shipped with a good plan.
Can I play with a keyboard?
Yes. Every elf and toy is a button: Tab to an elf, press Enter, then Tab to a toy and press Enter. Escape drops the picked elf.