Bonus game · 2 players, one phone
Christmas Light Smash: a Sunburnt Santa bonus game
A two-player game on one phone: lay it flat between you, take a half each, and race to smash the Christmas lights as they come on. 45 seconds, first come first served, and watch out for the blue duds.
How to play Christmas Light Smash
- Two players, one phone: sit opposite each other with the phone flat between you. Each of you gets a half.
- Smash the Christmas lights as they come on: 1 point each. 45 seconds.
- Gold bulb: first one there takes a point off the other player. Blue dud: you freeze for a second.
Scoring
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Lit bulb | 1 point |
| Gold bulb (first player there) | 1 point, plus 1 taken off the other player (if they have one) |
| Blue dud | frozen for 1 second |
Both halves show the same lights, coming on at the same moment, so it's a straight race. A gold bulb goes dark for the other player as soon as one of you smashes it. Tapping a dark bulb does nothing. Unranked: it's for bragging rights at the table. Opens once 8 doors have a star.
Bonus game: opens once you have at least one star on 8 doors. Two-player games are just for fun and never go on a leaderboard.
Tips for a big score
- Tapping a dark bulb costs nothing, but tapping a blue dud freezes you for a full second while your opponent keeps smashing. Look before you tap: duds get more common as the round goes on.
- Gold bulbs are a two-point swing, because you gain one and your opponent loses one. They don't stay lit as long as the others, so when one comes on, drop whatever you were aiming at and go for it.
- Bulbs come on faster and more of them are lit at once towards the end, so the closing seconds are where games are won. Use two fingers, one for each string of lights, and sit square to your half so your taps land where you aim.
The real story: the Christmas light smashers of Australia
In this game it's you and your cousin smashing the lights. In real Australian suburbs, the culprits usually have feathers. In Canberra, the ACT Government made 243 street light repairs from April 2018 that were put down to suspected or confirmed bird damage, many of them caused by cockatoos and corellas chewing or pulling out wiring, and it said the true figure could be higher [1].
Why lights? A cockatoo's beak grows all the time and has to be worn down by gnawing, and a Canberra naturalist reckons that stripping the rubber off a light isn't far from the bird's everyday habit of ripping bark off trees to find food [1]. The Australian Museum notes that sulphur-crested cockatoos bite off twigs and leaves they never eat, which may help keep the bill trimmed, and that in towns they turn that bill on timber decking and house panelling [2].
So if your fairy lights stop working one December morning, check the gutter for a big white bird before you blame the fuse. Then settle it the civilised way: phone flat on the table, one half each, 45 seconds. For more on the feathered vandals, read why cockatoos chew Christmas lights.
Read more: Why do cockatoos rip off Christmas lights?.
When it opens
Christmas Light Smash opens once at least 8 doors have a star. How the calendar works.
Play now
Sources for the real story
- Cockatoos are vandalistic punks, but just how much damage do they do?, Region Canberra
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Australian Museum