Every Christmas I tend to seek out different Christmas themed activities, arts, crafts and games for my daughter. Last year I was browsing in The Early Learning Centre when I came across a pack of Christmas Snap Cards. I knew my daughter would like them, not only because they were Christmas themed but because she had just learnt to play snap!

There are a generous amount of cards per pack (48) and they come in a cardboard box, which is essential for keeping the cards stored in! The designs on the cards include an elf, angel, fairy, snowman, robin, Christmas tree, Santa and reindeer. The characters also have fun names written underneath such as 'Robbie Robin', 'Eddie Elf' and 'Sammy Snowman' which makes them seem a little bit more fun. The designs are fun, colourful, recognisable and most importantly - festive! They're sure to please all little ones. The back of the cards feature a repeated pattern of the ELC logo, so there's no way of seeing what your opponent has!

The cards have the same thickness as regular playing cards, which is slightly disappointing given that they are aimed at young children who are notorious for being heavy handed. Although I must admit that our cards are still in excellent condition, so it's not really a problem. They have a glossy finish so they're easy enough to wipe clean. The cards are recommend for children 3+ years and are absolutely unisex.

We recently got these cards out from the loft with the rest of the Christmas decorations and my daughter was very pleased to see them again! I like to put her Christmassy things away after Christmas so she doesn't have to see them all year round and can get excited and feel festive when her Christmassy things make an appearance the next Christmas. We played with the cards a lot over last Christmas and have been playing with them again for a week or so this Christmas, she still seems to enjoy them as much as she did last year (she was 4 then, she is 5 now). There are 2 games that we play with these cards, simply because I don't know any other card games (and they're easy enough for my daughter to grasp)! We play snap and pairs. I'm sure everybody knows the rules of snap, but here goes anyway! To play snap we split the cards in half and take turns to place the cards down, face up. When a matching pair appear we have to shout 'SNAP!' and place our hand on the pile of cards. Whoever snaps first wins the pile of cards. My daughter absolutely adores this game and gets really excited by the suspense! To play pairs we place all of the cards face down on the table. Then we take turns at turning 2 cards over to find a matching pair. My daughter really enjoys this game too and is surprisingly good at it, possibly better than I am! She's also happy to play this one by herself. Not only is it fun but it has educational aspects, the most obvious being memory skills. Both games usually take us a while to play and she never seems to get bored or distracted, although if your child has a short attention span you can always take some cards away to shorten the games...

The ELC Christmas Snap Cards are only available at The Early Learning Centre and The Early Learning Centre website. They cost just £2.00 a pack (currently on sale for £1.00), which is pretty good value for money.