Pigs in Blankets is a colourful, fun, pairs matching game from Orchard Toys in their Mini Games series. The small box is packed full of cheerfully illustrated little piggies wrapped in colourful, fleecy blankets that you have to match up in pairs. And don’t worry none of them gets eaten!

Pigs in Blankets has thirty two cheeky porkers in sixteen pairs each wrapped in their unique blankets of splendid designs. They are made from quality, thick card that can withstand a lot of handling by small hands. Each of the eight two coloured boards holds two pairs of pigs. Pigs in Blankets is described on the box lid as a Christmas game though this seems to be largely because of the punning title’s reference to the Turkey dinner accompaniment and though a few of the blankets are seasonally themed this doesn’t stop the game being an all year round treat.

Pigs in Blankets is basically the mind training game known as Pelmanism. You put out all the cards face down on the table and then each player turns over two of them to see if they can get a matching pair. If they do, they take the pair and have another go. If it is not a match the cards are turned back face down and it’s the next player’s turn. The trick, of course, is to remember where the pigs from unsuccessful attempts lie so you can recall them if you turn up their partner. To this end it is easier if the cards are initially laid out in a regular pattern, say four rows of eight, rather than randomly scattered but this is up to you. Play continues until all the pairs are matched and the person with the most pairs wins.

Pigs in Blankets is a very nicely produced game and makes an excellent little stocking filler or little party game. Whilst you could play the game itself with just a deck of ordinary playing cards this production has a lot of additional benefits. My granddaughter, who is under the suggested minimum age for Pigs in Blankets, still enjoyed matching the cute pictures. She already likes mini jigsaws and enjoyed putting the Pigs back into their cardboard sheets. All the Pig shapes and corresponding holes are the same so you can have a lot of fun either putting the right Pigs in the right coloured holes or mixing and matching them up to make your own variations (as has been shown in the picture).

Orchard Toys produces educational games with the aim to make learning fun and Pigs in Blankets is a perfect example of this as your child will develop shape matching and colour recognition skills whilst enjoying the delightful artwork.

This blog was written by Pete Bartlam