How to Play Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! Card Game (Rules and Instructions)

Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! was first published by Funko Games in 2021. In the game you take turns playing as the Grinch and the Whos. As the holidays approach, the Grinch is his usual grouchy self. It is time to try and bring joy to the Grinch and hopefully grow the size of his heart. The goal is to acquire cards that match various scoring combinations in order to increase your score and win the game.

Year: 2021 | Publisher: Funko Games | Designer: Funko Games | Artist: NA

Genres: Card, Family, Set Collection

Ages: 6+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 15-20 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate-High

Components: 48 cards, Grinch tile, 2 Heart tokens, score pad, instructions

Where to Purchase: Amazon, eBay Any purchases made through these links (including other products) help keep Geeky Hobbies running. Thank you for your support.

Objective of Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart!

The objective of Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! is to score more points from your cards than the other players.

Setup

Take a score sheet and write each players’ initials in one of the columns at the top of the sheet.
Shuffle the cards and place them face down in the middle of the table.
The oldest player will be the Grinch in the first round. They will take the Grinch tile and both Heart tokens.

Playing Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart!

The game is played over a number of rounds. The number of rounds that you will play is determined by the number of players:

Two players – Six rounds
Three players – Six rounds
Four players – Four rounds
Five players – Five rounds
Six players – Six rounds

In each round one of the players will play as the Grinch. The rest of the players will play as the Whos.

Playing A Round

Each round begins with each player being dealt two cards from the draw pile. Players may look at their own cards, but shouldn’t show them to the other players.

Opening Hand in Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! — This player was dealt a pink three and a yellow four to start the game.

The Who players will take their turn first. All of the Who players will take their turn at the same time.

Each Who player will draw two cards from the draw pile to add to their hand. They will then choose one card from their hand to add to their own personal discard pile.

Choose Card to Keep in Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! — This player originally began the round with the pink three and yellow four. This turn they drew the two and three yellow. They will have to choose one of these four cards from their hand to discard.

Discard Card in Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! — This player originally began the round with the pink three and yellow four. This turn they drew the two and three yellow. They will have to choose one of these four cards from their hand to discard.

The Grinch player will then take their turn. They will draw two cards. Unlike the Who players though, they can either take cards from the draw pile or the top of any of the players’ discard piles (this includes their own discard pile). They can take two cards from the same pile, or they can choose to take cards from two different piles.

Grinch Choose Card — For their turn the Grinch player will have a couple choices of cards to choose from. They can choose to take the pink one, yellow two, and/or pink three cards discarded by the other players. Otherwise they could choose to take cards from the draw pile. They will get to take two cards total.

The Grinch player will then discard one of the cards from their hand to their own personal discard pile.

The Grinch player will now look at their Grinch tile. The number inside the heart shows how many cards each player should have in their hand.

Grinch Token — As the Grinch tile has a three on it, each player should have three cards in their hand.

Find the next highest Heart token that hasn’t been added to the Grinch tile. Place this tile on top of the Grinch tile.

Increase the Grinch's Heart — The Grinch player has placed the next heart token on the Grinch tile.

You will now play another turn. The Whos will draw two more cards and discard one. The Grinch player will then take their turn.

The round will continue until there are no more Heart tokens to add to the Grinch tile (three turns have been played/there are five cards in your hand). Play will then move onto scoring.

End of Round in Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! — The third round has concluded as the five heart has been added to the Grinch token. The round has ended. The game will proceed to scoring.

Scoring

During the round each player will acquire five cards. Each player will use these five cards for one of the game’s scoring options. Each player can choose which option they want to score. The players don’t all have to score the same option each round.

Scoresheet from Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart!

Once you have used a scoring option, you may not score it again for the rest of the game. Once you have tallied your score, you will write it down in the corresponding row on the score sheet.

Scoring a Category in Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! — This player decided to score the noise category this round. They scored 22 points, so they write the number in the corresponding section of the scoresheet. They will not be able to score the noise category again for the rest of the game.

The various scoring options in the game are as follows:

Wreaths: Total the number of points printed on your green Wreath cards.

Scoring Wreaths — This player acquired four green wreaths. They will score 14 points (2 + 3 + 4 + 5) from the cards. They will also score the five bonus points from the green two wreath.

Noise: Total the points printed on your yellow Noise cards.

Scoring Noise — This player acquired four noise cards in the round. They will score 15 points from these cards (2 + 3 + 4 + 6). They will also score the five bonus points from the yellow two card.

Ornaments: Total the points printed on your pink Ornament cards.

Scoring Ornaments — This player acquired four pink ornament cards. They will score 13 points (1 + 3 + 5 + 4) from the cards.

Presents: Total the points printed on your blue Present cards.

Scoring Presents — This player acquired four present cards in the round. They will score 18 points (4 + 5 + 6 + 3) from the cards.

Rainbow: Total the highest numbered card you have of each color.

Scoring Rainbow — This player has decided to score their cards using the rainbow category. They will score the highest number card of each color. This includes the five green wreath, the four pink ornament, the six blue present, and the six yellow noise. They will not score any points from the three green wreath. They will score a total of 21 points from the cards.

Match Number: You will score points based on how many cards you have of the same number.

Three cards: 10 points
Four cards: 20 points
Five cards: 30 points

Scoring Match Number — This player acquired four three cards during the round. This will score them 20 points. They also completed the bonus points on the bottom of the yellow/noise three card, so they would score an additional ten points.

Run in Order: You will score points by having four or more cards in numerical order.

Four cards: 15 points
Five cards: 25 points

Scoring Run in Order — This player has decided to score using the run in order category. They acquired five cards in numerical order. They will score 25 points from the cards.

Bonus Points

Some of the cards in Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! feature the opportunity to score bonus points. You may score points from a bonus even if it is on a card that you would otherwise not score points from. You can score multiple bonuses in the same round.

Bonus +5: To score the five bonus points, you must have one or more cards of the suit/color shown at the bottom of the card.

Scoring Bonus Points — The card on the left features a bonus opportunity on the bottom. To score five bonus points, you need to have a yellow card in your hand. If a player had these two cards in their hand at the end of the round, the player would score the five bonus points.

Bonus +10: To score the ten bonus points, you must have three or more cards of the suit/color shown at the bottom of the card.

Scoring A Bonus — The card at the top includes a ten point bonus. To score the bonus points you need three yellow/noise cards in your hand. If a player would have these four cards in their hand, they would score ten bonus points.

Start the Next Round

After all of the players have finished scoring their cards, the role of Grinch will pass to the next player clockwise (left). The Grinch tile and Heart tokens are passed to this player.

Shuffle all of the cards together. The next round is then played in the same way as the previous round.

End of Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart!

Dr. Seuss Grinch Grow Your Heart! ends when the corresponding number of rounds have been played. All of the players should have played as the Grinch the same number of rounds.

Each player will add up the points they scored from all of the rounds. The player that scored the most points, wins the game.

If there is a tie, the tied players share the victory.