Advent Mahjong

About Advent Mahjong

Advent Mahjong wraps mahjong solitaire around an advent calendar, and the structure is the reason to play it rather than a decoration on top. Instead of an unbroken run of layouts, each board you clear unlocks the next door of a festive calendar, so progress is marked in a way that ordinary mahjong solitaire does not bother with. That gives the game something most tile-matchers lack, which is a reason to come back tomorrow rather than to keep going now. The puzzles themselves are standard and good: intricate layouts where you remove pairs of identical tiles that are uncovered and open on a left or right edge, with the interlocking getting deliberately tighter as the calendar progresses. The game describes that escalation as drawing you closer to the holiday celebration, which is a nice way of saying the last doors are considerably harder than the first. It plays free in a browser with nothing to install.

How to play Advent Mahjong

1. Open the current door of the advent calendar to reveal its layout.
2. Remove pairs of identical tiles that are uncovered and open on the left or right edge.
3. Clear the whole layout to unlock the next door.
4. Expect the layouts to interlock more tightly as you progress through the calendar.
5. Work through the calendar to the final festive board.

Controls

• Desktop: Click a tile, then click its match.
• Mobile / tablet: Tap a tile, then tap its match.

Advent Mahjong tips & strategy

• The calendar structure makes this the best mahjong game here to play a little of each day rather than in one sitting.
• Later doors are genuinely harder, not just differently decorated. Expect to need top-down clearing discipline by the end.
• With four copies of a tile on the board, take the two most buried first; the exposed pair will still be there later.
• Clear the ends of long rows early, because a row blocked at both ends locks everything in the middle of it.

What makes Advent Mahjong fun

Advent-calendar structured mahjong solitaire where each cleared layout unlocks the next festive door, with difficulty rising toward the end. Free online.