It’s the holidays once again, and everyone is looking to enjoy the best of Christmas-themed entertainment.
Thankfully, there is Christmas-themed music and movies to keep us in the spirit of the season, but what about something for game lovers?
Indeed, holiday-themed video games are not as standard as movies and films.
However, if you are looking for the best Christmas-themed video games, we have compiled them in this article, especially for you.
1. Super Mario Odyssey’s Snow Kingdom
The most excellent and most recent Super Mario game features a variety of locales for you to explore, including hot deserts and sunny beaches.
However, it comes with an exclusive world for the holiday season, a snow kingdom. The spirit of Christmas is evident in this Christmas-themed video game, and you’ll love it.
You’ll mostly hear sleigh bells in the distance as you place, and some of the bad guys put in Santa hats, but these are the things that make the game special.
2. Destiny 2: The Dawning
Every year, the Bungie hit multiplayer shooter spices up the holidays with “The Dawning.” This one adds a wintery skin to the game’s primary social hub: The Tower.
Last year’s Dawning was mainly about cooking. Searching out ingredients in the game world, transporting them back to Eva’s oven to bake some cookies. Wonder why you have to bake?
You’ll need to exchange those delicious cookies for cool new loot, including the Avalanche Heavy Machinegun. You definitely should check out what 2019 has to offer
The event will run until the weekly reset on New Year’s Day.
3. Overwatch: Winter Wonderland
As a follow up of 2017’s festive events, Overwatch’s traditional “Winter Wonderland” began on Dec. 11, 2018, and ran all the way through Jan. 2. Expect even better this year!
Blizzard comes with a multiplayer hit will deck the halls with snowy landscapes, festive character skins, and mad brawls: we are talking about “Yeti Hunter” and “Mei’s Snowball Offensive.”
If you would like to see both the old and new Christmas themed skins, you can check it out at Blizzard’s website.
4. Dead Rising 4
So you love to run over zombies. You have done precisely that with an electrified go-kart all year round, and it is time for some new changes.
Dead Rising 4 shines bright every holiday with its Christmas setting, which features explosive Santa traps, candy cane crossbows, and lots more.
You’ll enjoy using the holiday-themed weapons on those zombies. This is one of the best holiday-themed games you would ever play because of how action-packed it is.
The zombie outbreak for this game starts on Black Friday, but we are glad that most of the fun takes place in a mall and the stores that surround it.
That means you have lots of weapon options to select from when it’s time to kill.
Initially, we Xbox One exclusive, people who own PS4 can enjoy the Christmas-themed experience now, with a range of downloadable content that is created especially for the game.
5. Hitman 2 – Holiday Hoarders
This recent game in the Human series provides players with different worldwide locales that function like huge sandboxes for assassination.
We agree that it might not be the warmest of material for the holiday season, but trust me when I say the Christmas themed chapter titled “Holiday Hoarders” is fun to try.
It walks you through a decorative Paris as you try to stop two robbers – Marv and Harry – who act like the Grinch trying to steal Christmas presents. It’ll remind you of the home alone movies, but a more deadly experience.
It is an automatic update to people who own Hitman 2. For every other person, you can enjoy it on the digital storefronts for Xbox One, PC and PS4. Great Christmas themed video game, I must say.
Mobile game updates
Yes, I agree it may seem like I’m cheating a little on this one, but you will agree with me that the holiday updates to mobile games are too many (especially those games that are free-to-play), which means we can’t cover them all in-depth.
Also, most of the updates to such games do little or nothing apart from putting a Santa hat on their icon. But then, if there is any mobile game you love, check to confirm if it has an update!
6. Christmas NiGHTS
This is one of the oldest Christmas themed videogame I know, Christmas NiGHTS still is a favorite for many people.
It was a particular version of Sega Saturn classic NiGHTS: Into Dreams, and people got it free by various means (mostly with gaming magazines).
If Christmas Nights is played during December, the video game’s environments is automatically decorated with lights, snow, and presents, with a soothing instrumental version of Jingle Bells replacing the original music.
If you don’t have a Sega Saturn, you can try the recently released NiGHTS HD ( this one is available on PS3, 360, and PC) that features the Christmas NiGHTS game as an unlockable.
7. The Escapists: Santa’s Sweatshop and Santa’s Shakedown
Regardless of its retro, somewhat “cute” aesthetic, The Escapists is no doubt a ruthless game about escaping and surviving prison.
There is a free add-on to the game known as Santa’s Sweatshop in which you can play as an elf. There is no much difference in the moment-to-moment in the game, but it has a lot of festive flairs you’ll enjoy.
The 2017 sequel of the game, The Escapists 2, has some excellent Christmas DLC available for free: Santa’s Shakedown.
8. Costume Quest: Grubbins on Ice
Costume Quest is not just any game because it quickly becomes a favorite. A lot of people play these games mostly during Halloween, and it has Grubbins on Ice content for download that extends to the holiday season.
Like the real game, this one is an incredibly charming one and enjoyable for the entire family. If you want it on PC, you can get the complete Costume Quest package for a mere $2.50.
9. Batman: Arkham Origins
The same way Die Hard turned out, a movie that happens during Christmas and is automatically listed as an excellent “Christmas movie,” this is a Batman game that has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus or the essence of giving gifts to families and friends … But the action takes place on Christmas Eve.
There is a snow-covered Gotham skin that becomes one of the first features that catches a player’s attention, and you are sure to love it a lot — even though it doesn’t have any significant impact on the whole gaming experience.
I must also point out that the game itself is easily the most basic entry in the “Arkham” series, but indeed it has a lot going on for it and stands as one of the outstanding comic book video games available.
10. Merry Gear Solid: Secret Santa
Half parody of stealthy Christmas adventure, and Metal Gear Solid, there is no doubt that Merry Gear Solid is a great, and free way to while away time laughing at the dumbest video game jokes that exist while you sneak past children who made the naughty list. This game and its sequel can easily be downloaded from the creator’s website.
11. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa’s Rampage
For this game, let’s make up some excuses for Santa and say that he was under so much seasonal stress.
And let’s also say that he couldn’t handle the stress anyone, and he finally cracked, got under the influence of alcohol and murdered all his elves and reindeer. Someone needs to clean up the mess Santa made, and that unlucky person is you.
Merry Christmas! Have no fear; it’s just cleaning. For this game’s asking price of not a dime more than $2.50, you’ll enjoy every minute you spend playing it.
12. Saints Row IV: How The Saints Saved Christmas
My favorite, the Saints Row’s IV Christmas-themed game, is exciting through and through — smart idea and the most thought out execution.
The game takes the crazy, over-the-top life of Saints Row IV and narrates a weird Christmas special within it.
The game parodies several of your old favorites (you just might get nostalgic) — A Christmas Story is a specifically frequent target of references — and it will have you laughing out loud countless times.
I must warn that it’s an extremely vulgar game, which is why it is only perfect for adult players, but adults who choose to play it will have a lot to love.
13. Duke: Nuclear Winter
If you are a fan of the original, this winter-themed version to Duke Nukem 3D may just give you so much to criticize.
However, it’s worth a mention on this list because the Duke has some connection to the D-FW area. This game features snow-covered levels and chubby pigs with Santa hats, but not everyone who tried it enjoyed the experience.
Other festive games to try:
If you would like to try something different, then Google has a mind-blowing page known as Santa’s Village, and it is connected to the tech giant’s Santa Tracker. You’ll find simple online games here to keep yourself busy this festive season.
That’s all we can take, folks! But hey, if you know other games that will make a great addition to this list, please mention them below and see about including them. Leave your comments and questions below.
