Christmas Events in Videogames

Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, the holiday has been referenced time and time again throughout all of gaming history, and as soon as we got the technology to keep track of the time when the console is off, we’ve been getting special events and easter eggs that celebrate this special time of year. So, let’s take a look at some of the games that become slightly more festive on the 25th of December.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Uh...I don't celebrate Toy Day...

Let’s start this off with an obvious entry. With a series meant to be played every day, of course, there’s going to be holidays. Animal Crossing: New Horizonss version of this is Toy Day, where you’ll run into the special NPC Jingle, who will task you with providing perfect presents to your villagers. I do like that Toy Day falls on Christmas Eve on the 24th, so you’ll have time to spend with your family and friends once you’ve spent some time with your virtual friends and family. Uh, sorry if you celebrate on Toy Day though.

The Binding of Isaac

Does Isaac really deserve coal?

The Binding of Isaac is the least festive game possible (dear god, you fight with your tears), but it does feature some special events when the holidays roll around. Introduced in The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth DLC, when doing a daily run on Christmas, Isaac will sport a Santa hat… as well as coal and 25 cents. Isaac deserves better.

Fallout 4

Well, there's plenty of green and red in the wastelands, at least...

It’s actually a little special in Fallout 4. The game doesn’t use real-world time but its own in-game calendar. However, once Christmas rolls around, visit Diamond City to see some additional decorations around the place, as well as unique dialogue for the city guards. The nukes may have destroyed the world, but it doesn’t mean they destroyed the holiday spirit.

Terraria

Terraria has a bunch of holiday-themed events, but more often than not, you’ll be fighting for your life all day instead of celebrating the holiday. For Christmas, if you’ve beaten Plantera, you’ll get the Frost Moon event, which forces you to defend yourself against 15 waves, plus five "bonus waves" of evil Christmas-themed enemies. If you manage to survive, you’ll get tons of event-exclusive items and the chance to invite Santa to stay in your town.

Sonic Adventure

and Sonic Adventure 2

Way past cool!

Turns out, you could get some Christmas-themed stuff in both Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. Back in the day, if you got a patch for Sonic Adventure around Christmas time, a tree would be added to Station Square. As for the sequel, you’ll unlock special costumes for the characters to wear during two-player games.

DEFCON

The logical conclusion.

Yeah, a game from 2006 all about preventing (or causing) nuclear war has a Christmas mode. Instead of attempting that nonsense, DEFCON instead makes you play as part of Santa’s network to deliver presents around the Earth. The map of the world is viewed from a polar perspective: bombers are replaced by reindeer, the scary and haunting soundtrack will be replaced with Christmas songs, and instead of reporting “X million people are dead”, it will have “X million people are happy.” How… heart-warming?

These are only a few of the events that happen during real-world Christmas time, and there are still a ton of other times the festive season affects the virtual world. Comment below on what other games celebrate the holidays.

Stay safe and have fun! From everyone at GameGrin!