Get In The Spirit With These Holiday-Themed Games

’Tis the season for holiday-themed everything, from mall decorations to new Netflix movies. But we hear surprisingly little about the holidays in the gaming world (where so many people spend so many of their extra hours of leisure time in December anyway). So in this post, we’ll give you a few games that can help you get in the holiday spirit (and fill those spare moments when you've had quite enough of socializing with extended family).

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

It’s not a game inherently about Christmas, but its story mode does take place during the holiday season. In fact, you even get to see a Christmas dinner pretty early in the game –– just what you need to get into the season of feasting and giving gifts. Plus, the gameplay beyond is so good that TechRadar called this one of the best superhero games ever made.

Nearly Every Mobile Game In Existence

Seemingly every mobile game will have released a holiday-related update in December. While these games aren’t actually Christmas-related, it’s worth checking any titles you currently play and enjoy for fresh Christmas content. This is also a good practice with PC and console games, since many of these will get holiday updates as well. Ultimately, anything from Santa hats on Plants vs. Zombies characters to the mysterious holiday features in ghost-hunting game Phasmophobia can bring you a sense of holiday fun.

Dead Rising 4

It's a game set in a mall during the holidays, in which you can dress up like Santa and blow enemies' heads off with a candy cane crossbow or a baseball bat decked in Christmas lights (but it’s okay because they’re undead). You can’t get much more into the holiday spirit than that!

Santa vs. Rudolf

This is a title that’s recently popped up among the games on Foxy Bingo, as the popular online casino provider embraces the holiday season (in a surprisingly big way). It features the classic digital slot format that's become so popular across the internet, with a bonkers holiday twist. Basically, Santa and his head reindeer are at odds on opposite sides of the reels, which of course are filled with holiday-themed symbols. That, plus a winter background, makes this a decidedly Christmas-y game, even if Santa doesn't look like a happy camper.

Santa’s Christmas Solitaire

If you want pure "me time" meanwhile, you’ll love the holiday version of everyone's favorite solo card game: Santa’s Christmas Solitaire. It uses the traditional Solitaire rules that we know like the back of our hands, but invokes a satisfying holiday setting and atmosphere. It's actually quite charming.