christmas

Christmas Adventure Games

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If you’re looking for Christmas themed games to play this month, there’s quite a few point-and-click adventures that are a good fit.

screenshot from Watch Over Christmas of the player in an office looking at a book on a desk

Watch Over Christmas
I already mentioned this one in my winter games post but Watch Over Christmas is a nice one to check out if you’re looking for a family friend adventure game. It’s a longer game but not too difficult, features nice 2D art, and has quality of life features like hotspot highlighting.

Last Christmas
Last Christmas is a darker, short adventure game where you are playing Frankie and have to prepare Christmas for his girlfriend at a cabin and features multiple endings. The original version of the game was created for Adventure Jam 2022 but has been expanded into a full game. Make sure to read the content warnings on the Steam page before picking it up.

Azazel’s Christmas Fable
Azazel’s Christmas Fable is a comedic game inspired by 90’s adventures. You play as Azazel, an imp, and must track down the “source of joy” originating from the North Pole and destroy it. It’s a really charming and cute retro-looking adventure game that’s pretty family friendly. The game isn’t too long, but not too short either, and it has some fun post-game material where you can spend time looking for collectibles and talking various characters from the game.

screenshot from Lake of a mail carrier walking through a snowy town

Lake – Season’s Greetings
Season’s Greetings is a DLC prequel to the game Lake. You play as a mail carrier that explores a town set in the 80s and talks to various people living there while delivering the mail. I was a big fan of Lake and its relaxed pace and looking forward to revisiting the game in this DLC.

Parsely: Kringle Krisis
If you’re looking for something a little different, this Christmas version of the Parsely series has players going through a text adventure in tabletop rpg form by having one player be the parser and give responses to the commands the other players are giving.

Christmas Music

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One of my favorite Christmas traditions in my adult life has been tuning into Jon Solomon’s 25 hour Christmas music marathon. Jon Solomon, a DJ at WPRB in Princeton, New Jersey hosts a 25 hour every Christmas Eve where he plays a mix of random stuff including a 42 minute version of little drummer boy and 30 minute blocks of x-mas themed Ramones, Misfits, and The Fall parodies. There’s also bands that record songs for the marathon now so it’s not all cursed music. He’s been doing it about 30 years now. Here’s some of the songs from last year but there’s new ones every year

He also has a Hanukkah Show every year. This year it’s tonight on 103.3 fm WPRB from 5-8 pm ET. You can also listen online here.

If you’re looking for more stuff, here’s some of the music I’ve picked up on Bandcamp over the last few years.

Some bands have made songs for the marathon in previous years, this includes this nice song by Outer World called Arc & Bow, which kinda has a slight shoegazey sound to it.

Low’s Christmas album is an all-time classic. It’s a mix of covers and new songs that capture some of the bittersweet feelings that people can have at this time of year.

Anna Burch also has a song about how Christmas can be a weird mixed bag of emotions.

If you’re looking for something lighter, I’m a huge fan of Alpha Chrome Yayo and this album is silly fun.

I’m also a big fan of the game Hypnospace Outlaw so this Christmas song made for the game is an enjoyable listen.

Henning Ohlenbusch, from bands like Gentle Hen and Polaris, has two nice songs for the holiday, Coming Home Alone on Christmas Eve and Here Comes Christmas

And finally, while there is a shorter version on Bandcamp, I must recommend the 42 minute version of Little Drummer Boy by Lindstrom. It’s part of the 25 hour Christmas music marathon so I listen to it every year and has also become an important part of Christmas for me.