Guide: Discover 12 Games set at Christmas!

We are approaching one of the most anticipated times of the year for many people, Christmas.

Although nowadays, it’s become a traditionally Christian religious holiday, Christmas is widely celebrated by many non-Christians. Popular holiday customs include exchanging gifts and cards, Christmas dinner, carols, church parties, displaying different decorations, Christmas trees, twinkling lights, garlands, nativity scenes, movies and, for us, video games.

Furthermore, Santa Claus is a popular mythological figure in many countries, associated with gifts for children. And as a gift, I'm going to give you a nice list of games that take place at Christmastime, to make your holiday even more special.

Miles Morales is a teenager who is adapting to his new home, while following the advice of his mentor, Peter Parker, to become the city's newest protector. However, enemy forces threaten to ruin his new home and make the future hero understand that with great power comes great responsibility. Now, Miles must take on the role of Spider-Man to save New York.

The game begins during Christmas celebrations, showing a city decorated with lights, trees and wreaths. The game does not focus specifically on the date, but rather on the holiday period. The opening moments of this adventure highlight an exciting Christmas dinner at Miles' house, which then begins his adventure in an elegantly decorated, snow-covered New York.

As much as the Christmas season means for many people a time to be spent with family and social interactions, in Dead Rising 4 the most festive time of the year becomes a setting to fight countless hordes of zombies. All games in the series make use of unusual items or weapons, and in the case of Dead Rising 4 even Christmas decorations can be used for this purpose.

Dead Rising 4 shines with its holiday decor, which includes candy cane creatures, Santa traps, and various themed weapons. The game begins its zombie outbreak on Black Friday, and most of the action takes place in a shopping mall and adjacent stores. This gives you a wide variety of items to creatively exterminate the undead.

In 1997, an update included several Christmas-themed stages in Duke Nukem 3D. In Nuclear Winter, extraterrestrial beings kidnapped Santa Claus, forcing Duke to travel to the North Pole to settle the score and recover the chubby old man.

Throughout his journey, he will come across adversaries characterized as evil snowmen, armed elves and even evil Santa Clauses. Several classic enemies including the Assault Trooper, Assault Captain, Pig Cop and Enforcer have been redesigned with Christmas-themed costumes.

After a devastating pandemic engulfs New York City, basic services begin to fail one by one. Without access to food or water, the city begins to descend into a chaos that puts Manhattan under quarantine and begins The Division, which takes place during Black Friday 2015.

Here, players take on the role of Strategic Homeland Division agents, also known as The Division, weeks before Christmas.

Although the game has a more serious theme, the snowy city and Christmas decorations can be seen during the gameplay.

Parasite Eve was released in 1998 by Square, it’s a sequel to the book written by Hideaki Sena 'Parasite Eve'. The player takes on the role of a rookie police officer named Aya Brea, attending an opera at Carnegie Hall on a blind date in New York City exactly on December 24, 1997. During the opera, everyone in the building spontaneously combusts except Aya, her date, and an on-stage actress named Melissa Pearce, who transforms into a beast and flees into the sewers, declaring that her name is now Eve.

On the following day, Aya and her partner, Daniel Dollis, go see a scientist at the Natural History Museum called Dr. Hans Klamp who teaches them about mitochondria, which will be a key part of the game. Later, they hear that Eve is in Central Park and, to make matters worse, an audience has gathered at the park's theater intending to see a performance that Melissa Pearce would give, and that’s the beginning of a wonderful story, full of mystery, action and intrigue.

Players will explore levels while using a real-time combat system along with various RPG elements.

Batman: Arkham Origins is like a movie set on Christmas Eve. The backdrop of Gotham covered in snow is one of the first elements that catches the player’s eye in the game and makes the game even more beautiful with the contrast of the city.

The game itself is not the best in the "Arkham" series. However, it has many positive points and is one of the best games based on comic books out there.

Arkham Origins shows the beginning of Batman's professional career, as he battles eight villains who seek to kill him. The entire game takes place on Christmas Eve, making Gotham City enchanting with its Christmas decorations and completely covered in ice.

Certainly, a great choice for Christmas!

Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, also known as Christmas NiGHTS or Christmas NiGHTS Sampler, is a shorter, Christmas-themed version of NiGHTS into Dreams. It was originally released during the 1996 holiday season for the Sega Saturn.

The game follows the story of NiGHTS, Elliot and Claris trying to find the missing star from the Twin Seeds' Christmas tree.

The coolest thing about this game is that if it’s played in December, the scenes are decorated with snow, lights and gifts, and an instrumental version of Jingle Bells replaces the original song.

And if you want to play this Christmas wonder and don't have a Sega Saturn, the base game has HD versions for PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and includes Christmas NiGHTS as an unlockable feature.

A few months after the first game, Bayonetta is shopping on Christmas Eve with Enzo when, suddenly, angels attack New York City.

Teaming up with fellow witch and friend Jeanne, she is about to win until a demonic summoning goes wrong. Bayonetta destroys the demon and decides to save Jeanne. At the same time, a masked Lumen Sage is brought to the present by a mysterious figure known as the Prophet, who promises them the chance for revenge.

The game is practically all set at Christmas and Rodin, one of the game's protagonists, even dresses up as Santa Claus throughout the story.

Cthulhu Saves Christmas is a classic turn-based RPG game, in the best style of Super Nintendo Final Fantasys. Here we have a Christmas sequence from the game Cthulhu Saves the World.

Join Cthulhu, the Snow Maiden, Baba Yaga-chan, and Belsnickel as they build R'lyehtionships, fight the Christmas League of Evil, and capture the holiday spirit! Fhtagn!

The game can unlock huge nostalgia for both retro games and a childhood Christmas morning. The cool thing about this game is that it breaks the fourth wall and is worth a look if you want a Lovecraftian touch on your holiday.

Home Alone is a game inspired by the feature film of the same name and seeks to capture the essence of the classic Christmas comedy. There are several versions of the game and each features a different style of gameplay, but they all share the same plot and roughly the same objective as the film.

The player steps into the shoes of young Kevin McCallister, who is left behind, alone at home, when his family goes to Paris for the Christmas holidays. He must stop burglars Harry and Marv, the "Wet Bandits", from robbing his house, using various household objects as traps or weapons.

The game is a platformer, with clever traps and music that evokes the Christmas atmosphere. You can choose between the various platforms Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy, Amiga or MS-DOS to live this Christmas adventure!

Christmas Lemmings was originally developed for Commodore Amiga computers and has versions for other PCs as well. The game is a special version to promote the famous puzzle game Lemmings.

Here, little Lemmings dressed as Santa Claus face Christmas challenges as players try to guide them safely through various challenges. You will go through two unique levels and two Oh No! More Lemmings ones.

The game is gorgeous, and the two levels feature a Christmas landscape that puts us in the Christmas atmosphere. With festive music and themed elements, it provides a wonderful Christmas experience.

A Super Nintendo and Mega Drive classic puts players in the shoes of Santa Claus on a journey to rescue his elves and recover the gifts stolen by the evil elves. This game, with its charming graphics and festive atmosphere, is a nostalgic trip to the North Pole, full of Christmas charm.

Santa Claus will face enemies such as giant rats, evil toys and living snowmen, using his magical powers to transform them into Christmas presents. You can also collect power-ups to shoot ice-melting flames. Santa's magic can also be used to open Christmas presents scattered throughout the levels.

One of the game's coolest features is Santa's ability to transform into his evil twin, "Anti-Claus." When drinking a cup of tea, the good old man transforms into an alternative version of himself, in a blue suit and evil appearance.

I hope this list not only brings the Christmas gaming spirit to you, but I also wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year!