Since I was a kid, I’ve liked to honor traditions.

I must eat an unhealthy amount of chocolate during Easter. I must dig up my sweaters when winter comes, even if it’s hot outside and I have to crank the AC to “Arctic Expedition” for immersive effect. I must flee from every beach during Carnival (yes, I am Brazilian; no, this does not grant me immunity against crowds breaded in sand).

And when December shows up, my brain flips a switch and decides to replay the same games I’ve been replaying for the last 30 years.

Some of them lean heavily on nostalgia, with zero holiday themes. I will always feel warm and fuzzy playing Link’s Awakening for the hundredth time because it reminds me of one of the best Christmases of my life. Others, though, are full of lights, winter vibes, or outright holiday madness.

All of them feel right for this time of year, but today I want to share seven games (or game series) I always revisit during the holiday season, each one evoking the spirit of December in a different way.

Merry Gear Solid: Secret Santa (PC)

It must be hard to be Santa Claus: infiltrating houses without being detected, escaping from kids eager to catch him delivering presents, and then discovering he was a clone from a high-classified government project all along…

Yes, we’re starting with a couple of fan games that are more than a decade old and whose premise is absolutely ridiculous: Santa Claus exists inside the Metal Gear lore because he was created by The Los Bigotes Perfectos Project, an attempt to engineer the perfect beard.

That alone is worth a laugh, but the real reason these games are legendary to me is that they’re extremely well made.

The level design is tight and creative, with few but smart ways to reach objectives unnoticed. The art direction is a beautiful fusion of MSX-era Metal Gear and Christmas décor, full of pastel colors and inspired sprite work. The mechanics borrow the best ideas from the Solid series and twist them in hilarious ways that still respect Kojima’s playbook. But the script is what truly shines, with codec calls that feel like something Kojima would’ve written after a heavy night of drinking in an isekai.

If you’re a Metal Gear fan, do yourself a favor and play at least the first one of these little gems. It takes less than an hour to beat each one, but both are unforgettable palate cleansers, the gaming equivalent of a perfectly spiced holiday snack.

Now let’s move on from fan works to something officially licensed…

Die Hard Trilogy (PSX)

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who think Die Hard is a Christmas movie, and those who are wrong.

Die Hard Trilogy is the perfect way to remind everyone of this truth. It’s a strange, chaotic package that includes:

• A clunky but challenging third-person shooter for the first film

• A surprisingly great Virtua Cop–style on-rails shooter for the second

• An open-world, Chase H.Q.-inspired driving game for the third

The first two movies are obvious Christmas picks, but if you live somewhere tropical like Brazil, where Christmas equals summer, then Die Hard with a Vengeance also fits the seasonal vibe. The movie literally opens with “Summer in the City.” You can’t get more “Brazilian Christmas” than that.

Now, is the gameplay good? Not really. It’s clunky, it’s punishing, and it feels exactly like a PSX fever dream, one of those weird experiments only early 3D could produce. But that’s also where the charm lives, so if you’re craving some mid-90s holiday jank, this is a fantastic time capsule.

Still unconvinced? Think I cheated with this entry? No worries, the next one embraced the holiday season with a cute but memorable Easter egg…

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble! (SNES)

If you’re a 90s kid, you remember how certain franchises became glued to the holiday season. Before we saw annualized releases with suspicion, there was a magical time when we wanted a new game every year-end, and the studios delivered it with classics that surpassed their predecessors in almost every way possible.

Donkey Kong Country was one of them.

Starting with the first game, every entry landed in November, making these yearly gifts to SNES owners who hadn’t jumped to the next generation yet. And since Rare knew they had created a holiday tradition, they decided to push it further with a small but joyful Easter egg in the third entry.

On the surface, DKC3 has no Christmas content… until you type the MERRY cheat code. Suddenly the bonus rounds turn festive: stars become Christmas ornaments, the tune gets jingly, and everything feels like a banana-scented holiday postcard. It’s small and silly, but it doesn't make it less special.

But as we jumped into the next generation, Rare made us wait three years for a new Donkey Kong game. They didn’t want fans to linger too long, though, so a year later they gave us a game that embraced the holiday spirit even better…

Diddy Kong Racing (N64)

This one carries a personal story.

My parents gave me this game for Christmas. As usual, we traveled to the beach for the holidays. I brought my Nintendo 64 with me but assumed I wouldn’t play much. Surely I’d be too busy building sandcastles, swimming, and living the tropical Christmas dream.

Then it rained for the first few days. A lot. And Diddy Kong Racing became a blessing.

I still remember reaching Snowflake Mountain for the first time. The Christmas-themed tracks covered in ice, the twinkling lights, and the cheerful decorations are superb, and they are all accompanied by festive music. It was everything those rainy days needed. Me and my cousins played for hours, passing the single controller between us to unlock the most advanced tracks. Those memories still feel warm and fuzzy today.

It helps that DKR is not just cute, but also an awesome kart racing game, to the point some fans even argue it’s better than Mario Kart 64. The tracks have a lot of clever design choices, the graphics are some of the most colorful on the N64, and the Adventure hub offers some secrets and surprises here and there.

The rain eventually stopped and we enjoyed the beach, but those holiday gaming sessions remain some of my core Christmas memories.

Speaking of franchises that embraced Christmas as part of their settings…

The Yakuza / Like a Dragon Series (Various Platforms)

Most people forget (or never realized) that a surprising number of Yakuza games take place during Christmas.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio wanted each entry to reflect Japan at the time of its release, and since many of them launched in December, the games naturally carry that seasonal spirit. Yakuza 2 even ends with a rendition of “Silent Night.” That’s the level of dedication we’re talking about.

It’s subtle, but I love how the holiday atmosphere melts into the streets of Kamurocho. You’re running around doing side quests, beating up your 100th thug of the night with Kiryu’s Dragon Kick, grabbing a warm bowl of ramen, or getting lost in a Sega arcade, all while the city quietly glows with Christmas lights and decorated pine trees.

Talking about why Yakuza/LaD is one of my favorite series would require a whole separate post. But for holiday purposes, it’s cozy, chaotic, dramatic, and a little sentimental. Just like December.

But if you want a pure Christmas gaming experience from Sega, I’d be remiss not to mention the ultimate one…

Christmas NiGHTS (Saturn)

I can’t think of a better Christmas game than this one. Not just for its theme, but for the sheer level of dedication poured into what was technically “just” a demo.

Sega needed the Saturn to be a success, and NiGHTS into Dreams was their biggest bet. To help promote it, Sonic Team stuffed so much content into a single demo disc that it feels absurd in retrospect.

The base game includes only two stages and two boss fights. But the extras? That’s where the magic is. Most of them were unlockable through a matching game, but the real magic lies on the tone of the year you're playing.

Depending on the Saturn’s internal clock, you’d see:

• Characters wearing different clothes depending on the month

• Sunny summer days in July

• Reala becoming playable on April Fool’s Day

• Santa Claus appearing on December 25th

• And after Christmas, the game wishes you a Happy New Year

It sounds simple, even silly, but this is one of my favorite Sega moments ever. It wasn’t just a marketing move. It shows that this game has heart. A genuine gift to Saturn owners, and anyone who believed in the console.

And now that we mentioned the New Year…

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (PSX)

Like Link’s Awakening and Diddy Kong Racing, this one is special because it’s tied to another memorable holiday season in my life.

Ridge Racer Type 4 launched in December 1998. As such, it could’ve easily thrown a few lazy holiday decorations or silly cheat codes to make it holiday seasoned. Instead, Namco chose a far more elegant route: because the story takes place during the Real Racing Roots 1999 season, the final race takes place in the night of December 31st and ends at midnight, right as the in-game world welcomes the new millennium.

It’s magical. In the final lap, fireworks explode, “Moving in Circles” blasts from the speakers, and you cross the finish line while the game celebrates a new era. It remains one of the most memorable moments I’ve ever had with a racing game.

And since it was part of one of my last New Year celebrations with my grandparents, it became even more special.

Everyone talks about Christmas games, but almost no one talks about New Year’s games… and this year, I’ll be fixing that soon with a full review of R4 as we get closer to New Year’s Eve.

Until then, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and feel free to send me your own seasonal picks!