Horror Games Set Around Christmas

Summary

• Christmas and horror can make for an interesting combination in video games, with some games poking fun at holiday tropes and others exploring darker themes.
• Games like
  Tattletail, Krampus Is Home,
  and
  Hustomten
  offer unique and eerie experiences that incorporate elements of Christmas into their horror narratives.
• Even famous celebrities like Mariah Carey and LeBron James have made their way into Christmas-themed horror games, adding a bizarre twist to the holiday season.

The holiday season is here again. This, for many, means gift-giving, Christmas trees, and hot cocoa by the fireplace. For others, Christmas means some good, scary games as well. Christmas and horror may sound as contradictory as peanut butter and pickles. However, the combination does end up yielding some interesting results.

Some of these games like to poke fun at the tropes and traditions of the holiday season. Others take a darker approach, such as exploring Christmas’s pagan roots. Either way, the holidays are sure to be a slay ride for all. Here are some of the most noteworthy horrors.

Updated December 19, 2024, by Emedo Destiny: The holidays bring up complicated emotions in many people, making it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit. That is okay. People find their own ways to make meaning of and commemorate the holiday season. One avenue includes horror games that use the season as a backdrop for some entertaining, chilling, and sometimes hilarious Horror experiences. These games may just be perfect for all the Grinches out there.

9 Tattletail

Tattletail, A Furby-Like Evil Toy

The 90s are known for a lot of things. One trend best left forgotten, though, is the Furby. These mechanical, bird-like toys constantly talked, making them particularly grating. They were even the butt of a joke in Sony Pictures Animation’s The Mitchells vs. The Machines.

Waygetter Electronics’ Christmas horror game Tattletail resurrects this early phobia of millennials. A child wakes up several nights before Christmas to unwrap presents, finding the talking Tattletail as one of them. This toy has a mind of its own, though, as it keeps breaking out of its wrapping, causing mischief throughout the nights before Christmas. Tattletail must be constantly fed, groomed, and recharged each night. The Tattletail’s “mother” also seeks it, as well as the child. This is not only an eerie game but also makes for some hilarious let’s plays.

8 Krampus Is Home

Krampus, The Anti-Santa

Children around the world every Christmas eagerly await the arrival of Santa Claus, who comes down their chimneys and leaves presents underneath the tree. Many adults, however, recognize a different holiday icon for a more cynical age: Krampus, the dark entity who punishes naughty children on Krampusnacht by flagellating them and carrying them off in his sack to be tortured and eaten.

Krampus Is Home from Regl Studios and Roger G Lugo follows youth Sebastian on one Christmas Night, fending off Krampus and his minions. These include a Reindeer who moves only when Sebastian isn’t looking at it, as well as a homicidal elf who hates water. Can Sebastian survive until his parents return home?

7 Dead Christmas

Santa Claus Versus The Martians

The demo for Dead Christmas is currently available on Steam. Here, Santa has his work cut out for him, not only trying to get everything ready on time for Christmas Eve, but also fending off his elves, who have been infected by an alien virus that turns them into zombies. He starts off in his office in a warehouse, where he will have to grab his weapon and complete in-game objectives

The story of Dead Christmas, in spite of its underpinnings of The Thing, is family-friendly. Santa uses a variety of festive-themed weapons to not only fight back against the zombified elves, but also to cure them. Soon, he will need to fend off giant alien bugs as well.

6 Hustomten

The Hustomte, Elf On A Shelf Who Must Be Fed

A Christmas tradition that has emerged this century is the Elf on the Shelf. Parents buy a small figure of an elf, and move it to a new position every night while the children are sleeping. This makes the children think it is alive and watching, manipulating them into being good children under the elf’s watchful eye.

Black Curtain Studio’s Hustomten is a horror-tinged version of the Elf on the Shelf. Players collect food throughout the house and drop it at the designated spots for the hustomte, the friendly house elf that protects the home from evil. At least, he does so when he is fed, and when people keep their distance from him.

5 All She Wants For Christmas Is You

Monster Mariah Carey

Every 11 months, Mariah Carey, the self-proclaimed Queen of Christmas, invades the airwaves, the television, and the internet, with her Christmas song “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” It is simultaneously celebrated and mocked in equal measure, with how it seems to be everywhere.

In one of the more unusual celebrity/video game crossovers, Costek Games’ All She Wants For Christmas Is You has the Holiday cheerful go toe-to-toe against a monstrous parody of Mariah Carey called Amber Lee. Multiple methods are available to deal with this creature, including lowering the temperature in the house to send her back to her deep freeze or shocking her to death with an ugly Santa doll. The full version is on Steam, with a brand-new school map, and the developer plans on releasing a new game map every Christmas.

4 Dead Rising 4

Christmas-Themed Zombies

Capcom’s original Dead Rising sees photojournalist Frank West trapped in a mall in Willamette, Colorado, along with hordes of the undead. This creates a violent playground where he can dismantle zombies with whatever crazy resources are available around him.

Dead Rising 4,the last of the franchise’s original mainline entries, sees Frank West return to Willamette one holiday season. The mall is decked out for the holidays, including a giant Christmas tree. Frank gets some Christmas-themed goodies to play with as well, such as a giant reindeer mask and a crossbow that shoots candy canes, infusing zombie carnage with the Christmas spirit.

3 Thirstiest Time of the Year

Legally Not LeBron James

LeBron James is a basketball icon, even starring in the follow-up to the 90s live-action/animation hybrid, Space Jam. He has even had experience in advertising, particularly in 2018’s Sprite Cranberry ad, when he came to clay-mationed life for the thirstiest time of the year.

In ElThundercloud’s short “horror” experience, Thirstiest Time of the Year, someone is alone in their home when a knock comes from legally not LeBron James, asking one question: “Wanna Sprite Cranberry?” The goal is to get to the gas station for help while evading legally not LeBron James and slowing him down with cans of Fanta soda. While not necessarily the scariest game, the Lebron James stand-in has a creepy face, and he will not stop.

2 Cthulhu Saves Christmas

Cthulhu But He Must Rescue Santa

What does one think of when they think of Cthulhu? Lovecraft? Madness? The unfathomable cosmic void? In this case, it’s Christmas. Cthulhu Saves Christmas is Zeboyd Digital Entertainment’s prequel to Cthulhu Saves the World. Here, Cthulhu must regain his powers by saving Santa from the League of Christmas Evil, including Jack Frost and the anti-Christmas himself, Krampus, in a classic turn-based RPG.

Cthulhu and Christmas are a surprisingly winning combination. This game has wintry scenery and the lively spirit of Christmas Town, all in sharp contrast to Cthulhu’s taste for madness. Plenty of fourth wall breaks abound as well, with the narrator frequently interacting with the characters.

1 Parasite Eve

‘Twas The Fright Before Christmas

Parasite Eve is one of Square’s lesser appreciated RPGs, never reaching the popularity of the Final Fantasy franchise. It follows NYPD Police Officer Aya Brea as she confronts a monstrous Entity called Eve, Aya’s journey through the city over several days sees her confront biological nightmares with an innovative real-time combat system.

The game’s journey begins on Christmas Eve, and continues over several days. The streets outside are adorned with Christmas decorations, and the iconic Christmas Tree at Rockefeller center is on full view. The snow all over New York adds a particularly beautiful touch.