The interiors and player houses have that cozy Christmas feeling. Skyrim’s pine forests, snowy mountains, and fantastical creatures make the game’s great outdoors feel like a winter wonderland, albeit one with dragons, civil war, assassins, vampires, werewolves, political intrigue, and the living dead. It even makes sense in the context of the game’s opening, as a prisoner who escaped execution by a matter of seconds wouldn’t want to hang around. If the player wants to experience a new story, they can simply head off in a random direction and see what they find. Unlike most other games, it’s easy to return to Skyrim year after year without the game feeling repetitive. Even some of the often-criticized aspects of The Elder Scrolls’ formula can help in this regard: when players enter Skyrim’s open world, they are free to go anywhere and make their own story.
Skyrim isn’t a perfect game by any means, but it has incredible replay value. This is where Skyrim’s true potential as a Christmas game reveals itself.
It would take far longer to replay a game like The Witcher 3 every holiday season than it would be to watch a movie like Die Hard, not to mention likely increasingly tedious. The reason people often talk about Christmas songs or movies and not Christmas video games or even TV shows is because songs and movies are shorter and easier to repeat. The memory of past positive memories helps to create more positive memories, and the next year remembering those moments helps the cycle of nostalgia continue. There are some good reasons that Skyrim in particular has a far more unique opportunity than most games to establish itself as part of the festive tradition.Ĭhristmas movies and songs come round once a year–they help bring people back to good memories from previous years, and the ritual of watching or listening to them helps establish a sense of community around reliving those moments. However, there are plenty of games like Skyrim which take place in cold climates or within the fantasy genre that just wouldn’t be able to hack it as a Christmas classic. Not only did The Elder Scrolls 5 release on November 11, 2011, just in time for the holidays, but Skyrim literally takes place between the snow-capped mountains of a land magical land filled with bearded men and elves. There are a few obvious ways that Skyrim appeals to the holiday spirit.
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