Favourite Holiday Gaming Traditions

As we stroll along this cozy holiday season, I’m drawn to memories of holidays past when I was a kid. Namely, I think about the traditions that my family engaged in on Christmas morning and the days leading up to New Year’s. Here are a few of my favourites!

Playing Games Christmas Morning

A trend that I’m sure my family shares with plenty of our fellow gamers who celebrate the holiday. My siblings and I would bust out whatever new console and/or new games that we got that year. We spend hours familiarizing ourselves with new controls, characters, stories, and mechanics. It was the perfect way to spend the day as we all dipped in and out helping our mother with dinner through cleaning dishes and food prep. 

This tradition has waned to an extent as we’ve gotten older, but I would love to see have a comeback as we come together in the next few years. 

Favorite Holiday Gaming Traditions: Jay LadiesGamers
Even though I’m more of a Switch and PS girl these days, so many bright mornings started off with the Xbox!

Beating Dance Games Before New Year’s 

So this one is a little more out there. It all started when my parents bought us Michael Jackson: The Experience for the Wii way back in 2010. That kickstarted a trend of us getting into and buying yearly dance games that we sunk hours of blood, sweat, and tears into. After MJ, our cousin got us into the Dance Central franchise. Our parents then got us into Just Dance – which is the game where this tradition really kicked off with. 

Starting with Just Dance: Greatest Hits on the Xbox 360 and through to Just Dance 2018 on the PS4, our parents bought us every mainline Just Dance game for Christmas every year. I forget how it started, but my siblings and I challenged ourselves to get 5 stars or better on every song from Christmas Day to New Year’s Day the following week. That led to hours of perfecting moves, editing silly videos in-game, and fun that I still look back on fondly. I’ve been the one buying the games since 2017, minus in 2019, and my brothers have fallen out of it, but it’s definitely my favorite tradition on this list. 

Favorite Holiday Gaming Traditions: Jay LadiesGamers
By far our favourite JD game. So many fun memories…

Family Dance Battles 

Not strictly limited to the December holidays, this is something that happened whenever we got together with our paternal cousins. It started with the cousin who got us Dance Central whenever he came by to visit us in Germany. It sparked some healthy competition that sticks with us to this day. 

We got our cousins back stateside involved when we came to visit one summer. They went from hating the Kinect to us jumping on every time we met up. It was a wholesome and fun family affair.

Favorite Holiday Gaming Traditions: Jay LadiesGamers
Y’all… the amount of blood, sweat, and tears that went into this game… Still one of my faves of all time for the same reason

Your Turn

Have any gaming traditions you’d like to share? Please feel free to leave them below! I’d love to hear about how y’all incorporate gaming into your holidays. Happy Holidays everyone! 

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