What are your holiday traditions as a gamer?

The end of the year looms. It’s that liminal time when the holiday season begins winding down, but the prospect of one last hurrah (and another long weekend) gives the days a pleasant sheen of anticipation.

Gaming continues to be part of my holiday activities, if sometimes only nominally. Invariably, I’ll be popping by my garrison in World of Warcraft to deck the halls in holiday cheer. The Feast of Winter Veil will draw me to Ironforge to open some presents, and then it’s onward to whoop up on the Abominable Greench a time or three in a well-worn ritual.

This year, however, the prospect of dealing with the Greench is tinged with some slight disappointment because dynamic flying won’t be implemented until 2024. It’s a tedious flight from Growless Cave back to Ironforge at normal speeds, after all, and my heart yearns for a little more zoom.

For years, back when I was running a regular D&D campaign, my players and I would gather for special low-key holiday events, often featuring the eternal conflict between Greatfather Winter and the Krampus or even dealing with the depredations of Aeon the Terrible during one memorable episode. The pandemic finally put paid to that custom, but the urge to bring my campaign out of the mothballs is especially strong when the festivities are in full swing.

Online games often take the waning hours of my holidays, the quiet time after the guests have left, supper is but a delicious memory, and a slightly melancholy silence has descended upon the household. I’ve taken many a solitary ride up the Redridge Highway as the clock ticks down to midnight, as the light dims and the laughter fades away.

Now, the new year is just ahead, and if I’m home I’ll be watching the fireworks above Stormwind as the date rolls over to 2024. How about you? What are your holiday traditions as a gamer? Let us know in the comments.