10 Games to Play This Christmas
The Christmas days are ahead, and after a draining year, there's no better time to dive into some proper gaming. Whether you've unwrapped a shiny new Nintendo Switch 2, you're finally making time for that Game Pass backlog, or you're treating yourself to something you've been eyeing all year—our list has got you covered with games worth playing over the holidays.
Some you might have missed during 2025's chaos. Others are brand new and perfect for December evenings when it's already dark at 4 PM and you've got nowhere to be. A few work brilliantly for gaming with distant family over video calls, while others are best enjoyed solo when the house finally quiets down.
None of these assume you have teenage reflexes, and every single one respects that you're gaming for joy, not to prove anything to anyone.
Let's find something worth playing this Christmas.
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1. Mario Kart World
Because Someone Who Really Loves You Got You That Switch 2
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2
Price: £79.99 standalone (or £50 extra in Switch 2 bundle - basically free)
Players: 1-4 local split-screen, up to 24 online
Perfect for: Grandkids visiting, couples gaming, or just mucking about
If there's a Switch 2 under your tree this Christmas—whether you bought it yourself or the family pooled together—Mario Kart World is probably already there waiting. And if you're still on the fence about upgrading from your old Switch: This is one of the games that makes the case.
Here is why Mario Kart works brilliantly for Christmas week specifically: your (grand)kids can actually play with you without getting bored. The game includes those brilliant assist features that keep younger kids in the race (auto-steer, traction control), but there's enough depth that your 16-year-old grandson who thinks he's the next Lewis Hamilton will still find a challenge. When he inevitably laps you, at least you can nail him with a blue shell - Equal opportunity chaos.
The split-screen works beautifully—up to four of you on one TV, no online connection required. Perfect for when the whole family's gathered and you need something that doesn't involve another board game argument or watching Love Actually for the thousandth time.
Here's the bit I actually appreciate most: races are 5-7 minutes. You can squeeze in a few races while you wait for the Christmas dinner. You're not committing to an hour-long session when you know someone's going to need something in 20 minutes.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: It (hopefully) came with your Switch 2. Everyone, regardless of age, can play it. Nothing dies, nobody cries (much), and it's the only time all year when deliberately crashing into your relatives is considered acceptable behavior.
Buy Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World Bundle on Amazon
Buy Mario Kart World on Amazon
2. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
For Those of Us Who Still Remember the Cinema Release
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S (Game Pass)
Price: £59.99 / $69.99 (or included with Game Pass)
Time commitment: You can play in 2-hour chunks very comfortably
Perfect for: Solo gaming when everyone else is asleep
If you're old enough to remember watching Raiders of the Lost Ark at the cinema in 1981—or even if you just grew up with it on VHS—this game is going to hit differently. MachineGames hasn't just made a competent Indiana Jones game. They've made the Indiana Jones game we've been waiting for since we were young enough to think archaeology was all whip-cracking and temple-raiding instead of, you know, careful documentation and academic papers.
The genius of The Great Circle for our age group is this: you don't have to be good at shooting to enjoy it. In fact, the game actively rewards not shooting everything that moves. Indy's much better with his fists and his brain than with a gun (which is film-accurate, when you think about it—he barely hits anything he aims at in the movies either).
You can stealth your way through entire sections, using the whip to create distractions, donning disguises, talking your way past guards. When combat does happen, it's more about positioning and timing than twitch reflexes. The game gives you a moment to read the situation, plan your approach, react thoughtfully rather than frantically.
The puzzles are properly clever without being Myst-level obtuse. If you get stuck, the game offers hints that don't feel patronising—more like Indy's notebook giving you a gentle nudge rather than spelling out the solution.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: It's pure escapism to warmer climates (Egypt, the Himalayas, the Vatican) when it's freezing and dark outside. If you've got Game Pass, it's already there waiting—no additional purchase required, no buyer's remorse. And honestly? After a day of family politics, punching Nazis feels oddly therapeutic!
Buy Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Amazon
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on Amazon
3. Destiny 2: Renegades
The Most Accesible Gunplay in the Universe
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Price: Free-to-play (Renegades expansion £39.99 / $49.99)
Time commitment: Strikes are 15-20 minutes; you control how deep you go
Perfect for: Solo play or teaming up with distant friends/family online
Let me be honest about Destiny 2: I was a great fan of the original Destiny. But while Destiny could be easily played as a casual player without missing out, Destiny 2 felt like it was more aimed at a younger audience with much more time to spend in-game - As it turns out, Bungie has listened to its older player base, and Destiny 2 has quietly shifted from hardcore grind to genuinely accessible freemium experience.
The Renegades expansion that launched this winter is specifically designed as a jumping-on point: You can play this entirely solo if you want, the matchmaking puts you with similarly-skilled players automatically, and nobody expects you to use voice chat unless you choose to.
But here's where it gets interesting for Christmas week: if you've got adult children or friends scattered across the country, Destiny 2 is brilliant for gaming together remotely. The Strikes (basically 15-20 minute co-op missions) are perfectly designed for three players, the difficulty scales to your group, and you're working together rather than competing. It's surprisingly bonding when you're fighting alien hordes alongside your son who lives 200 miles away.
The shooting feels absolutely fantastic—Bungie basically wrote the textbook on how FPS gunplay should feel—and the sci-fi setting hits that sweet spot between Star Wars familiarity and genuine weirdness. You're fighting in the ruins of a post-apocalyptic solar system, occasionally riding speeder bikes through Venus forests or exploring the moons of Jupiter.
And crucially: it's free to try. Download it, play through the opening missions, see if it clicks. If it does, the Renegades expansion is on offer currently. If it doesn't, you've lost nothing but an hour of time.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: It's something you can play with family members who don't live nearby. The sessions are perfectly sized for "I've got 30 minutes before I need to start dinner prep." And honestly? Sometimes you just want to shoot aliens without thinking too hard, and Destiny delivers that in spades.
Buy Destiny 2: Renegades on Amazon
4. Split Fiction
Gaming With Your Partner (Instead of Just Next to Them)
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Price: £34.99 / $39.99
Time commitment: 8-12 hours total (perfect for the christmas days)
Perfect for: Couples, or parents gaming with visiting adult children
Here's a question: when was the last time you and your partner actually played something together? Not you gaming while they read a book in the same room—actually playing together, working as a team, sharing an experience?
Split Fiction is from Hazelight Studios, the folks who made It Takes Two, and they've got this formula perfected: cooperative games that require genuine teamwork without punishing you for not being perfectly synchronized teenagers. You're playing as two writers whose fictional stories have come to life, which means you're constantly hopping between wildly different genres and gameplay styles.
One moment you're in a steampunk adventure solving mechanical puzzles together. The next you're in a western shootout where one of you is drawing fire while the other flanks. Then suddenly you're in space, and the whole dynamic changes again. The variety keeps it fresh across the 8-12 hour runtime—you're never doing the same thing long enough to get bored.
What I love about it: The game gives you time to communicate. Yes, you need to coordinate, but there's no frantic screaming "LEFT! NO, YOUR OTHER LEFT!"—you can actually discuss strategy, figure things out together, occasionally laugh when one of you completely misunderstands what you're supposed to be doing.
My partner and I played this over a few evenings last month. We're not "gamers" together usually—she'll watch me play story-driven stuff sometimes, but rarely picks up a controller. This worked because it's designed for two people, not one person dragging the other along. We both had to contribute. We both had moments of figuring something out first. It genuinely felt collaborative.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: It's something different to do together when you've exhausted conversation topics and aren't quite ready for bed. If your adult kids are visiting, it's a brilliant way to spend an evening that isn't just watching TV. And honestly? Finishing something together, even a silly co-op game about fictional worlds, creates better memories than another night of Netflix.
5. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Turn-Based Storytelling In a Fresh Setting
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (Game Pass)
Price: £49.99 / $59.99
Time commitment: 25-35 hours (save anywhere, pick up anytime)
Perfect for: Solo gaming when you want something beautiful and strategic
If you've got any nostalgia for the golden age of Final Fantasy—those late 90s JRPGs where the stories were bonkers but captivating and combat required actual thought—Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is going to scratch an itch you didn't know you still had.
The French studio Sandfall Interactive has created something genuinely special here: a dark fantasy JRPG with Belle Époque-inspired art direction that makes every screenshot look like a painting. The premise is wonderfully grim: every year, a mysterious figure called the Paintress paints a number on her monolith, and everyone that age dies. This year she painted 33. Next year it'll be 32. You're part of an expedition to stop her before the countdown kills everyone.
What works brilliantly for us older players is the combat system. It's turn-based, so you have actual time to think, plan your strategy, consider your options without panicking. But it incorporates active elements—timed button presses for extra damage, blocks you can execute to reduce incoming hits. Miss the timing and you still do damage, you just don't get the bonus. It's forgiving in exactly the right ways.
You can save anywhere, even mid-battle. Cutscenes are skippable if you've seen them before (looking at you, every other JRPG that makes you watch the same summon animation 400 times). The quest markers are clear without being hand-holdy. It's a 25-35 hour experience that doesn't pad itself with busywork.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: It's gorgeous, which makes it perfect for showing off that new TV you convinced yourself was a necessary purchase. The strategic combat gives your brain something to chew on that isn't politics. And there's something deeply satisfying about a dark fantasy story when it's cold and dark outside at 4 PM.
Buy Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on Amazon
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on Amazon
6. Baldur's Gate 3
If You Somehow Still Haven't Played This!
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Price: £49.99 / $59.99 (frequently on sale for £35-40)
Time commitment: 60-100+ hours (but you can save anywhere and sessions of any length work)
Perfect for: Solo deep-dive when you want a proper RPG
Look, if you've already played Baldur's Gate 3, skip to the next entry, but judging by the conversations I've had, there are still plenty of older gamers who saw the hype, felt vaguely intimidated by the D&D ruleset, and thought "maybe later."
If that's you: Christmas 2025 is later!
Baldur's Gate 3 isn't just the best RPG of the decade so far—it's one of the best arguments for why gaming has matured into something that can genuinely compete with the best television and literature for storytelling. The writing is sharp, the characters are properly complex, and the moral choices are the kind that keep you thinking about them days later.
"But I don't know D&D rules!" Neither did I. The game teaches you everything you need to know, and honestly, you don't need to understand the underlying mechanics to enjoy it. Just read the tooltips, try things, see what works. The difficulty settings range from "I just want the story" to "I want to suffer," so there's genuinely something for everyone.
What makes this work for older gamers specifically: it's entirely turn-based. Every combat encounter is like a chess match where you have all the time in the world to consider your options. There's no twitch reflexes required, no quick-time events, no fail states because your fingers couldn't keep up with your brain.
The time investment is substantial though: 60 hours minimum, easily 100+ if you're thorough. But here's the thing: it's worth it.
Every choice matters. Every conversation can branch in meaningful ways. You can save anywhere, quit anytime, pick up exactly where you left off days later.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: If you've got a week off and want something meaty to really sink into, this is it. It's frequently on sale this time of year (check before paying full price). And honestly? It's simply a masterpiece. If you only play one massive RPG in 2025, make it this one.
Buy Baldur's Gate 3 on Loaded.com
7. Hollow Knight: Silksong
When Your Daughters Become Your Gaming Coaches
Platforms: PC, Mac, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox
Price: £34.99 / $39.99
Time commitment: 25-40 hours (can save anywhere, sessions work at any length)
Perfect for: Solo challenge, or brilliant for playing with kids/grandkids watching and "helping"
The most important thing about Hollow Knight: Silksong upfront: this is not an easy game. Team Cherry didn't suddenly decide to make their sequel more accessible for mass audiences. If anything, Silksong is more challenging than the original Hollow Knight, at least in its later sections.
But here's what I discovered while playing it with my daughters watching—something I wrote about at length when it first launched: the difficulty isn't the point. The journey is.
Silksong is gorgeous. Hand-drawn animation that looks like a living watercolor painting, music that shifts seamlessly from haunting to triumphant, and level design that rewards exploration without feeling overwhelming. You play as Hornet (a character from the first game, though you don't need to have played it), navigating the kingdom of Pharloom with acrobatic grace once you get the hang of the controls.
What surprised me most: my daughters, who aren't particularly interested in most of the games I play, were completely invested in Silksong. They sketched the characters in their notebooks, invented elaborate theories about the lore, celebrated my victories louder than I did. It became our shared thing during autumn evenings.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: If your grandkids or visiting adult children are gamers, this is something brilliant to experience together even if only one person is holding the controller. The challenge creates natural drama and shared moments. And if you're gaming solo, it's a masterclass in tight design and atmosphere that'll keep you engaged for weeks.
Buy Hollow Knight: Silksong on Amazon
Julian
8. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Atmospheric Ghost-Hunting at Christmas
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (Game Pass)
Price: £44.99 / $49.99
Time commitment: 20-30 hours (very story-driven, saves frequently)
Perfect for: Solo atmospheric gaming when the nights are long and dark
There's something oddly appropriate about ghost stories at Christmas, isn't there? The British tradition of telling supernatural tales by the fire on Christmas Eve goes back centuries (M.R. James understood this better than anyone). Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden captures that same atmospheric eeriness, transplanted to 1695 colonial America.
You play as Red and Antea, two professional ghost hunters—Banishers—who arrive in New Eden to investigate a haunting, only to discover Antea herself has become one of the ghosts she once hunted. The entire game revolves around this relationship: Red trying to help his lover while investigating increasingly disturbing supernatural events in the settlement.
This is from DON'T NOD, the folks behind Life is Strange, so expect heavy narrative focus and moral choices that genuinely make you pause. Do you help a grieving widow by banishing her husband's violent ghost, or try to help them find peace together? Every decision has weight, and the game doesn't offer easy answers.
What works well for older gamers: the combat is present but not overwhelming. You can adjust the difficulty to make it almost trivial if you're here for the story and atmosphere. The game is heavily narrative-driven, with long stretches of exploration, investigation, and dialogue between fights. It respects your intelligence—you're piecing together what happened in New Eden through environmental storytelling and conversations, not just following quest markers.
The setting is beautifully realized—colonial American forests in winter, settlements struggling against both the wilderness and supernatural forces, period-accurate detail without being showy about it. And crucially for Christmas gaming: it's included with Game Pass, which you might already have.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: It's atmospheric and spooky without being outright horror—more unsettling than terrifying. The winter setting feels seasonally appropriate. And there's something deeply satisfying about a ghost story told well when it's dark at 4 PM and the wind's rattling the windows.
Buy Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden on Amazon
9. Anno 117: Pax Romana
For When You Want to Build an Empire (Slowly, Though)
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S
Price: £49.99 / $59.99
Time commitment: Unlimited (this is a "just one more turn" trap)
Perfect for: Solo gaming when you want to think, plan and optimise
Anno 117: Pax Romana is a deeply complex city-building and economic simulation game set in ancient Rome. If the phrase "optimising production chains" doesn't excite you even a little bit, skip to the next entry. But if you're the sort of person who enjoys spreadsheets, logistics puzzles, or building intricate systems that all fit together perfectly, this is gaming crack.
You're building Roman provinces during the height of the empire, managing everything from basic resource gathering (wood, stone, food) to complex production chains (turning grapes into wine, olives into oil, sheep into clothing). Trade routes connect your settlements. Citizens have different needs depending on their social class. Naval combat occasionally interrupts your peaceful empire-building when barbarians get ideas above their station.
What I love about Anno: there's no time pressure whatsoever. You can pause whenever you want, think through your next moves, make changes, unpause when you're ready. A session can be 20 minutes of tinkering with a single production chain, or it can be three hours that vanish like smoke because you're so absorbed in solving the puzzle of how to get enough pottery to that growing settlement across the bay.
This is pure strategy, planning and problem-solving. There's no combat to speak of (naval battles are basically an afterthought you can automate) - Your real enemies are inefficiency, poor planning, and your own ambition. When everything's humming along perfectly—farms feeding mills, mills feeding bakeries, bakeries feeding your growing population—it's genuinely satisfying in a way that's hard to explain to non-strategy gamers.
Fair warning: the learning curve is steep. You'll spend your first few hours feeling slightly overwhelmed by all the systems. But once it clicks, it clicks hard.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: If you've got time and want something that'll keep your brain engaged, Anno delivers. And there's something wonderfully escapist about building a thriving Roman province when the real world feels chaotic.
Buy Anno 117: Pax Romana on Amazon
10. Two Point Museum
Let's End on Something Lighthearted and Silly
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Price: £34.99 / $39.99
Time commitment: Sessions of any length work perfectly
Perfect for: Low-stress gaming, or something to play while half-watching TV
After all that depth and challenge, let's finish with something that's just... nice. Two Point Museum is from the folks behind Two Point Hospital (and the spiritual successors to the classic Theme Hospital), and it's exactly what it sounds like: you're building and managing museums filled with increasingly absurd exhibits.
The humour is quintessentially British—dry, silly, occasionally quite dark. You'll be managing everything from prehistoric fossils to modern art installations, hiring eccentric staff, designing layouts that maximise visitor flow, and dealing with the occasional dinosaur skeleton coming to life and terrorising the gift shop. As you do.
It's utterly stress-free; Nothing bad happens if you pause for 20 minutes to answer the door. There's no fail state that matters. You can play as efficiently or as chaotically as you fancy. The game gently suggests optimal strategies but doesn't punish you for ignoring them in favor of building the museum layout that makes you happy.
It's also brilliant for playing semi-engaged—the sort of game you can have running while you're half-watching a film with your partner, or listening to a podcast, or just need something gentle after a long day of family obligations. Progress happens whether you're paying full attention or not.
The art style is bright and cheerful, the music is pleasant in the background, and the whole experience is just... cozy. Which, after everything 2025 has thrown at us, feels exactly right for the end of the year.
Why it's perfect for Christmas 2025: It's lighthearted when everything else feels heavy and it's the sort of game you can show visiting family without needing to explain complex mechanics.
Buy Two Point Museum on Amazon
My Final Recommendation:
Just Play Something!
The most important thing isn't which of these ten games you actually choose - It's that you actually play something over the Christmas break instead of just thinking about gaming while scrolling your phone or falling asleep in front of another Christmas special you've seen twelve times before.
You've earned these few days. Whether you're building Roman provinces at 2 AM while everyone sleeps, co-op game with your partner, video-call a friend to play Destiny together, or just muck about in Mario Kart—it's all valid. Gaming at 50+ isn't about proving anything. It's about enjoying something that brings you genuine pleasure during a time of year that can be exhausting even when it's lovely.
So grab a controller, pick something from this list (or don't), and give yourself permission to have a bit of fun.
Happy Christmas, and lots of fun gaming.
