With Christmas almost here, this month's edition of my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra is about holiday-themed games. It's not an attempt to write a complete history by any means, but I mention a few kinds of such games, although mostly I wonder why our medium doesn't follow packaged goods, film and others in taking advantage of the season.

The article is mostly about commercial games, but in the few days since I wrote it I've come across two new holiday web games from this year. The first is Handbell Hero, which is exactly what you think it is (via Raph). The second is The Nutcracker, which I guess I'd describe as a shmup/brawler with levels tied to Tchaikovsky's opera of the same name.

I'm not sure if either of these are exactly what I had in mind, but I got a laugh out of both of them.