It's the most wonderful time of the year! If you're twiddling your thumbs waiting for Santa Claus, we've rounded up some of the best Christmas games available to play on Android and iOS.
Whether it's running a festive farm, decorating a home, or baking yule logs, these Christmas-themed mobile games for Android and iOS are sure to keep you in the festive spirit. So don your most garish jumper, hang up your stocking, and dive in to the fun.
1. Christmas Cookie
If you celebrate Christmas, you'll probably be leaving cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve, but until then you can play this matching game. The aim is to swipe and tap to line up cookies so that they match or combine. The aim being to earn power-ups and clear the board as quickly as possible.
If you've already mastered Candy Crush Saga, you should know what to expect here. With over 700 levels and special events and challenges along the way, there's enough in the Christmas Cookie match game to keep you well occupied until the new year.
2. Happy New Year Farm: Christmas
This game lets you visit Santa Claus on his North Pole farm and build snowmen, make gifts (though sadly not Christmas decorations made from recycled materials), and bake cookies. Okay, try to overlook the fact that there's probably not many farms with grass at the North Pole. Mobile games don't tend to strive for realism.
Mechanically, this is a city builder game, meaning you need to tap to build and collect things. Having to wait for the tasks to complete in real time can be a drag, but the added Christmas charm should help.
You'll need to build toy factories and harvest trees if you want your farm to be ready in time for the big day.
3. Winter Solitaire
Sure, you can play normal solitaire on your smartphone, but it's not holiday-themed. At this time of year, you want Winter Solitaire instead. You need to stack the cards in order, but the cards take different patterns per level, and there are power-ups you can use to reverse your turn or get a hint.
Of course, this is Christmas-themed, so Santa is on-hand to lend you encouragement, and the picture cards all have fun festive imagery. The decks are always randomized, so there's endless fun to be had here.
4. Christmas Stories: The Gift of the Magi
Delve into a mysterious winter tale with this adventure from Big Fish. Your sister has done something bad and consequently been whisked away by an evil spirit and her elves. It's up to you to get her back in time for Christmas.
This is mainly a hidden object game, with wonderfully detailed and colorful imagery, but it's wrapped around an intriguing story and has enjoyable mini-games along the way too. Plus you can nab collectibles and achievements as you play.
5. Christmas Jigsaw Puzzles
For many, jigsaw puzzles are a relaxing way to pass the time, especially over the holiday season. But the problem with jigsaws is that you can need a lot of space to solve them. That's why one of the reasons why the Christmas Jigsaw Puzzles app is so great; it contains a large range of different festive puzzles to solve.
This game will keep you endlessly occupied because you can increase the difficulty and choose how many pieces each puzzle has. You can also adjust options like whether pieces automatically snap into place and if you can check the completed picture.
Plus, this app offers more than just traditional jigsaws. You can also play switch, slider, and rotation puzzles from the same seasonal imagery. It tracks your best score across all of these, so you can challenge friends and family to try to beat you.
6. Delicious — Emily's Christmas Carol
One of the greatest things about Christmas is all the food you can eat. But if you have eaten too much turkey, you can still get your fix in the digital world. Take control of Emily as she runs her diners across 61 story levels and 31 challenge levels.
Customers will come to request their orders and it's your job to whip them up, serve them, and collect payment. Be sure to be prompt, or else you'll have unhappy customers. With delightful music and charm, this restaurant management game is a joy to play.
7. Christmas Games: Toy Party
This app is great for the little ones and will be sure to keep them out of your hair for a little while when you need to prepare for the big day. They can play a variety of six games to earn stars to decorate their festive room. The games include puzzles, mazes, dominoes, and more.
The difficulty can be adjusted based on their age and there are over 300 levels to play across all the games. With an easy interface, charming music, and a fun festive feel, kids are sure to love this one.
Keep Your Kids Entertained This Christmas
Hopefully, you've found a Christmas-themed mobile game on this list that takes your fancy and keeps you (or your offspring) occupied until Santa Claus pops his head down the chimney. Of course, these games aren't just for Christmas. You can enjoy them all year round, just to get that seasonal magic whenever you want.