Happy Hollowdays: Why Dark Souls is a Christmas game ► Ludology Now!

Dark Souls is a Christmas game, even though it doesn’t look like it. Elden Ring, at first glance, may seem like more of a Christmas game than Dark Souls, with its one Santa Claus-clad merchant and abundance of snowy areas on the Mountaintop of the Giants. These are just surface-level similarities, however. Dark Souls has the real, true Christmas spirit.

How? It’s about feeling, about vibes. Turning on and immersing yourself in the world of Dark Souls is as warm and comforting as watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Hearing the blacksmith say “Neither of us want to see you go hollow,” that’s just as heartwarming as hearing Tiny Tim say “God bless us, everyone.” It’s like being wrapped in a warm blanket, sipping cocoa, with a roaring fire nearby and a cool breeze coming from a nearby cracked window, outside of which the snow gently falls onto a corpse on the ground.

It may sound facetious, but that’s not what it is. It’s true and pure and honest and clear. I’ve played Dark Souls countless times over the past fourteen years (good lord, it’s been fourteen years since Dark Souls came out) and I know it as well as I know the trails of my childhood. I know the twists and turns. I know the secrets. I don’t have to travel for Thanksgiving, most of my family lives here, but coming back to Lordran feels like my version of coming home for the holidays.

Is it every December I replay Dark Souls? It feels like it’s been most of them. I remember watching Christmas movies while grinding souls in the Painted World. I remember listening to carols while clearing out the Duke’s Archives and below. I once forgot Gwyn’s name and just called him Father Christmas for an entire stream. Even Ash Lake, as weird as it sounds, sometimes reminds me of the North Pole. DS1 is Christmas-coded.

I know this sounds like nonsense. For people who are not heavily, heavy invested in the world of Dark Souls, the idea that it can be cozy and safe at all may seem laughable. It is a cruel, harsh, unforgiving world, it is true. Everyone in Dark Souls would likely be on the Naughty list, even you the player. Nearly everyone goes hollow in the end, and even the good ending is lined with death and decay.

And yet. And yet, it fills me with joy to return to this place. To walk the skinny paths of Anor Londo and Sen’s Fortress, to hoard humanity for later offerings to the Fire Keeper beneath Quelaag, to curl up into a ball and pretend to be a little egg. It’s so inherently silly, so bleak, and yet so full of hope.

The best Christmas games and movies are about light preserving when all hope is lost. When it seems like the worst is coming, the good in the world rises up and prevails. The flickers of the ember fade and the North wind blows to brighten them. During the holiday season, in this household, we link the fires. We keep the flame alight.

Us furtive pygmies, we hold the darkness at bay, on these cold and lengthy nights.