Am I alone in hating Christmas-themed adventures?

[Eltab]

I played in a one-shot "Christmas episode" that was notable for looting Santa's shop, and being attacked by snowmen (one of whom wore a magic hat) on the way out.
I stuck a candle on an arrow, lit it, and shot a snowman. The DM gave me Fire damage!
My Ranger/Rogue got a "6-shooter" (hand crossbow without the loading property) out of it, just in time for Extra Attack at Ranger5.

I don't mind a 'holiday episode' but agree that (1) many use just the trappings of the holiday's theme; (2) should be a one-shot; (3) nothing carries over into your regularly scheduled adventure arc.

P.S. Saint Patrick's Day, when you dig into the lore, allows the PCs to banish snakes -or- visit Nessie -or- preach good news and make friends out of strangers -or even- free slaves. All of these can be used / adapted for a memorable session. What does your group like? (Reward at end: mug of green beer. )

 

[MNblockhead]

An old friend of mine is in town for Christmas and ran a new Mutant Crawl Classics module called Home for the Holideath. It was a six-hour one-shot with pregenerated characters.

It was slap-stick, silly, and lots of fun.

I would happily play another such adventure than sit through another "spooky" haunted house Halloween adventure that takes itself too seriously.

 

[GameOgre]

You have not gamed until Santa the assimar 15th Barb/5thBard and his 200 Elven assassin's ridding flying mounts(celestial reindeer) and their horde of charmed children thieves lay siege to Waterdeep in order to retrieve the stolen Santa's Bag of Major Holding and the Naughty & Nice Scroll of Power.

Turned out it was a Dragon Sorcerer Torte named Manshoon, who had never made it on the nice list no matter what he did because of a name mix up.

If your going to run a one shot ......might as well let everyone make up a 20th level character with magic items and all.

 

[Nevvur]

Hate it.

I ran a Roll20 game on Christmas day, assuring my players there would be zero Christmas-related content for those able to join. It was a randomly generated dungeon delve that conveniently and appropriately placed a treasure chest at the end. Seeing that, I opted not to roll the contents in advance, so the players could have a sort of "box opening" experience, rolling the contents on the DMG table themselves. That's about as close as I've ever come to Christmasy BS.

They rolled so awful! Not quite a lump of coal, but I could almost feel their joy deflating from my side of the screen.

 

[Immortal Sun]

While I like seasonal-themed events within a campaign, I generally dislike holiday-specific events.

 

[jayoungr]

You have not gamed until Santa the assimar 15th Barb/5thBard and his 200 Elven assassin's ridding flying mounts(celestial reindeer) and their horde of charmed children thieves lay siege to Waterdeep in order to retrieve the stolen Santa's Bag of Major Holding and the Naughty & Nice Scroll of Power.

Turned out it was a Dragon Sorcerer Torte named Manshoon, who had never made it on the nice list no matter what he did because of a name mix up.

Can the details of this adventure be found anywhere? It's for a friend.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Never experienced them in person, but not a fan in theory.

Honestly, anything with an explicit theme like that has a good chance of backfiring by being too heavy handed, and while parodies are nice in small quantities I'm not usually a fan of making Santa a murder machine of jolliness with his army of elves.

I like Christmas for goodwill and spending time with loved ones, I don't really feel a huge need to mock it. (Which is why my exception for both those is North from Rise of the Guardians, definitely not a traditional Santa portrayal, but he captures the fun and wonder of the seasonal magic as well as making Santa a warrior.)