A game not often mentioned in online ‘Christmas video game’ lists, The Official Father Christmas Game is one of the better Christmas-themed video games that I’ve found so far. It was developed by Enigma Variations and published by Alternative Software for the Amstrad, Spectrum and C64 in 1989. All proceeds from the game went to the famous children’s charity, Save The Children.

The Official Father Christmas Game is split into three distinct stages: collect missing parts of Santa’s sleigh; choose and collect the presents, and then finally: deliver the presents to the children of four different continents.

The Amstrad version is the only one that has a colourful loading screen; the other two versions for some reason have rather disappointing monochrome screens. That said, in-game it has less colour than the Spectrum version and is mostly monochrome, which is also disappointing. I think, in this case, it would’ve been better to use one of the Amstrad‘s alternative display modes with more colour and chunkier pixels.

There’s not much sound in the game either, other than a festive medley on the title screen that plays “Jingle Bells“, “Deck the Halls“, and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” in a loop.

The Amstrad version of this game is arguably the most disappointing of the three available as it lacks colour and finesse, but it’s not a bad game overall. Certainly not the worst Christmas-themed game I’ve ever played (but not the best either).

Happy holidays from The King of Grabs!

More: The Official Father Christmas Game on Moby Games