Two years ago Mark Wilson suggested that we should try and put together something a little special for our readers: A delightful thank you to all of those gamers out there who spend their busy work days reading Kotaku. The result was a funny little ditty written and, sadly, performed by Kotaku's own. We called it Still Not Banned.

Last year Adam Barenblat helped produce a Live Action Holiday Special featuring many of us talking to a camera in different parts of Kotaku Tower. It also included an impressive line-up of special in-game guests. Ignore my deliberately bad acting (and Princess Leia quoting) and dig the fact I was wearing my wife's robe when we shot A Very Special Kotaku Holiday Podcast.

This year we looked to Barely Digital and the Gregory Brothers for our little digital thanks to readers. They prepared this short, but sweet send off of autotuned video games.

Enjoy and make 2010 your best year ever. I know we intend to.

As far as gifting video games goes, racing games are easy. You generally know if your loved one is a racing fan, and if they owned an Xbox 360 and hadn't picked up a game in the past few months, then the gift for them was pretty obvious - Forza Motorsport 3. Turn 10 took a moment during its holiday weekend to let fans know via Twitter just how much fresh meat was being introduced to the popular racing title.

Merry Christmas Forza faithfuls! We saw a huge jump in users this week and over the past day or so, we added approx 1 new user per second!

One user per second? That's like 60 users per minute, or 360 users an hour. If they kept up that pace for an entire year, that would be 3,153,600 users in a year!

Of course they won't keep up that pace. I was just having fun with Windows calculator. I've been on vacation far too long.

Man, that one guy. He's just not in the holiday spirit at all. I'm not going to single out which one I am talking about, as the holidays are different for everyone and enforcing my particular notion of what the holidays mean on you folks would be terribly insensitive of me.

The rest of them are so adorable you just want to pinch their cheeks. Next time I run into the Southpeak folks, there will be pinching. Just warning them ahead of time.

The Archivist Coalition has finally determined the date for the New Year, and they're sponsoring a First Night festival to celebrate. Wastelanders from all over the Grand Canyon Province will join together, briefly putting aside their differences, at least until Seasonal Arctic Network of Toy-based Altruism (S.A.N.T.A) and the Emissaries Leaving Free Stuff (E.L.F.S) visit. Once the fruitcake arrives - that's when the shooting generally starts. At least in my family.

Fallen Earth passed along some postcards to go along with the celebration, and they are pretty much as creepy as you'd expect. At least now we know why Rudolph's nose was so red.

If this sort of humor tickles your tickly bits, then perhaps Fallen Earth is for you. Visit the game's website to find out.

Cryptic rings in the holidays in Champions Online with the Attack of the Misfit Toys event. The Black Harlequin has made diabolical changes to the children's Christmas toys, and it's up to the heroes of Millennium City to take them down a peg or two. It's all about seasonal toy clearance, at least until seasonal toy Clarence shows up. Hugs and death for everyone!

"We really wanted to celebrate the holidays by giving our players some really fun gifts," said Bill Roper, Executive Producer of Champions Online. "So we've cooked up a brand new winter event, and created several new ways to share the joy of Champions Online."

Those new ways include a refer a friend program, where old players bring in new players to try the game for 10 days, with rare in-game items for all and 400 Cryptic points for the referrer if the new player stays, and a new demo that allows players to level up to 15 in the opening tutorial.

Nice offers, but as far as I am concerned it's all about Clarence.

As far as I am concerned, there is nothing near as festive as monkeys. There isn't one holiday that couldn't be enhanced by an injection of these lovable primates. You may hate monkeys, and that's okay too, because it's the holiday season, and we have enough love for everyone, even repulsive monkey haters.

The video does make a good point, however, especially to those of us who begin playing The Sims games with the purest of intentions, only to discover that we're really sadistic bastards when no one is looking. Show of hands, please!

Microsoft generally isn't the habit of laying out several weeks worth of Xbox Live releases in one fell swoop, so we can assume that the company is going out of town for the holidays, and this is the note they are leaving on the really big fridge, containing all we need to know about the coming weeks.

First off, today sees the addition of holiday gear and tokidoki wear on the Avatar Marketplace, with tons of new items to spend your discretionary Microsoft points on. Be sure to save some for Christmas Eve, however, when Disney Classics wear shows up, filling your friends list with pretty princesses.

The Xbox Live Deal of the Week program continues throughout the month, starting with the Lips: Coldplay Track Pack (200 Microsoft points) next week, followed by Shadow Complex (800 points) and The Maw (400 points).

The Games on Demand service expands by several titles this month, with Crackdown and Disney's Bolt already available, and Viva Piñata: Party Animals, Lost Planet Colonies Edition and Devil May Cry 4, and Gears of War coming over the next three weeks.

*pause for breath*

Xbox Live Arcade gets two new additions over the course of the next two weeks, with Alien Breed Evolution Episode 1 dropping on the 16th (800 points) and the Trails HD Big Pack adding 35 new racing and skill tracks to the game on the 23rd.

On top of all that, December 18th through the 31st, Microsoft will be holding one-day sales on select Xbox Live Marketplace items, including games, movies, add-ons, and themes, counting down to the New Year with savings, as is tradition.

As for me, I'm driving to Florida to hang out with my girlfriend's mother and grandmother. Not really all that interesting, but since we were sharing.

Yes, it's not a Christmas tree. It's a festive tree, because everyone has different festive celebrations at the end of the yeah, and singling out one is wrong. *eyes his headline* Oh well. Either way, there's a decorated tree, and PlayStation Home online community specialist Locust_Star urges home-goers to work together to solve its riddles over the course of the month in order to reveal some surprising developments.

This week also brings a beachfront personal space with a MotorStorm: Pacific Rift theme, and a miner costume in the store to celebrate the recent announcement of Dead Space 2.

Hudson brings the insanely popular casual game Diner Dash to the PlayStation Network this week, and there's a scavenger hunt taking place in Home on Friday, December 11th, in which players can piece together codes for free downloads of the game.

Check out the link below for more details on this week's PlayStation Home festivities, and have a happy and safe generic holiday.

Holiday Celebrations Come to PlayStation Home + MotorStorm, Dead Space 2, and Diner Dash [PlayStation Blog]

8 Bit Weapon is one of my favorite chiptune bands, using their arsenal of old computers, consoles, handhelds, and various electronic toys to craft some very impressive tunes. Their holiday release, It's a Chiptune Holiday, is an exquisite example of what traditional music can become in the hands of capable 8-bit artists.

The album features 8 tracks perfect for replacing your family's traditional holiday music, at least until they figure out what you've done. You'll probably get away with "Ave Maria," "O Christmas Tree," and possibly "Joy to the World," but the beats in "Deck the Halls" and "Jingle Bells" will be a dead giveaway, and that's only if they manage to miss the electronic voices.

And yes, they've got Hanukka in there as well.

It's a Chiptune Holiday is currently on sale at both 8 Bit Weapon and ComputerHer's websites for $9.95, with each CD shipped in case handcrafted from a 5.25" floppy diskette.

It's the perfect way to remind your family that you're the odd, video-game loving member of your household.

Help out a sick Santa by maneuvering your yeti through town, avoiding police and delivering as many gifts as you can within the time limit. An advent calendar tells the back story of the game on a daily basis, while leaderboards help you keep track of what a good yeti you've been.

"Gift of the Yeti is BioWare's digital holiday card to its fans. We use social networking as a powerful tool to connect meaningfully with our tremendous fan community," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare and the Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group at EA. "Gift of the Yeti is a fun, engaging holiday present from BioWare to our fans, the first in a series of compelling social experiences from BioWare Labs."

The game is cute, but it's goal is what's more important; each play of The Gift of the Yeti raises 1 penny for gamer children's charity Child's Play, to a maximum of $10,000 dollars. I've already played three times, so that means you folks have only got 999,997 plays to go before they reach their goal.

"Child's Play draws the bulk of our support from video gamers and the games industry, and we are honored to be part of BioWare's Gift of the Yeti campaign," said Kristin Lindsay, Program Coordinator, Child's Play. "Now gamers can help support pediatric hospitals in the US, Canada and worldwide simply by playing the game and having fun! When gamers give back, it makes a big difference."

As an added bonus, folks visiting the Gift of the Yeti game are entitled to 10% off the purchase of Dragon Age: Origins from the EA Store.

Charity, discounts, and yetis. What else could a gamer want for Christmas?

Virtual shoppers spent a great deal of money online between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but according to Retail Decisions, people perpetrating credit card fraud spent more. 23% more to be specific, spending an average of $248 per transaction across the two busiest holiday shopping days so far this year. The average actually makes sense, once you realize what they are spending other people's money on.

The top for fraud prone products are:

1) Virtual gift cards and gift cards
2) Xbox 360
3) Nintendo Wii
4) The "Call of Duty" Xbox game

We're going to assume that by Call of Duty then mean Modern Warfare 2, unless the credit cards are a few years old. No, that didn't make sense. The items do, however. Especially number one, which can then be used to buy numbers 2 through 3 with an added layer of anonymity.

Having spent the better part of last month struggling with my own credit card fraud woes, I can't stress how important it is to not let other people have my credit card numbers. You can do whatever you;d like with your own, just leave me mine.

GameStop is donating $1 from every gift card purchased this holiday season to the Make-A-Wish foundation (up to $100,000), and they've gotten wish recipient Emily Adkins to pitch in with her own original artwork.

"During the holidays, we have a lot of parents and grandparents who want to buy games as gifts, but they aren't quite sure which title would be the right one," said Dan DeMatteo, chief executive officer for GameStop. "By selecting a gift card, gift givers can be assured the gamers on their lists will be thrilled, and they have the added bonus of helping a worthy charity like the Make-A-Wish Foundation."

Nice work Emily. I'd say I could do better, but that would be a) cruel and b) likely untrue.

Ah yes, the 90's. The console wars were so much better back then, when companies weren't afraid to create obviously fake protest groups in order to sell their product. If only more video game marketing teams would figure out the joy of anti-advertising.

Thanks to Morris for bringing back fond memories.

I'd probably fall into both categories had KRC Research, who surveyed 1,001 U.S. adults earlier this month, had bothered to ask me. They didn't, though they did get a hold of a nice little cross-section of people, 52% who felt that video games were a good gift option given the current economy. The popularity of video games continues to grow, with the giving/receiving figure up 9% from 2007, with the number of women intended as game recipients jumping 31% from two years ago, or 47% of respondents.

"Computer and video games are topping holiday lists because they provide a superior entertainment value for the whole family," said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA... "With 68 percent of American households playing computer and video games, U.S. consumers value the creative and innovative products the entertainment software industry produces and are seeking them out for themselves and to give as gifts."

Of course to most of us, these numbers mean nothing. I've been giving video games as gifts since I bought myself my first Sega Genesis. Wait, does gifting yourself count?

In the grand tradition of last year's Rocket Bots, players can pull out their Crashin' Thrashin' Race Car at any given moment, aim it at another player's car, and hit the Racer Rocket Slam button to propel themselves at their opponents with monster truck force, making them go all 'splodey.

I currently have WoW running in the background, and all I can hear is exploding cars and the odd fit of laughter generated by those damn Wands of Holiday Cheer they keep putting under the tree every year. Oh good...now someone's put down the toy train that makes people do the train noise. My suggestion? Log in, get your race car, stick around long enough to get the 25 crashes achievement, and then flee.

Unlike that other video game goat-killing event, Funcom keeps things virtual with it's holiday goat hunt, with a prize package consisting mainly of the game's pre-order bonuses and two months free game time up for grabs for whoever manages to down one of the poor creatures. The trick is, there's only one goat per server, so only one person per server can win. Riddles as to the goat's location can be found at the official site, along with a listing of servers where the goat has already appeared and went down.

While some servers have already held their events, more will be having theirs on the 29th, 30th, and 31st, so who knows? You might still have a chance to get your goat. What you do with it when you get it is your business.

In-Game Season Event [Age of Conan via Massively]

Kotakuite Nathan sends us pictures of his v8-bit gingerbread creations, featuring Mario, Mega Man, and LocoRoco - which isn't technically 8-bit. I suppose that explains why Mega Man is shooting at them in one of the pics below, but why the Mario hostility? Is it because the clean-shaven plumber is obviously an imposter, or did Mega Man actually shave off Mario's trademark mustache before taking him out, execution style? The world may never know.

Available until December 31st, the holiday bundles package together several related games into one $9.98 package for easy consumption. Bundles include Fallout & Fallout 2; MDK & MDK 2; Freespace with Silent Threat mission pack & Freespace 2; Descent 1+2 & Descent 3 with Mercenary expansion; and Stonekeep & Lionheart. As a big fan of the MDK series, I cannot stress enough to anyone reading who might be related to me and looking for gift ideas how much someone like me would appreciate that particular bundle. Just saying.

GoG has also added Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus and Patrician 3 to their line up this day, just in case the bundles didn't tickle your fancy. Head over to GoG.com today to check out all the new additions!

GOG.com Launches Holiday Bundles

Celebrate the Season with Great Deals on Classic PC Games – Cheap, no Matter Where you Live

Warsaw, Poland – December 23 – Stressed out? Need to get away from those family members that showed up uninvited and just won’t get the hint that you need some “me time”? Gamers with a few extra bucks left over after some intense holiday shopping should head right over to GOG.com (http://www.gog.com), where five new holiday bundles will be available for a limited time. Until December 31 fans of DRM-free classic PC games can get any of the following bundles for just $9.98: Fallout & Fallout 2; MDK & MDK 2; Freespace with Silent Threat mission pack & Freespace 2; Descent 1+2 & Descent 3 with Mercenary expansion; Stonekeep & Lionheart. Before you go, “oh but I already bought one of those, what about me?!” rest assured that anyone who’s already bought one of the games will get $1 off the second title.

Additionally, two new games were added to the GOG.com games catalogue today. Following up on the release of Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee last week, Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus (http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/oddworld_abes_exoddus) continues the imaginative adventures of everyone’s favorite Mudokon. Grab that for $9.99 then read part one of GOG.com’s Oddworld Retrospective (http://www.gog.com/en/editorial/editorial_oddworld_abes_oddysee/). Strategy fans can get their fill with Patrician 3 (http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/patrician_3), as they expand a medieval trade empire to encompass the Old World… and all of that economic power can be harnessed for just $9.99.

“We want to bring people the best value no matter where they live. With our Polish origins, we know how awful it feels when popular web services and products are not available or are more expensive just because of where we live," said Adam Oldakowski, Managing Director of GOG.com. “That’s why we’re committed to making sure that these great holiday bundles are available worldwide, and that our prices and product catalogues are the same for everyone across the globe; we think that everyone should have access to great games like Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus and Patrician 3.”

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