"This is not the year for silly stuff," said Keith Browning, 50 of Columbus, Ohio. He lost his job at a Honda plant and struck out on his own. "My brother gave me a Wii video game. I'm definitely returning that. We need some new pots and pans for the house. And I need tools to get my company going."

Last year, I bought my parents a Wii for Christmas, then was laid off from a gig in Silicon Valley. Mom demanded that I return the machine, and when I told her the Amazon reseller wouldn't take it, she insisted I sell it and pocket the money, which I did.

So I can understand where this guy is coming from, with the "silly stuff" comment. We've heard plenty about video games being high-value diversions similar to what movie houses provided back in the Depression. But for some people, when you're not working - or not working enough - giving or playing games just doesn't feel right.

Browning's quote is the definition of anecdotal, but I'm wondering if it portends a shopping mindset that means bad things for games this year.

A Tentative Sparkle Enlivens Holiday Shopping [The New York Times]

Doesn't it drive anybody else crazy how the first five days or so are birds? Or how you can't get the pear tree without taking the damn partridge, too (because that would be ungracious)? Why can't we just declare the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Eve/Sarajevo the official song of the holiday season?

Anyway, here's an alternative take on The 12 Days of Christmas, featuring Sonic: Sega All-Stars Racing.

Image Cred

There it is, pictured above. The free offer is good through the end of today, but I believe that clocks in at Pacific time, so it means folks on the U.S. east coast have to 3 a.m. if they want it. However, yesterday's Deal of the Day, Worms 2: Armageddon for 400 Microsoft Points, was still live when I posted this at 6 p.m. Mountain time. But the 2010 Avatar party glasses had gone back to 40 MS points. So who knows.

The DotD promos - which Microsoft is not announcing in advance - last through Dec. 31, and if you're keeping track of this sort of thing, Cheap Ass Gamer has been archiving the giveaways here.

New Year's Theme [Xbox Live Marketplace via Gay Gamer]

We've featured Advent calendars as a gaming theme before, but this one appears new. Started by Juuso Hietalahti, the owner of Finland-based Polycount Productions (who also writes at GameProducer.Net) each day reveals one or more Indie games, some with YouTube trailers. Of course there are links to download or play the games, be they application or browser-based. All carry the reminder that buying them supports devs directly.

There were four games behind Door No. 20 today, and there are four more days to go.

The Indie Games Xmas Calendar [site]

"Winterfest" is what Earth Eternal is calling the Christmas season within their fantasy MMO land. From now until presumably the end of December, players can find new candy cane weapons, new creatures in the world that drop snowballs and corn cob pipes, the Santa suit and some weird looking snowmen.

Additionally, players can redeem any corncob pipes they pick up for special Winterfest prizes. But I bet none of those prizes will be gelt (chocolate coins).

Happy Fifth Night of Hanukkah everybody!

According to Turner:

When you play, you watch only the Christmas lights, but the audio you hear is from the Wii, so your flubs are broadcast for all to hear (people in cars can tune 99.1 and crank it up as loud as they want.) When we are not playing, a separate version of the program that has the audio from the recorded game plays with the lights as a loop.

And all across America, thousands of suburban dads hold their manhood cheap, and thank God that Ric Turner does not live on their block.

Christmas Lights Display of the Day [The Daily What, thanks Carlos M.]

Why did we rush out on to retailers on Black Friday again? This holiday season the retailers are dishing the deals all December long, and Target is no exception. Starting Sunday the 13th, the more sophisticated version of Walmart has bargains too ridiculous to pass up, unless of course you already got your holiday shopping done *grumbles*.

Purchasing a Nintendo Wii or DSi from Target next week will earn you a $30 or $10 Target gift card, good towards the purchase of anything Target carries. Buy a slightly older Wii game, or just stock up on Choxie-brand chocolate goodness. Yes, I am plugging Choxie. I would fill my bathtub with Choxie products if I had the means, and then I'd get all upset because I forgot to clean it out first. Mmmm, chocolate raspberry soap-scum truffles.

The Nintendo love extends to select Nintendo DS games as well, with The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and more discounted to $25 a pop. No more putting off picking up the Jonas Brothers game for you, my friends.

Finally,Target is cutting prices drastically on games bundled with plastic controllers. Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, DJ Hero and Tony Hawk Ride are all dropping to $88, which is a substantial savings, yet still far too much to pay for Tony Hawk Ride.

Oh, and they have Archer Farms stuff too. I could kill for a bag of apple pie trail mix right about now. What were we talking about again?

It's also running a free-shipping promo that isn't all that glamorous, but is worth a mention: Free shipping on The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS, and free shipping on all pre-ordered games.

You can check out the deals here. Alert reader bjorked noticed in yesterday's Weekend Coupons that the sale was announced in this weekend's Toys 'R Us circular.

Toys 'R Us: Video Games [site]

They're slam-packed with in-game memes - Pyro's speechlessness, Demo-Man getting lit on egg nog, and Spy romancing Scout's mom under the mistletoe. Each set is $15.95 - a steep price to confuse your family, or a bargain to wow your friends, your choice.

2009 Holiday Card Collection [Steam via VG247]

Parents desperately searching for a way to connect with their children over the Christmas holidays need look no further than We Wish You a Merry Christmas, due out October 27th for the Nintendo Wii from Destineer and developer Panic Button. Six holiday mini-games will help parents and children bond during those long, awkward winter days, and the included Advent Calendar will ensure that the title stays poignant for one month out of the year.

At least the mini-games sound exciting? Just look at these descriptions:

* Santa's Sleigh: Collect presents with the Wii Remote™ and help deliver them to houses.
* Hot Chocolate: A memory game in which you keep the elves warm by quickly pouring and delivering mugs of hot chocolate.
* Candy Cane Lanes: As Santa, you bowl down a lane towards funny elves.
* Present Catch: Play as an elf, catching all the bouncing presents and avoiding obstacles with the Wii Remote™.
* Reindeer Games: Santa's reindeer hold a special flying contest to see who can lead Santa's sleigh each year.
* Deck The Halls: Match 3 and win!

The excitement never stops! Well until Christmas is over. I have to admire the guts of a publisher that releases a title that revolves around one specific annual event. It reminds me of the Christmas stores that pop up all over Atlanta for three months out of the year and then go into hibernation in January. Both are bright and cheerful and exist only to capitalize on a beloved celebration.

September's NPD numbers drop next week, and more than one analyst is predicting that the PlayStation 3 will finally come out on top for the first time since its 2006 launch. Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter predicts that the PS3 sold 410K units in September compared to 390K for the Wii and 350K for the 360. Furthermore, he thinks the PS3 over 360 trend could continue until at least the end of the year.

"We believe that the recent round of price cuts may benefit the PS3 the most in coming months, given that unit sales last year were only 1.5 million for the September – December 2008 period. The Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 for the past 13 months, likely due to a higher perceived value proposition (the Xbox 360 "core" model was priced $100 lower than the PS3). We think that the PS3 will outsell the Xbox 360 in September, and may continue to do so for the rest of the year,"

Pachter goes on to predict a 250GB version of the Xbox 360 in 2010 to help combat Sony's increase in market share, and a potential price cut for the Nintendo DS Lite to $99 should the PSP and PSPgo start taking a larger percentage of the handheld market.

Of course Pachter predicts a lot of things. We'll see how accurate he is once the NPD numbers are published next week.

PS3 to Dominate as September Game Sales Expected to See Double Digit Growth [Industry Gamers]

Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick has proclaimed today, September 9th 2009, to be Video Game Innovation Day, celebrating the state's long history of gaming innovation. The official proclamation cites both Spacewar! and Harmonix, as well as companies and universities currently working on technology that will support the growth of the industry.

Now, Therefore, I, Deval L. Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, do hereby proclaim September 9th, 2009 to be, Video Game Innovation Day And urge all the citizens of the Commonwealth to take cognizance of this event and participate fittingly in its observance.

How does one fittingly observe Video Game Innovation Day? Perhaps the answer to that explains why the governor didn't proclaim this yesterday.

Governor Declares 09.09.09 Video Game Innovation Day in Massachusetts [Mass.gov]

Although November saw relatively disappointing PS3 sales and analysts were expecting numbers to be slightly lower than or right on track with last year's, Sony says that they've managed to more than double sales during the holuday period. SCEA VP of sales Ian Jackson knows the score.

"Early internal data points to an increase of more than 130 percent of PS3 hardware sales for the holiday season—since Black Friday—and we're also seeing a growth of nearly 40 percent in total PS3 hardware sales for the calendar year. We remain confident this momentum will continue into the new year."

And what about the November dip? Merely an anomaly, created by the sales surge that came in November of last year following the introduction of the 40GB PS3. See? The PlayStation 3 has momentum! As long as December's NPD numbers hold true to Sony's internal data, everything will be just fine.

UPDATE: SCEA contacted us to let us know that the sales jump of 130% reflects the increase between sales before the holiday season and during it, and not year to year as previously reported. The article has been updated to reflect this.

Early returns show strong holiday video game console sales [CNET via Gamasutra]

Bald Bull, plus 8-bit brick mosaics of Sonic and Mega Man, will be among the oodles of door prizes partygoers — maybe you! — will win at the Denver Funde Razor, now in its second year. Other locations include Manhattan and San Francisco. Here's the full info plus a list of your celebrity hosts. If you're in the area, come on over and get down for a good cause.

Don't forget that Funde Razor is next Wednesday. There are three locations for folks across the US: Brooklyn with Boing Boing Gadget's Joel, San Francisco with Gizmodo's Blam and Denver with our very own Brian Crecente. Special guest appearance by Brian Crecente's hair.

Funde Razor is all for a good cause (Child's Play), read more about it right here.

Round-up-wise, Wired's Chris Kohler is putting a smorgasbord of retro consoles and games up on the auction block with 100 percent of the proceeds going to Child's Play. CheapyD at CheapAssGamer is also doing his part to raise money for Child's Play — check his site for more information.

In non-Child's Play news, Kotaku commenter Witzbold informs us that he's got a Prinny auction (how fitting!) running with all the proceeds going to 5h3 Game Donation Drive for Troops in Iraq.

Stuff like this warms the heart, no?

The episode is being released free to all as a way of saying "Happy Holidays", and not at all geared towards getting more people to subscribe to the monthly release. No, no, no. The free episode includes features on Skate 2, a visit to Capcom to take a look at Bionic Commando and Flock, a look at Steam Punk culture with Codemasters' Damnation, an exclusive Killzone 2 theme and a new Qore game, Blast Qore.

Folks who have already signed up for a yearly subscription will be treated to an exclusive Flock demo to make up for everyone else getting the issue for free. Happy Holidays!

Qore Episode 07 is Coming… and it’s FREE! [PlayStation.Blog]

Yet when you get to your destination, either in your parents' basement or your uncle's old room at your grandparents, inevitably there's some underpowered relic PC that still manages to work. Rather than suffer with Minesweeper or Solitaire when you can't sleep on Christmas Eve, GiantRealm put together a handy list of six good PC titles that will work on most any machine still in service today. Some of these are available via digital distribution channels. Others, you might have to do a little advance planning and snake a copy from an Amazon or half.com reseller.

Six Titles That'll Work on Nearly Any Machine [GiantRealm]

There are five titles on the list right now, and all of them are relatively safe choices. Kung-Fu Panda, Lego Indiana Jones, and We Ski certainly fit the bill nicely. Guitar Hero On Tour for the DS is a bit of an odd choice, seeing as the inclusion of Skid Row's "Youth Gone Wild" could possibly make youth go wild, but I suppose as long as parents are willing to take the risk. Rounding out the list is NCAA Football 2009, because every list of family-friendly games needs a football title for some odd reason, perhaps in hopes that children will drop this video game nonsense and become multi-millionaire pro athletes.

I'd list my personal choices for games to be included in the list, but let's face it - if you're on Kotaku looking for shopping ideas for your child, someone has played a horrible prank on you.

The Best Kid-Friendly Video Games of 2008 Holiday V, Toys of the Season

—(BUSINESS WIRE)—By Mike Bruno, Parents.com Contributor

We played until our fingers ached, but it was all worth it — we found five of the best kid-friendly video games (no violence or mature themes here). Whatever your kid's age or interest, you'll find the perfect gift for this holiday season.

We Ski- Wii

Age: 5+

Finally, a second game that uses the Balance Board you bought to use on Wii. We Ski uses the device to navigate the game's snow-covered mountain playground.

Why We Like It

“We Ski does an admirable job mimicking the arm movements (pull the numchuk and remote toward your body to tuck poles and increase speed) and balance techniques you actually use on the slopes,” says Bruno contributor, for Parents.com. “Plus, it supports up to four players with a split-screen multiplayer mode.”

Kung Fu Panda- Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2

Age: 6-12

Po, the imaginative young panda from the computer-animated movie, takes you along on his daydream journey in which he is a kung fu warrior wielding "mad skills."

Why We Like It

A fighting game without violence, if you can believe it. Detailed graphics aptly reproduce the fanciful world that was so beautifully rendered in the film. And the Jack Black imitator is pretty spot on, too.

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures- Wii, Nintendo DS, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360

Age: 10+

Our favorite archaeologist — in LEGO form! — runs through adventures from the first three Indy movies. Why We Like It

Once you've racked your brain figuring out the decently challenging puzzles, you're rewarded with humorous asides from the movies, like a cocky Dr. Jones reaching back for his fedora, nearly being crushed by a giant stone door in the process.

Guitar Hero on Tour- Nintendo DS

Age: 10+

The Guitar Hero franchise hits Nintendo's portable DS console without sacrificing too much of the fun game play that made the original game.

What We Like About It

The appeal is definitely in part the novelty of a shrunken-down Guitar Hero you can pull out of your pocket. The hand-sized strap-on Guitar Grip controller slips right into the DS console, enabling you engage in the same challenging rock-alongs as the original.

NCAA Football 2009- Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP

Age: 7+

Just like fans of real-life football, there are gamers who insist EA Sports' college pigskin game is superior to their pro-football Madden franchise.

What We Like About It

In addition to some very cool additions to game play, '09 has also made some nice tweaks to the Dynasty mode, including an ability to enter a dynasty online and compete with up to 12 other players for the same pool of prospective students for over 60 seasons.

For more helpful tips on picking the right video game for your kids this holiday season, visit Parents.com.