A new Christmas-themed horror game on Steam is completely free to play, with The December Job looking to give fans a retro 3D-inspired holiday scare. The Valve-operated marketplace is home to a wide variety of indie games, capturing plenty of different niches with its array of available titles. Steam is home to everything from the biggest indie darlings like Stardew Valley and Hollow Knight: Silksong to more obscure games from numerous passionate indie developers. However, the horror genre has been a particularly popular theme for many indie developers.
Indie horror games come in all shapes and sizes, with many independently-developed games achieving huge popularity on the platform. Games like Phasmophobia and Signalis have seen particular success as indie horror releases on Steam, with the former capturing “Best Debut Game” at the 2020 Game Awards. The mega-popular Five Nights at Freddy‘s got its start on Steam as well, growing into a massive multimedia juggernaut with games, novels, and a pair of feature films, both of which have performed well in theaters. Now, a brand-new horror game on Steam is bringing a holiday twist, with players able to try out the game for free.
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The December Job is a Christmas-Themed Horror Game
On December 12, Developer Kooky Kontent Games officially released The December Job, its debut game. As a Christmas survival horror game, players are tasked with navigating through Santa’s dreary workshop, gathering presents and candy canes scattered around the map. Santa serves as the main antagonist of the game, hunting down the player for trying to steal presents from his workshop. The game touts its retro-inspired 3D graphics, intentionally created to resemble the polygonal 3D models and environments from the PlayStation 1. Gamers on Steam can try out The December Job completely free of charge, with the “short” game only requiring 250 MB of storage space.
The Steam page for Kooky Kontent Games gives some more backstory about the developer and its work on The December Job. The studio revealed that it started development on The December Job in mid-November, created as a challenge for the indie developer to launch the horror game during the Christmas season. Kooky Kontent also noted that it intends to continue to support the game after its release with bug fixes, stating it will be addressing any “game-breaking bugs” as they arise. Reviews for the horror game on Steam have been largely positive, with multiple fans praising both its humorous voice lines and simple but engaging stealth mechanics.
Steam is Celebrating the Holidays in a Big Way
Steam welcomed the holiday season in its own way with the launch of the platform’s Winter Sale. The annual sale features thousands of games getting big discounts for a limited time, ranging from smaller indie games to some of the biggest names on Steam. 2025’s Steam Winter Sale features some of the hottest new titles in gaming at nice price cuts, including popular games like ARC Raiders, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Battlefield 6. Steam’s Winter Sale will also serve to kick off a big year in 2026, with Steam gearing up to release its newest console next year.
Among the biggest releases coming to Steam in 2026 is the highly anticipated debut of the Steam Machine. Steam officially revealed the next iteration of the Steam Machine on November 12, with the console scheduled to launch sometime in early 2026. The Steam Machine is said to be on par with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in terms of performance, though Valve has not confirmed what the price of the Steam Machine will be on release. The launch of the Steam Machine is set to be one of the biggest gaming events of the year.
