The Holiday Season is in full swing and with Santa only being a few days away from making his global journey, the Windows Store has a modest collection of apps and games featuring Saint Nick.
From holiday-themed games to apps to track the Jolly Old Elf's progress, these titles can be fun time wasters for Windows 10 users of all ages. We have sifted through the Store's offerings, so let's take a look at the best Windows 10 apps and games featuring Santa Claus.
Crazy Santa: Christmas Pinball
Crazy Santa: Christmas Pinball is a Windows 10 game that delivers a challenging, almost twisted pinball game. Crazy Santa has five levels where you must bounce Santa around a vertical pinball styled environment to collect an assortment of toys. Once you have collected all the toys, just hit the musical note to advance to the next level of play.
Crazy Santa has plenty of bumpers, paddles and cannons to keep Kris Kringle bouncing around the course. This free game is available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile and is ad-supported. Overall, Crazy Santa: Christmas Pinball is a fun time waster of a game. Just be careful when tapping on the paddles, though. It can be easy to accidentally tap on the ad banner.
Download Crazy Santa: Christmas Pinball from the Windows Store
Talking Santa
Talking Santa is a novelty app for Windows 10 that offers an interactive experience with the Jolly Old Fella. You can poke, slap and tickle Santa to see how he reacts and even treat him to a round of milk and cookies.
Available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile, additional features of this free app include:
- Talk into your device's microphone and watch Santa repeat what you said
- Create customized Christmas Cards that can be shared through email, text or Facebook
- Record videos of Santa in action to upload to YouTube and Facebook or share them via email
You can also run over Santa with a huge snowball and open gifts from his bag. Talking Santa does have a child mode that disables the video capture feature and prevents your kids from accessing the settings and in-app purchase options. All in all, it's a fun Santa app to spread a little holiday cheer with.
Download Talking Santa from the Windows Store
Sleigh
Sleigh is a classic endless jumper game for Windows 10 Mobile where you guide Santa and his sleigh across an endless supply of hills. His reindeers have gone missing and it is up to you to help Santa collect gifts scattered across the land. The goal of Sleigh is simple: collect as many gifts as possible and guide Santa as far as possible before his sleigh runs out of energy.
Controls are simple and graphics are clean and colorful. The free game has over 16 stages that increase in difficulty and every game presents you with a different course layout. All in all, Sleigh is a fun Windows 10 Mobile game to spend a little down time with, perfect for road trips or while waiting for the better half to finish her shopping.
Download Sleigh from the Windows Store
NORAD Tracks Santa
NORAD Tracks Santa is the official Windows 10 app of the North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa tracking program that first started keeping tabs on Santa's journey back in 1955.
The free app is available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile and offers a countdown timer, new daily holiday games, short movies on the history of tracking Santa and NORAD, a few holiday songs, books, and more. And then on December 24th, NORAD Tracks Santa begins to plot Saint Nick's journey around the globe in real time.
The Windows 10 PC version has a renovated, clean and eye-catching layout. Unfortunately, this design renovation did not translate too well with the Windows 10 Mobile version with several formatting issues. Until these issues get ironed out, stick with the Windows 10 PC version (it works great on a tablet, too).
NORAD Tracks Santa offers a nice blend of educational and entertainment content. Plus, it is a nice tool to help motivate your children to go to sleep on Christmas Eve as Santa draws closer.
Download NORAD Tracks Santa from the Windows Store
250K Timberman Xmas
250K Timberman Xmas is a Christmas-themed Windows 10 Mobile game inspired by the classic game Timberman. You take on the role of Santa Claus to see how much of an endless tree you can chop down.
The challenge comes into play by avoiding the tree's branches by alternating the side of the tree trunk you chop at. Tapping the left or right side of the screen chops at the tree on the corresponding side of the tree trunk.
The Christmas theme looks good with Santa feverishly hacking at the tree in a snow-covered forest. Additional features of Timberman Xmas include an online and local leaderboard plus a Christmas elf character that takes on his tree-chopping duties with a giant candy cane. The extra character is a nice touch and offers a bit of variety to the game.
250K Timberman Xmas is a fun game that tests your skills at timing and reaction speed. It is a free Windows 10 Mobile game and an enjoyable time waster.
Download 250K Timberman Xmas from the Windows Store
If you have given any of these Windows 10 apps and games a try, let us know what you think of things in the comments. Most can help that long ride to Grandma's house a little more peaceful or help you pass the time while waiting for the Holiday feast to be served. There are plenty more to choose from in the Windows Store — if you have a favorite, let us know!