Holidays are tricky things in video games. Due to cultural differences and distribution, it often isn’t possible to celebrate or acknowledge special events. Plus, the game itself may be set in a world where such festivities are no longer acknowledged. Fallout 4 isn’t one of those games. It begins around Halloween, meaning all of Sanctuary’s remaining homes have had their decorations up for years, and people in other areas acknowledge the Christmas season.
If you show up in Diamond City on Christmas, you can see lights and trees scattered around the town. It’s honestly a heartening sight, since it means people are still able to find some reason to celebrate in an otherwise bleak world. There people are comfortable and safe enough to have a moment.
The thing is, Christmas is only celebrated in Fallout 4 on the in-game date. If you haven’t been keeping track while you play and only aimlessly wander through the Commonwealth, you might have missed December 24 and 25th. Naturally, there’s a mod to help with that predicament. People with the Windows PC version of Fallout 4 can grab Fifteenspades’ Merry Christmas. People who enable it can head to Diamond City and see it all decked out for the holidays. The only downside is, this mod will end buffs and mess up time limit quests, so use it responsibly. Once placed inside the Fallout4.exe folder, bring up the console and type “bat MerryChristmas” to bring holiday cheer.
However, no December holiday season is complete without snow. Stephanie Young’s Winter Wonderland makes the weather outside a little more frightful. Snow covers the ground and underbrush once applied. Think of it as a way of getting in the mood. Plus, unlike Christmas decorations, you won’t feel compelled to immediately remove it once February rolls around. Just be aware this mod may cause some problems if your Windows PC isn’t powerful enough.
With the decorations and snow in place, it’s a good time to start making sure your Fallout 4 avatar looks the part. While there aren’t any Santa costumes out there yet, modders have put together some other festive apparel. Jackalope’s The Christmas Sweater replaces the base sweater vest with a red and green one that has reindeer, snowflake, and trees on it. If you want something a little more subtle, Robotic Dream’s Christmas Shirt RobCo Protectron is a red T-shirt with a classy Protectron in a Santa hat and “Merry Christmas!” across the top. And, while there’s no Sole Survivor Santa suit, Acacyn’s Santa Claus Power Armor comes close. It has red and white designs for the T-45, T-51, T-60, and X-01 inspired by the jolliest fat man around. It also offers a Minigun with a candy cane design. However, it also replaces the Shark Power Armor and original Minigun textures, so keep that in mind when adding this mod.
Finally, for those people who like an edge to their holidays, there’s Marcus 24x’s Krampus PipBoy Background. It adds Melita Curphy’s Krampus artwork to the PipBoy’s background. Though, if you want it to look exactly the same as it does in Marcus 24x’s screenshot, you’ll also need Doctrderp’s Pip Boy Colors Akira Edition PipBoy.
As for adding these Fallout 4 mods, the Nexus Mod Manager can make sure they’re home for Christmas. It makes it relatively simple to add them into the Windows PC version of your game. Before you know it, all of your virtual days will be merry and bright. Maybe by this time next year, we’ll have Hanukkah and other holiday mods!
