The December Job

The December Job opens on a simple, aggrieved premise: years of nothing but a lump of coal under the tree have finally caught up with Santa, and the player has tracked down his workshop to take back what they're owed. It's a free-to-play horror stealth game built around a PSX-era, low-poly aesthetic, with the player sneaking through Santa's workshop collecting sixteen presents while avoiding a hulking Santa who patrols the halls and gives chase the moment he spots an intruder. Developed and published by Kooky Kontent, credited by several reviewers as the studio's first released game, it launched as a full, non-Early-Access title on 12 December 2025 for Windows and Linux, at no cost.

Funny elves, a genuinely scary Santa

The reviews that engage with the game in any detail land on the same two highlights almost every time: the elves and the horror direction. One reviewer calls the elf voice lines "10/10 horror mix of comedy," while another singles out "the little elf interactions" as their favorite part of the whole experience. Santa himself gets treated as a legitimately effective horror antagonist rather than a novelty; one reviewer describes the atmosphere as "way creepier than it has any right to be," and another compares the dynamic directly to "Slenderman vs Sledgeman," calling out how unnerving it is "when you can't hear him at times." A third reviewer who hasn't finished the game yet still praises how "Santa was a beast," treating a near-miss as its own kind of win.

Reviewers repeatedly frame their praise in the context of this being a debut release. One writes "so much fun for a first game," and another calls it "pretty good" specifically "for a first project," adding that the exploration felt rewarding despite rough edges elsewhere. That framing shows up again and again: reviewers extend real goodwill to a small, new studio's first shipped project, and several explicitly encourage Kooky Kontent to keep making games off the strength of what's already here.

A chase you may not be able to win

The most consistent criticism is mechanical rather than tonal: once Santa spots the player and starts a chase, several reviewers describe escape as close to impossible. One reviewer recounts using six candy canes, the game's speed-boost item, in a row while turning multiple corners, and still getting caught every time. Another calls the game "practically impossible" to escape once Santa notices you, despite otherwise enjoying the mechanics and dialogue enough to recommend it. Compounding the problem, the game's other counterplay tool, a music player meant to distract Santa, reportedly stops working entirely once he's already locked onto the player, removing exactly the tool a cornered player would want to reach for.

A smaller cluster of complaints point at navigation and stability rather than difficulty. One reviewer found the workshop environment "way too oversaturated and bright," making the maze hard to actually read and leading to what they call "a few unfair deaths." Another reports textures failing to load in during their playthrough. Neither complaint dominates the review pool the way the escape difficulty does, but both read as fixable teething issues consistent with a first release rather than fundamental design flaws.

Steam's achievement data offers a rough proxy for how that difficulty plays out across the player base. The two most commonly earned achievements, picking up a first present and simply getting caught by Santa, sit at 81.5% and 79.5% of players respectively, while the achievement for actually escaping the workshop with all presents sits at just 12.9%. That's a steep drop-off consistent with reviewers' accounts of an early game that's approachable, followed by a late-game chase sequence that a clear majority of players never successfully get past.

A short, replayable dash rather than a long campaign

Nothing about The December Job is designed for a long sitting. Reviewer playtimes cluster in the tens of minutes to a couple of hours, and several treat that as a feature rather than a limitation: one reviewer who racked up over ten hours describes still chasing a personal best, writing that they keep getting to fifteen out of sixteen presents before getting caught, and "i'm gonna get it" regardless. Steam's own achievement list backs up that replay-focused structure, with a dedicated speedrunning achievement alongside separate achievements for grabbing a single present, hoarding a large stash of them, and escaping with everything intact, giving players several smaller, achievable goals to chase even if the full sixteen-present escape stays out of reach.

That structure also softens the sting of the game's brutal chase difficulty. Because a full run can be attempted again in minutes rather than requiring a lengthy replay from scratch, several reviewers frame repeated failure as part of the fun rather than a reason to quit. One reviewer who hadn't beaten the game at the time of writing was still overtly enthusiastic, treating each near-miss as progress worth celebrating rather than a wall to be angry about, a tone that recurs across much of the positive side of the review pool even among people who also flag the escape sequence as unreasonably hard.

Final verdict

The December Job punches well above its zero-dollar price tag as a debut horror stealth game, with reviewers consistently charmed by its elf dialogue and unsettling Santa antagonist. Its biggest problem is also its most fixable: a chase mechanic that a meaningful share of players describe as unbeatable once triggered, undercutting an otherwise creepy and funny short experience. Recommended for horror fans looking for a free seasonal scare, with the caveat that reaching the ending may take more patience than skill.