Of all the major entertainment mediums out there, video games are perhaps the least festive of the bunch. Hollywood has Home Alone and Miracle on 34th Street, literature The Grinch, and A Christmas Carol, and the music industry; well they have more Christmas jingles than you can shake a candy cane at. Hoping to correct this gross yuletide oversight, Saints Row IV developer Volition is this year announcing a three-pronged assault on seasonal scrooges.

Festivities begin with the so-called 'Naughty or Nice' list, a comical rundown of Volition staff members eager to atone for an entire year's worth of bad behaviour. Fans can get involved in the judging process and suggest suitably embarrassing forfeits and atonements by visiting the official Saints Row website. Submissions deadline is November 29, 2013.

Next up is 'The Saints Row Sing-A-Long Christmas Carol Contest,' which as the name handily implies tasks fans with dressing up in gang garb and warbling out a tune-or-two. The song in question is none other than 'Saints Row Jingle Bells,' a heart-warming hearthfire favorite with lyrics that include:

Dashing through Saints Row,

In a stolen Santa's sleigh,

Wise civilians know,

To get out of the way

The best entrant/ entrants will be immortalized in a special video message, and receive a sack full of prizes to boot, including high-end headsets, gaming mice, and a pair of "unbreakable" Saints Row shades. Details on how to enter are located here; submissions must be posted by December 5, 2013.

Saints Row 4 Xmas DLC Header

Last but certainly not least is the game's all-new DLC. Titled How the Saints Saved Christmas, this narrative expansion finds the titular gang trying to cheer up their boss while simultaneously saving Santa from destruction. Despite little else being known about the entry, the game's pre-release screenshots are positively bursting with hints and suggestions, including - an It's a Wonderful Life-style town, a Nightmare before Christmas-themed North Pole, Santa outfits, Die Hard-like jumpers, and inexplicably - a Terminator-esque cyborg Shaundi.

It could be argued that Saints Row's very existence depends upon filling gaps; i.e. spotting missing links in the market and quickly addressing them. The original Saints Row famously attempted to replicate the GTA formula on the 7th-gen of consoles. Following GTA IV's release - with its focus on gritty realism - Saints Row responded by moving even further towards the bombastic, the zany and the outright absurd. With this latest DLC, Volition has done it again, releasing more than just your standard Santa hat or Elven shoes pack. Instead, the designers have created a substantial title revolving around the Holiday Season. Here’s hoping it's the first of many.

Are you looking forward to How the Saints Saved Christmas? What's your all-time favorite game to play around the Holidays? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check in with all of the latest Saints Row news, right here on Game Rant.

___

Saints Row 4 is now available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms. How the Saints Saved Christmas debuts on December 11, 2013, priced at $7 US/£6 UK, with Season Pass owners set receive the content free of charge.

Follow Sam on Twitter @GamingGoo.