You don’t need to wait until December to play the best Christmas slots, although if you’re searching for the top rated Christmas slots, my guess is it’s December right now.
So first off, Merry Christmas!
Now to business, discover the best list of Christmas slots including our selection of legendary and latest top Christmas slots online, hand-picked by Santa OJO themselves….
What are Christmas slots?
Slot providers are always on the lookout for slot themes they can turn into a great game like adventure slots or egyptian slots. And the seasons, especially the most celebrated event of the year, are fertile soil for slot themes.
When you’re designing a slot, you need a theme that’s familiar and popular with your audience.
Next you need some characters, a colourful design and some iconic symbols. And there’s no doubt that Christmas delivers on every one of those requirements.
Christmas slots almost always reference the festive holiday in their name, so they’re very hard to miss. The older games are usually reskins of earlier titles.
But in the last few years we’ve seen some cracking Christmas slots with unusual and inventive bonus features, plus some game themes that offer a weird take on the standard Christmas.
As expected, Santa is the main event in most Christmas slots. You can bet on the usual supporting cast of reindeer, elves and all the Christmas decorations and festive food associated with a UK Christmas.
But let’s give some credit to 21st century slot providers. They don’t rest on their laurels with lazy reskins of previous slots, nor do they churn out the same old xmas names, designs or bonuses.
Sure, our list includes some time-honoured classic xmas slots and a few that could be good enough to appear in our animal slots charts.
But you’ll also meet some surprisingly good games from innovative new game studios too. Let the party begin!
Our Top 10 Christmas slots
Just like the choice of what to eat first during Christmas dinner, it was a tough job boiling hundreds of Christmas slots down to just 10, but someone has to do it.
Land-based casinos aren’t known for Christmas slots. Every slot machine is valuable real estate on the casino floor and it’s not worth the effort to change a slot for a few weeks of the year.
So that leaves the field open for online slot providers, who don’t have the same floor-space limitations.
That’s why you won’t see any adaptations of old land-based slots here. This explains why our list is packed with new providers who have made their name since 2015.
Jingle Bells Power Reels
Jingle Bells Power Reels is a 20 line slot from Red Tiger that’s usually linked to their must-drop jackpot network.
You’ve got the chance to win hourly and daily jackpots as well as their mega progressive jackpot.
Power Reels means 8 reels, 6 rows and 40 paylines.
There’s a 6,000x maximum win on any single spin, as well as Mega Wilds, 5×6 supersized Wild symbols that Santa pushes onto the reels.
As always, Red Tiger have gone big on features, so you’ve got Free Spins game and Christmas Tree Multiplier feature, gift-powered Raining Wilds and Winning Reels with high-value symbols only.
Xmas Magic
This 50-line slot from Play ‘N GO is one of the simplest xmas slots.
It has just one bonus feature, where 3 Santas will bag you 10 Free Spins with extra stacked Wilds and one chance to retrigger 10 extra Free Spins.
Candy canes, snow globes and hot choccies give this slot an American festive vibe, but it’s the 1 million coin maximum win that sets this slot apart from the rest.
Christmas Gold Digger
This year, we got to unwrap Christmas Gold Digger from iSoftBet. Their “mining” take on the festive season isn’t the obvious holiday connection, but in theory it’s a Christmas reskin of their every popular hit – Gold Digger.
3 respins will be triggered when you land 5 or more gold nuggets and these will stick until all the respins have been used or all positions are filled with gold nuggets.
There are also Reel Boosters to be had during this feature and boosters will be activated once you’ve collected 3 stones of the same type. The boosters can do things like unblock closed rows, increase monetary values and add multipliers.
Look out for the Gold Miner Modifiers too, which can appear at any given point during normal spins. They can do things like turning random symbols into gold nuggets, and turning 3 to 5 Wild symbols. Quite the feature-packed festive treat.
Holiday Spirits
If you’re a fan of holiday spirit but want something a little different, try Play ‘N GO’s Holiday Spirits slot, a cheeky homage to the Christmas Carol story.
A Christmas 2020 release, Holiday Spirits is not your average yuletide game. For starters, it’s a 3-reel, 5 payline slot.
Despite its medium volatility and relatively modest 1,600x max win.
Holiday Spirits got plenty of action thanks to the Ebenezer Clock which awards random multipliers, plus a Win Spins feature with versions for Christmas past, present and future.
Sweet Bonanza Xmas
Pragmatic Play’s classic Sweet Bonanza got an xmas revamp in 2019 with Sweet Bonanza Xmas.
It’s a Cluster Pays game with an avalanche cascading symbols mechanic and a whopping 21,100x max win.
Land 4 or more scatters in a connected cluster and you’ll get 10 Free Spins. Look out for 100x bauble symbols during the Free Spins rounds.
Santa’s Great Gifts
Pragmatic’s second entry-of-the-day in our Top 10 Christmas Slots list is Santa’s Great Gifts – a 20 ways slot with a 5,000x max win potential
What does Santa have for us in his big bag of treats? You’ll find multiplier symbols up to 100x which are combined to give the total win amount a big ole’ boost. The more multipliers you collect, the higher bonus level you could reach in the bonus round – it’s nail-biting stuff, I tell you.
In our view, Santa’s Great Gifts is a worthy contender for best Christmas slot ever!
A Christmas Carol Megaways
Combine a classic Dickens tale with Big Time Gaming’s Megaways reel mechanic and you get a stonking good party slot from Pragmatic Play that’s popular all year round.
Not only can it deliver up to 200,704 ways to win, it’s got a 20,000x max win too.
With numbers like that, it’s no surprise that Christmas Carol Megaways scores 5 out of 5 for volatility.
Its Free Spins game with unlimited win multipliers is just one of the many bonus features to look out for when you play a game that’s now one of the most popular Christmas slots.
Fat Santa
Push Gaming make our Top 10 Christmas Slots chart with Fat Santa, a game that sounds like a Billy Bob Thorton or Will Ferrell movie.
The Santa’s Sleigh feature in this 50-line slot leaves sticky Christmas Pie wilds across the reels. We love the Growing Wilds feature and the Free Games bonus enhanced by more wilds too.
Santa King Megaways
Inspired Gaming live up to their name with Santa King, a Megaways game with up to 117,649 ways to win.
This is a reskin of the Reel King Megaways game but it’s earned its place as a festive favourite nonetheless, thanks to a Free Spins feature that’s central to the gameplay.
There are many moving parts to this feature and it’s impossible to sum up in 50 words, so you’ll have to give it a spin yourself!
Santa Surprise
Playtech’s Santa Surprise is the perfect little stocking filler, hence why we’ve hailed it as one the the Top 10 Christmas Slots to play.
Land 3 or more Santa’s workshop scatters to trigger the Free Games feature where all wins are tripled. There’s also the Christmas Gift Bonus feature round where you get to pick a random Christmas gift from under the tree.
Finally, the Santa Surprise Gamble where the player has the chance to double their win amounts.
Taco Brothers Saving Christmas
A relative oldie from ELK Studios, Taco Brother’s Saving Christmas is a festive remix of their massive hit Taco Brothers slot.
Like all ELK slots, design plays a big part in the game’s popularity and their humour and attention to detail are everywhere.
There are 243 paylines, a Multiplier Free Spins game with ELK’s famous Running Wilds, plus a Respins feature and a 150,000x top prize to aim for.
Summary
So that’s the top 10 Christmas slots as chosen by OJO’s little elves.
Christmas slots may not be an evergreen theme among slot fans like Irish slots, but providers are putting more effort into new Christmas slots every year and they are catching up fast.
As you can see from our xmas slot chart, recent releases use innovations such as reel mechanics and bonus features to take festive gaming to the next level.
Just remember, however much Christmas cheer and holiday spirit you’ve got, always play safe!
Christmas slots FAQs
Christmas slots are a better prospect than many slots because casinos often give bonuses and perks during the festive season.
So look out for deposit offers, extra rewards. At PlayOJO, you’ll get Kickers and Rewards with no wagering requirements.
Look out for Reel Spinoff slot tournaments linked to Christmas online slots too.
Slot provider Quickspin are full of Christmas generosity, with several of their slots appearing at the top of the Christmas tree of RTPs.
The average slot RTP is 95% and their Big Bad Wolf Christmas Special comes in at 97.34%, with Polar Paws also good value at 96.84%.
When you’re playing Christmas slots, you should look out for extra value too.
At PlayOJO, you get money back on every spin with no strings attached with its OJOplus feature.
Yule Be Rich from 1X2Gaming in 2003, followed by Games Global’s Gift Wrap in 2005.
If you want a slice of traditional xmas slot fun, check out Games Global’s Deck The Halls, another early effort from Games Global which is still going strong 13 years after its 2008 debut.
With Free Spins, multipliers and stacked symbols, this high volatility 30-line slot delivers exactly what you’d expect from a noughties-era Christmas slot.
