Last updated on November 29th, 2025 at 07:39 pm
Christmas Stories: The Gift of the Magi – Entertainment Game Review
Christmas Stories: The Gift of the Magi is a Entertainment/Adventure/Puzzle game from Big Fish Games, Inc, first launched in 30th November 2016.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 370+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Christmas Stories: The Gift of the Magi Stand Out
Play the trial for FREE! Pay once & complete the adventure!
Everyone on Santa’s good list gets gifts, but what about those that end up on the naughty list? When your sister does something bad, she’s visited by the evil spirit Berta and her mean little elves, who promptly spirit her away to some unknown and unfriendly place. It’s up to you to track her down and bring her home safely in time for the holiday!
• A GOOD DEED GOES A LONG, LONG WAY!
In order to help your sister, you’ll first need to help out some other families in need. After all, it is the season for giving!
• CAN YOU SAVE YOUR SISTER BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE?
Search high and low through a world of enchanting hidden object scenes.
• TEAM UP WITH HOLIDAY HEROES TO SAVE CHRISTMAS
Get help from Jack Frost and others to solve festive puzzles and marvelous mini-games.
• ATTEND THE CAT BALL IN THE CHARMING BONUS CHAPTER
Play while the mice are away and enjoy additional Collector’s Edition exclusives including collectibles, special achievements, and more!
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This Entertainment game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Christmas Stories: The Gift of the Magi is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 5th December 2016
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
In this update:
• Optimizations and bug fixes to improve overall game performance.
Thanks for the continued feedback and support, and happy gaming!
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Download & Availability
Christmas Stories: The Gift of the Magi is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Christmas Stories: The Gift of the Magi on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We love this game!! We love the story line and bought it because of it's easy play. The games are enjoyable because, the games r not so hard to figure out….we are more apt to buy a game that's enjoyable to play rather then one that the challenges r just so hard that it takes the fun out of it. Thank u for games like this…we hope to play more games that r as enjoyable as this one.
Look forward to playing Christmas stories and Christmas spirit games during this time of year, but this year it wont load correctly. We think it has to do with it being a 32 bit game? Although the description says it works on this iPad. Any ideas? Updates? Thank you.
Loved this game. A reminder of kinder times.
They take your money letting you believe the games are yours to play when you want for as long as you want. We have bought loads, but one by one they all become unavailable eventually. Like Someone said Done with rip off Big Fish.
This is a lovely game, the story is beautifully told and illustrated.
Its a warm and charming game. Beautiful setting. Takes you back to what the real meaning of Christmas is. We enjoyed it very much.
Brought us many smiles and lots of fun! Thank you for this great spirit of Christmas game.
Best, most enjoyable Christmas game out there! Big Fish always does it right. Feel like a kid again.
We absolutely love the genre of Christmas games throughout the whole year. Please keep them coming.
We've played a lot of Big Fish games, but this rates as one of the best. The graphics are great and the hint button helps you throughout the game. The map works well as a guide. The HOS games are creative and fun. The mini games are fun, and not too hard. We definitely recommend this as a keeper.
This was the cutest game. Took us a moment to remember how these games worked, but we had so much fun playing it. Just when you thought the game was over, the next part started.
Greetings, Gamers: we've deliberately taken our time with this game, making it last through the Christmas holiday. What a wonderful seasonal treat, playing this gem. Enchanting, charming and Christmassy. What more could one ask for? Okay, some direction on getting that garland working with the elf would've been nice. Sending season's greetings to all and until next time, fellow gamers: May the holiday stars light your way.
We always buy a Christmas big fish game for each year because they are awesome to play it.
Very well done! Loads of detail, thought and work! And, some puzzles were just plain fun. Cute, cute, cute.
We often play more dark, macabre themed hidden object games so this was a nice change. The story is cute and memorable. We ended up actually caring about the characters. There was an eclectic array of puzzles so it didn't get boring. We wouldn't say the puzzles were very challenging but it didn't really bother us. The map and extra challenges were well done. Overall worth playing.
Good HOP's, nice story, excellent graphics. Pretty good mini games so far.
For reviewers who had problems with garland/light string, we thought there was a glitch with the garland too, but then we realized the elf helper needs to be dragged over to it so you can use it. Anyway, this is a great game for Christmas.
This is an amazing game! Not the same old boring hidden objects, but fun interactive imaginative games, and terrific graphics! This one is a keeper ..one to savor and enjoy.
We normally like the graphic macabre games but this one was a nice change, more light hearted and upbeat helping. Inside games were on the easier side but you do have the options to play harder w/o aide. For us personally, we wouldn't want all games like this but a nice change here and there, esp around holidays, we found relaxing and enjoyable.
OK, we like Christmas. We look forward to this game every single year. It is easier than most, and is indisputably a bit juvenile but it's darn cute and it puts us in the Christmas spirit. We did find a glitch or two but the patch seems to have fixed it. We finished the entire game and the bonus chapter with no problem. If you're looking for a Christmas distraction, here you go.
We love all of the Christmas Storie games. Very nice for our grandkids to play too. Love them. Keep them coming.
We believe theres a problem with this game. We played it before. Many years ago. Might have been in 2014. This game needs an update in order to play right, we think. All of everything that interacts are showing layered boxes everywhere all over the screen of items that change or interact. And when we click on something that requires a puzzle piece, it opens up a blank white screen. Im not sure if this is bigfishs fault or these iPad updates we get from Apple. We have noticed that our own art in our apps that we create dont support transparency and there is always a white background. So this could be Apples fault. We think Apple is forgetting about graphics that need transparency. P.S. We just discovered the game works on our iPad 2 perfectly.
We bought this game a year ago and have tried to play probably 20 but always got stuck on the garland. We thought it was a glitch, so we just kept restarting. Finally we went to the strategy guide and saw that once you untangle the garland you have to bring the elf to it. The hint does not help with this which is very frustrating. We hope this helps someone else who has this issue.
Update: 12/21/18 Merry Christmas everyone! If you want to play a new game, themed for the holidays, play Christmas Spirit: Mother Goose, a great buy at$2.99 and appropriate for the entire family! In addition, Domini Games plans on porting new games to iOS in the upcoming year. Sign up for their newsletter! This game was adorable and colorful. It was a cute, sentimental story. The game played well, and glitches which had been reported were addressed and fixed. We deducted a star only for length and for the game being a bit simplistic. Lynxie sends warm New Year wishes your way.
Really love the graphics and the story is nice too. Brightened up the after holiday blues.
We also enjoyed the use of religious Christmas music in the soundtrack. Only thing we would ask for is more 'hidden object collections. At least one in every scene. Cheers.
We thought the garland was a defect and got stuck there twice but actually it's just impossible to figure out- you need to use the elf on the garland and then you're good. Once we saw another user provide that tip we were able to proceed and enjoyed the game. Even the bonus was cute ! Great holiday game.
Great Christmas game but no longer works on iPad. As others mentioned, just pixel boxes, not a clear image.
This game no longer works for us with all the updates on our iPad. Is there anything we can do.
Originally the game was fun and super cute, but sadly the graphics are no longer compatible with the latest iOS updates. Save yourself from disappointment and save your money.
You say pay once, play forever. WellI not only didnt get to play forever, button approximately $150-$2200 worth of games we didnt even see get to play once!1. Id buy a bunch of games while you on sale. Well.we were just not able to play at least 3/4 of our games because of you No longer than supported them. So please stop advertising for that you can play f and. The ppl games themselves ha they amazing and graphics and games story more so hard than not. We obviously didnt enjoy the playing part themm but.
Christmas is always fun and this game helps to relieve stress.
Side kicks of any kind dont help in these kind of games. It always forces you to guess at puzzle solutions when solutions should be understandable. Twice in just the into you have to use the elf for no other reason then the game creators were to lazy to come up with a viable/sensible alternative. We did pay for the game as the intro was enough to turn us off of it.
On apple 8 plus having lots of glitches with this game.
We really like this game but it has way too many glitches. And the glitches are not in just one game. Had to reload it numerous times just to luckily get through all of it.
Up until the game froze, we were enjoying it very much. Bummer.
Ok to good game. Pretty graphics, positive theme. Hos good and sometimes pleasantly different. Some of the puzzles are poorly explained & therefore frustrating to do. We skipped them. Map is good, but had to use hints or guide to figure out what to do next too many times. Sometimes figures didn't move right away and then the correct motion seemed wrong. Inventory screen seemed very sensitive and would bob up and down when trying to select an item to use. Ok to good app; not great.
We enjoyed this game, but it was too short. Luckily we got it on sale.
Way too short! We have all the Christmas games and this one is the shortest of them all. Finished in a few hours. The puzzles were not challenging at all; too easy.
We were looking forward to playing this game. These games have such great stories and artwork, but this app had countless awful glitches that made the game unplayable from the start. We were disappointed, to be honest.
It is corny and they owe apologies to OHenry.
We like the game but for some reason we are unable to get past the garland, so we're once again an owner of a product that doesn't work.
Like others, we're stuck at the garland.
They have let maintenance get so far behind that all the clickable areas are in big white frames. Dont buy till they fix it.
Dont waste your money! We purchased full game in 2016. Wanted to play again around Christmas. The picture is so messed up you cant make anything out. So disappointed if you purchase a game at full price you should be able to play at a later date if it doesnt have new update. This isnt the only game A Little Prince is the same way. Very disappointed with Big Fish. Gave 1 star would have given 5 if we could play the game.
It says it works on this iPad but the graphics are messed up making it unplayable. If you have a newer device, do the trial first to make sure its compatible before purchasing.
Games is unplayable. Blocky graphics. We use to play it years ago but seems it wont work after the OS updated a few years back.
This game is unsupported now along with many other games and they refuse to refund any money even though they advertise play forever.
Game does bot work at all. Tried on iPhone and iPad. Graphics are unusable. Its unfortunate as we loved these games some time ago. Apparently they no longer support their products.
Have restarted, deleted and reloaded, tried everything. When we press on anything that opens up a new window, the new one is blank. For example, when we open the wreath, we know Im supposed to see the wreath along with several items, but its completely blank. If we randomly press around we can still collect some things, but there are no images.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0.2
- Size: 671.95 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, JA, RU
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes, Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Big Fish Games, Inc
Last updated: 5th December 2016 | Genre: Entertainment, Adventure | Developer: Big Fish Games, Inc