When we think of holidays, there's generally a specific aesthetic that comes to mind for everyone, like the festive reds and greens of Christmas or the spooky nighttime vibes of Halloween. Those associations make them wells for visual motifs. You'll see holiday aesthetics applied on everything from characters, locations, and important items.
The work itself need not be about holidays; having specific characters and locales within the setting that are holiday-themed is the basis of the trope.
This trope often overlaps with more specific holiday figures like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
Common Holiday Associations
- Valentine's Day: Love, lust, chocolate, hearts, reds and magentas, Cupid/Eros with a bow and arrow, flowers, romantic dinner dates.
- St. Patrick's Day: Green and gold, Irish culture, leprechauns (possibly not the most tasteful), rainbows, beer, Irish songs, clovers/shamrocks.
- Easter: Springtime, rabbits, easter eggs, easter egg hunts, baskets of candy and chocolate eggs.
- Halloween: Candy, bags for collecting candy, pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns, autumn, dry and falling leaves, spooky vibes, scary decorations with ghosts, ghouls and witches, nighttime, cute animal or dress-up costumes for kids, scary monster costumes for teens, adults may wear Stripperific costumes to parties, kids roaming the streets, oranges and purples.
- Thanksgiving: Pilgrims, turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, cranberries, , drinking alcohol, thankfulness, family get-togethers, feasts.
- Christmas: Reindeer, snow/wintertime, charity and generosity, gift-giving, reds and greens, Christmas trees decorated with colorful lights, gingerbread, egg nog, candy canes, the Arctic, Santa Claus, elves.
Sub-tropes include:
Can overlap with Holiday Personification.
Compare Holiday Mode where the setting will be altered in the event of a holiday, thereby making the event the focus rather than specific elements of the setting.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- MÄR: Halloween is one of the members of a villainous organization: The Chess Pieces. His pumpkin mask and his fire-themed Arm matches his eponymous holiday theme.
- One Piece:
- Chopper has a bit of a Christmas motif, being a talking outcast reindeer with a funny colored nose, pulling his master's sleigh around, and being born on December 24th.
- The female agents of Baroque Works are all named after days of the year, with the highest-ranking agents all being named after important holidays. This affects small parts of their designs the more you look. Miss Merry Christmas for example is a talkative old woman with a necktie resembling a Christmas tree, Miss Golden Week is a bored young girl who's abilities are painting-themed-given that Golden Week includes Children's Day and is celebrated with arts and crafts, and Miss Valentine who, according to an Imagine Spot in a side story, is really passionate about being a chocolatier.
- Soul Eater: One of the main allies of the protagonists is Blair, a young witch with the archetypal pointy hat, the ability to turn into a black cat, and pumpkin themed magic-giving her a very spot-on Halloween theme. She even makes her home in a giant pumpkin.
Comic Books
- In The Long Halloween 12-issue mini-series and its adaptation, Batman tries to discover the culprit behind a series of murders of Gotham mafia bosses that just happen to die on national holidays (e.g., Christmas, New Year, Labor Day, Father's Day, Valentines Day). The true villain depends on the media.
Fan Works
- VIMALION PROJECT: The orange and green colors in Yuma's product logo got turned into what described in a design retrospective
as a "little Halloween ghoul". He's described as being mischievous, and his symbol is a stylized pumpkin.
Film — Animation
- Coco's Land of the Dead is built on the aesthetics of Día de Muertos. The world is lit in bright, festive oranges and is inhabited by the deceased who resemble living calaveras (a decorative representation of a skull common in Mexico and a key ornament in the holiday).
- The Nightmare Before Christmas takes place in a setting in which each holiday has its own town, behind a series of themed doors. Only Halloween Town and Christmas Town are given any focus, but there are apparently also towns based on major holidays such as St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, Easter, and Thanksgiving. This extends to the characters as well; Santa Claus and Easter Bunny have roles in the film as characters that represent their respective holidays, and Jack Skellington (also known as the Pumpkin King) is the physical representation of Halloween.
Film — Live-Action
- In the prologue for Hot Fuzz, the narrator states that one of P.C. Nicholas Angel's many commendations was earned for taking an injury apprehending a serial killer dressed as Father Christmas. We see the guy in the act too stabbing Angel in the hand.
- The Leprechaun films have a killer leprechaun and an emphasis on lucky gold coins, all elements central to St. Patrick’s Day.
- The Purge Universe movies are traditionally released around or close to the Fourth of July. The second, third, and fourth in particular are filled with twisted takes on patriotic imagery one would expect to see around Independence Day.
- Tim Burton's take on Sleepy Hollow is DRENCHED in Halloween imagery. From scarecrows with Jack-o-lantern heads to the gothic farming town to the classic Hammer Horror inspired visuals to the creepy witches. And don't forget a headless horseman played by Christopher Walken!
- Violent Night: The wealthy Lightstone family are taken hostage by a gang of mercenaries with holiday themed code names (Scrooge, Candy Cane, Frosty, Krampus). The reason for the code names being ironic given that the ringleader, Scrooge, has a hatred of Christmas and the invasion is happening on Christmas Eve.
Literature
- Holiday Heroes: Each member of the eponymous superhero team is themed around a certain holiday: New Year's for Baby New Year, Valentine's Day for Miss Cupid, Halloween for Halloween Man, Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos for La Calavera, and Christmas for Christmas Girl.
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and its adaptations have, overtime, adopted Halloweentime aesthetics, especially the Headless Horseman who's a relentlessly creepy figure carrying a Jack-o-lantern in place of his severed head.
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a Christian themed fantasy work set in a snowy wonderland where the heroes are aided by Father Christmas.
- Rainbow Magic: A good number of the Holiday Special Fairies embody specific Holidays (or elements associated with them) and are in charge of protecting the magic that helps them function properly. These include:
- Holly the Christmas Fairy, who's job is to protect the magic of Christmas in order to ensure the Holiday is extra special.
- Stella the Star Fairy, another Christmas-themed fairy who’s in charge of making sure Christmas lights work just right.
- Chrissie the Wish Fairy, the fairy in charge of making sure Christmas wishes come true.
- Trixie the Halloween Fairy, the guardian of the holiday who makes sure it doesn’t cross the line into being downright scary but the right balance between fun and spooky.
- Juliet the Valentine Fairy, the fairy in charge of keeping the love and friendship between humans stable.
- Cheryl the Christmas Tree Fairy, another fairy in charge of protecting the Christmas season.
- Emma the Easter Fairy, a fairy with the magic to protect all of the festivities of Easter.
- Natalie the Christmas Stocking Fairy, a Christmas-related fairy with an emphasis in the role she plays in making sure stocking preparation goes well.
- Angelica the Angel Fair, who guards the kindly Christmas spirit.
- Robyn the Christmas Party Fairy, a Christmas fairy who specializes in protecting Christmas parties.
- Giselle the Christmas Ballet Fairy, a fairy whose magic allows Christmas ballerinas to dance properly.
- Elsa the Mistletoe Fairy, whose job is to make sure Christmas goes smoothly.
- Maria the Mother's Day Fairy, the fairy who ensures that mothers and their children get along.
- Camilla the Christmas Present Fairy, who’s magic makes sure Christmas presents all around the world are perfect.
- Konnie the Christmas Cracker Fairy, who’s magic guarantees that Christmas crackers will be fun for everybody.
- Paula the Pumpkin Fairy, a fairy who protects the spirit of Halloween.
- Eliza the Easter Bunny Fairy, a fairy who directly works with the Easter Bunny while additionally watching over Spring.
Tabletop Games
- Yu-Gi-Oh! has several duel monsters with Holiday Motifs. A few examples are the Halloween-themed Ghostrick Archetype and the Christmas-themed Santa Claws.
Video Games
- Animal Crossing: Each game in the series features sets of furniture themed after various in-game holidays, themselves analogous to real-world holidays in the western world (e.g. Toy Day for Christmas, the Harvest Festival for Thanksgiving, and Festivale for Mardi Gras). In most games, this themed furniture is only obtainable during their respective holidays, while in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, most of it is instead purchasable during the leadup to each celebration.
- Borderlands 2:
- The DLC T.K. Baha's Bloody Harvest is set in the Haunted Hollow, a retirement destination for the undead of Pandora. The area is a spooky forest filled with decrepit windmills, old graveyards and abandoned churches, and an abundance of both pumpkins and the living dead. The quest giver of the area is a familiar zombie who takes his payment in brain candy. Naturally, this was released around Halloween, though the holiday itself is not referenced.
- The next DLC is the Thanksgiving themed The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler. Mr. Torgue recruits the player to fight a giant, Ma eating turkey-like monster; to do this, the player prepares it a poisoned meal in a massive kitchen, then battles it in a Hunger Games-style battle with a literal cornucopia. Once again, this was released around Thanksgiving, but the actual holiday isn't referenced.
- EarthBound Beginnings: In the original version of the game, known simply as Mother (after the John Lennon song), the many cities in Eagleland have holiday related names, which were localized in the international versions to more pun based names, inspired by real life locations. Ninten's hometown of Podunk was originally known as Mother's Day, the later city of Ellay was originally known as Valentine, the ghost inhabited town of Spookane was known as Halloween, Youngtown was originally known as Easter, and Union Station was known as Santa Claus Station. Mt. Itoi on the other hand, named after EarthBound's creator Shigesato Itoi, was originally known as Holy Loly Mountain, which was bowdlerized.
- Flower Knight Girl: Multiple Flower Knights naturally reflect the namesake flowers/plants associated with a specific holiday, and are usually introduced alongside the holiday-themed special events.
- Fir Tree, whose inspiration is the go-to Christmas tree for Christmas celebration, wears a tree-like green dress adorned with ornaments. She even has her red and green hair ribbons associated with the holiday's Color Motif, and is also accompanied by two gingerbread familiars.
- Poinsettia and Holly are a pair of Childhood Friends who are a Santa girl and reindeer girl respectively, based on their namesake's strong association with Christmas as decorations.
- To represent Halloween, Summer Squash, AKA Pumpkin, is a girl adorned in a jack-o-lantern styled dress. Her friend Lantana is also associated with the same holiday, albeit less pronounced, with her young vampire appearance.
- Guilty Gear: Jack-O' Valentine is themed around Halloween, her name being a play on "jack-o-lantern''. She dons an iron mask with a jack-o-lantern design-something that's also on her minions and ball-and-chain weapon, a deep love for sweets and candy, and is a twofold reference to the holiday as well as the power metal band Helloween.
- Klonoa Beach Volleyball: An unlockable court is "Christmas Court", which is fittingly depicted as a winter wonderland-type area with presents and a Christmas tree in the background
- Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: HolliJolli Village is a distinctly Christmas themed village with lights in the trees and a Santa-esque Mayor.
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: Hermie III is a giant hermit crab with a shell designed after a Christmas tree, which he decorates with various found objects in the vein of ornaments. Mario and Luigi fight him to obtain a piece of the Beanstar that he's using as a tree-topper, and after defeating him, the brothers can undertake an optional sidequest to replace it with Spangle, an anthropomorphic starfish. The Christmas theming is more explicit in the Japanese and Chinese versions, where Hermie III is respectively named Yadorufu Sansei (a play on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) and Shèngdàn Xiè Sānshì (literally "Christmas Crab III").
- MediEvil is a medieval inspired Dark Fantasy game with the odd sprinkling of Halloween friendly imagery. Witches, zombies, magic, bright oranges and purples, Jack-o-lantern enemies' not to mention the player character is a skeleton!
- Mortal Kombat 1 features holiday-themed Fatalities based on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
- Pokémon
- Delibird is an avian-like Pokémon that takes on the Christmas motif. It is based on Santa Claus and its dual typing (ice and flying) matches the holiday perfectly.
- Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist are jack-o-lantern Pokémon. They're both Ghost-types, and their Pokédex entries describe them as particularly active at night, when trick-or-treating would take place. Pumpkaboo even prefer to ferry the souls of deceased children to the afterlife according to the Galarian Dex.
- Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse: Introduced in episode 2 is Nicholas St. Kringle, a ruthless early-20th century toy magnate with a red wardrobe, a love of cookies, and a workforce comprised of elves. To drive the point home, the character's appearance is modeled off of Santa's as seen in the previous season.
- Sdorica: Leah is a cute half-rabbit girl who carries around an egg basket that she can imbue with colorful and explosive magic. In other words, she's an Easter Bunny.
- The Shin Megami Tensei games feature the recurring character Jack-O-Lantern-or Pyro Jack, a tiny figure in a cape with a Jack-o-lantern and witch's hat on its head carrying a lantern.
- Skullgirls: The not-too-subtly-named Valentine is loosely themed around the eponymous day. She's Skullgirls' resident Ms. Fanservice (which in a game as risqué as this says a lot), making herself present as desirably as possible to manipulate enemies. She also enjoys dark chocolate and alludes to "heart-stopping" with many of her attacks like her defibrillators and super move that flatlines her enemy. She actually comes from a band of nurses all themed after holidays, including "Christmas", "Patty", "Hallow", and "Easter".
- Sonic Adventure 2 has Pumpkin Hill, a Halloween themed level for Knuckles set at night amongst Jack-o-Lantern shaped mountains and filled with ghosts and graveyards.
- Undertale:
- Undertale: Snowdin Town is a more downplayed example, but it does have a Christmas tree in the center of town and you might see a reindeer-like monster in the forest outside of town covered in decorations as a prank.
- Deltarune: True to their names, the Holidays are a family of anthropomorphic reindeer themed after Christmastime. Noelle is named after Noël, the French word for Christmas, Rudy is named after the title character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and "Dess," the name of Noelle's unseen sister, is implied to be short for "December." Rudy occasionally uses Christmas-themed wordplay (e.g. "jingle my bells") and has an angel tree-topper in his hospital room, and Noelle wears a red and green sweater, owns pencils with candy-cane and Christmas-light patterns, and ends up in a white dress that makes her look like an angel when she ends up in the Cyber World. As for Carol Holiday, she's the mayor of the town who keeps the air conditioning in her office at full blast, while she's named after Christmas carols.
- Deltarune also features Jackenstein, a Darkner based on a Halloween decoration, who has a pumpkin motif, hides in the darkness because he believes he's "TOO SCAIRY" [sic], and whose boss fight has you traverse mazes that look like haunted houses.
Web Animation
- RWBY: Nicholas Schnee has a back story that is connected to St. Nicholas, who is regarded as the inspiration for Santa Claus. Like the modern version of Santa Claus, Nicholas was a kind and generous man who operated out of the frozen north, favoured the colour red and wore a snowy white beard.
Web Videos
- The Nostalgia Critic has the recurring character Santa Christ. As the name implies, he is a amalgam of two particular Christmas related characters - a kindly old man with a candy-cane staff who goes around giving gifts and can resurrect three days after getting killed.
Western Animation
- Cupid is a recurring character on The Fairly OddParents!. He is, of course, the god of love, has the magic bow and arrows that induce love, is associated with pink, white, and heart imagery, and plays an important part of the Valentines Day special.
- OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: The principal of K.O.'s school is distinctly modeled around Santa, being a jolly old man in red who is often seen only once a year.
- Over the Garden Wall: Episode two finds the main characters in Pottsfield, a town celebrating a mildly Halloween-esque harvest festival by dressing up in costumes made from pumpkins, complete with Jack-O-Lantern like heads. It is revealed at the end of the episode that beneath their costumes, the townsfolk are all skeletons.
- Any further parallels to Halloween are explained in episode nine: the boys are dreaming after nearly drowning in a river on Halloween night.
- Steven Universe: Due to the world's alternate history, most real world holidays do not exactly exist in the series. However, there are special episodes themed to specific holidays, such as Christmas (Greg, the Gems, and baby Steven in Greg's van during a snowstorm resembling a Nativity scene) and Thanksgiving (The Gems preparing a family dinner for one of Greg's conservative relatives), to name a few.