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Obvioulsy, the various fantasy settings may have their own, special holidays, for example in the Forgotten Realms, there are five annual holidays falling between the months, like Midwinter oder Midsummer, and a quadriennal holiday in Shieldmeet.

For holding a Thanksgiving- or Christmas-Themed session, I'd like to know if there any published adventures or monsters that have an actual real-world holiday theme. But I am not sure if that would run afoul of "Shopping Question" criteria, so I wanted to check here first if that would be OK to ask?

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This sort of idea has been discussed before in this meta: Can we ask about the existence of a game?

The main thrust of the issues outlined in BESW’s answer there is that this sort of question can turn out to be indistinguishable from a recommendation or shopping sort of question. “Recommend me a holiday adventure” and “are there any holiday adventures” have the same answers.

However, as BESW states in their answer, “does X exist” is not, and need not be, wholesale off-topic, and I think putting some reasonable constraints on the question can make it more like a question. As you have phrased it in the question here, I think you’re pretty close. “Has Wizards of the Coast [or insert publisher] ever published a Thanksgiving or Christmas theme adventure?” is, to me, a reasonably scoped content identification problem. In contrast, “Are there any holiday themed one shots, including 3rd party publications” is just a recommendation question without the word “recommendation” in the title.

Turning now to holiday themed monsters, I think we need to be careful here. Simply asking, “Are there any published holiday themed monsters in 5e?” is likely to invite some speculation about a monster’s connection with some holiday. I can’t rule out the possibility of “vampires are halloween monsters lol” types of answers, and I’d be worried more thoughtful answers would still just be of the kind “hey this thing is related to this cultural tradition, therefore this monster must be too”. This opens the question up to any sort of connection I can contrive, and it turns into the bad sort of list question we want to avoid. However, if you ask the first question, about official holiday adventures, you probably get holiday themed monsters gift wrapped already, if the adventures exist.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Getting holiday themed monsters gift wrapped ... very nice. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Nov 24, 2023 at 14:30
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NobodytheHobgoblin This is a good answer, but to really solidly move the resulting question out of opinion-based you’ll need to make sure the question lays out clear criteria for determining what constitutes a holiday adventure (and thus an acceptable answer). \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Commented Nov 24, 2023 at 22:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ObliviousSage Nobody asked for Christmas and thanksgiving themed adventures, do they need to get more specific than that? \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Commented Nov 24, 2023 at 22:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ObliviousSage My goal is to incorporate it into a pre-Christmas play session outside our normal campaign (players will go there via a portal, scroll or dream). I think anything that has unmistakable parallels to or trappings of Christmas and is obviously written for such an occasion will work; (its too late now for Thanksgiving). It just being Winter-themed is not enough. For the existing answer, I don't know how close FR Midwinter is to Xmas, so have neither up- nor downvoted. It's a bit sad to me that this question caused such controversy. If adding this would help, I can do so. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Nov 24, 2023 at 22:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NotArch Christmas and Thanksgiving obviously don’t exist in D&D settings, plus Christmas traditions (and thus theming) vary from country to country. What characteristics would be needed for an adventure to be considered themed on one of those holidays? If an adventure is based around a fantasy winter solstice celebration that is only a little like Christmas, would that count? If an adventure features gift-giving and themes of charity and is set during the winter, but makes no mention of a holiday, would that count? \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Commented Nov 25, 2023 at 4:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ObliviousSage I don't think an adventure set in the winter counts as a Christmas themed adventure. There definitely needs to be something "christmas" about it in order for it to be like Christmas. I'm talking Santa type character, trees, reindeer, etc. Trappings of Christmas tht give it a direct tie in to that holiday. Keeping it just about winter with nothing about the actual holiday does not make it about christmas.Or are we saying that winter holiday = Christmas? If so, I strongly disagree about that. The only answer that's up has a winter themed module that has nothing to do with xmas. \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Commented Nov 25, 2023 at 12:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ Also, just calling it a theme adventure doesn’t make it one. The details of the adventure seem to have nothing to do with Christmas at all, if anyone looked it into the linked module \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Commented Nov 25, 2023 at 15:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NobodytheHobgoblin Your recent edit expands the question beyond your scope and now is just any stated “themed” adventure even if it doesn’t mean the holiday you asked for. I don’t think that’s the intent of this answer. And I still really dislike the idea that winter themes mean Christmas. That’s just super Christian centric. \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Commented Nov 26, 2023 at 12:32
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NotArch Please do yourself a favor and google "things related to christmas". And I have no interest in getting into a fight about a Christmas question. That is so utterly against everything the holiday stands for, I it really makes me quite sad to see that discussion. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Nov 26, 2023 at 13:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NobodytheHobgoblin I’m sorry, but there are specific trappings and general trappings. If those trappings can be applied to other holidays, then they aren’t about Christmas. You asked here on meta about how to ask this question, but now you don’t like the answer you’ve selected and want it more general. It doesn’t work like that. \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Commented Nov 26, 2023 at 13:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Nautarch - I added it back with some more specific items, I hope that helps. Otherwise, I'd askt the mods to decide if that clarification is OK and shoudl be in there or not. As I said, I only added it on their request, I myself would have been fine to let the question be as it was. Have to leave here now, we are drinking Glühwein on the Porch with our neigbors. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Nov 26, 2023 at 13:23
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Even if “Has Wizards of the Coast [or insert publisher] ever published a Thanksgiving or Christmas theme adventure?” is off topic (another answer makes a convincing list that it is on topic), this can be tightly scoped enough that it is a perfectly fine list question:

"What holiday-themed adventures has WotC published?"

At that point, we can let the normal site mechanics resolve any disputes about whether e.g. a solstice-themed adventure counts as a Christmas-themed adventure.

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