Snow is falling, hot chocolate is ready, and our bank accounts are empty from buying gifts; there’s never been a better time for a special (free) Holiday Edition of #FanArtFriday! From cosplay to Christmas cards, we’re excited for you to unwrap this incredible collection of art. 

The perfect piece to kick off the list is this classic Santa Samus card from babsdraws. We love the simple color scheme, and the decorative filigree surrounding the bounty hunter. Small Metroids float around Samus, with bright red-colored bows atop their heads as if they just arrived from a new car commercial, adding some humor to the generally intimidating aliens.  

Prepare for holiday cheer, and make it double! Artist Retro-Robosan over at DeviantArt continues spreading the joy with this fun, brightly-painted Team Rocket fan art. Jesse and James appear to have turned over a new leaf, ready to perhaps deliver some Pokémon to the good boys and girls of Pallet Town.

An incredible photographer and makeup artist whose work we can’t get enough of, MilliganVick delivers in this holiday Witcher III photo shoot. Featuring Kalinka Fox, Torie, Candy, and Andrey pose in an entire collection of photos for the Solstice gallery, and we recommend checking out all your favorite characters wearing their holiday best. Want to see the White Wolf smile? There’s a pic for that, too.

The artist behind many pieces of official champion splash art, Jessibeans, creates our next featured artwork, a clever holiday edition of Evelynn from League of Legends. Based on a Rita Hayworth pinup, this punny pic is wonderfully creative. Evelynn’s lashers are replaced with bell-adorned garlands, a half-eaten plate of cookies hints at the character’s impatience. Beyond that, impressive attention to lighting makes this piece really pop, a vignette allowing the villain’s eyes to glow and textures to push through. 

Another all-star piece of art is this Street Fighter Christmas illustration from now Lead Character Concept Artist at Blizzard, Arnold Tsang. This art uses muted colors to create the atmosphere of a classic holiday card, featuring Chun-Li. The Interpol agent’s outfit has been given a lot of attention in the digital painting, now featuring fur-lining, a rosy-red color, candy-cane striped leggings, and seeing her wrist spikes replaced with bells. It’s truly the kind of art we’re thankful for!

The Apex Legends fan art community is incredible, and this holiday greetings card from artist RaTTCate had us chuckling. In the monochromatic illustration, Octane can be spotted prancing across the card in their “Dasher” skin. The inking in this art is superb and gives us strong comic-book vibes. Even intricate details like Octane’s pouches and straps are easy to read thanks to the artist’s attention and skill.

What gaming fan-art list would be complete without at least one picture of Mario? DeviantArt user PeachyPinkcess takes us into the home of Mario and Peach as Mario finds a clever way to put the star atop the tree. Who needs Luigi’s weird high-jumping from Mario 2 when you’ve got a vine you can climb? Clean lines and a crisp white-outline grant feel classic Nintendo; something we wouldn’t be surprised to spot in an old Nintendo Power magazine.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this collection of art, and—as always—we’ve got even more holiday fan art collected in our gallery. Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you next week in a new #FANARTFRIDAY!