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Christmas DnD One-Shots: Krampus, Heists and Holiday Horror for 5e

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Christmas DnD one-shots: Krampus and holiday heist adventure covers

By Anvil N Ink Publishing · 9 min read

Christmas DnD one-shots give your group one festive night of play without starting a campaign. The best picks here are our four Krampus adventures, two holiday heists and two winter one-shots, all zero-prep and built for 2-3 players at low levels, plus a free official adventure and a few favorites from other publishers.

December is the easiest month of the year to get a table together and the hardest to keep a campaign running. Friends are home, schedules break, and nobody wants to remember last month’s plot threads. A one-shot fixes that: one evening, a full story, and a holiday theme that does half the scene-setting for you. Every adventure below also appears in our full index of DnD one-shots, and our holiday one-shot ideas cover the rest of the calendar.

Covers of Christmas DnD one-shots: the four Krampus books, Yule Be Sorry and The Winter Ball Heist

Which Christmas DnD one-shot should you run?

Pick by mood first. If your group wants festive cheer with teeth, start with a heist. If they want something to talk about on the drive home, start with Krampus.

Adventure Tone Level Players Best for
The First Frost Quiet Krampus mystery 2-3 2-3 Tables that like to investigate
The Naughty List Pulpy rooftop hunt 2-3 2-3 Action and moral choices
The Silence Yet to Come Bleak winter ghost story 2-3 2-3 Horror fans
The Gnashing Court Baroque finale with a countdown 2-3 2-3 A big closing night
Yule Be Sorry Dark-festive toy factory heist 2-3 2-3 Heist lovers
The Winter Ball Heist Fast mansion chase 2 2-3 New DMs, short nights
Frostfall Arctic survival 3-4 2-3 Winter without the holiday
The Cinderwell Norse glacier forge 2-3 2-3 Myth fans

Each runs in a single session of about two to three hours, and each comes with pre-generated characters, so nobody has to build a hero on the night.

What are the best Krampus one-shots for DnD?

Our four Krampus books are the core of any Christmas DnD night we would recommend. Together they form Krampus: A Yuletide Quartet, one larger story about the Winter Guardian seen across past, present and future, but every book stands on its own. Play one on Christmas week or run all four across December in any order.

The First Frost: a Christmas mystery that sells sorrow

In the village of Grauwald, hundreds of candles burn for a thousand-year midwinter vigil while children vanish from their beds, one a night. The old shrine on the ridge has turned warm again. Your party walks down off the mountain into the middle of it and learns the village’s secret one frightened conversation at a time. The clues are seeded so a table cannot miss the truth, and the monster at the end was the village’s protector before it was wronged. Read the full review of The First Frost.

The Naughty List: a rooftop hunt with a moral scoreboard

In the harbor city of Gildenhaven, the worst people disappear every midwinter and the city has learned to be grateful. Something is keeping a list. The chase runs up the chimneys, across snow-slick roofs and down into a toy workshop, while a Coal-or-Candle tracker watches how the party treats the people it meets. Mercy makes the city an ally; cruelty marks the party as prey. Read the full review of The Naughty List.

The Silence Yet to Come: the darkest night of the four

The party shelters from the Longest Night in a stone ring and wakes three hundred years too late, in a future where the winter won. Gift-giving is outlawed and song is contraband. A ragged resistance finds them first, and a third bell is already on its way. This is stealth and survival with a clock that keeps ringing, built for tables that want their Christmas game to hurt a little. Read the full review of The Silence Yet to Come.

The Gnashing Court: the coronation of King Krampus

On the Longest Night, King Krampus stands to wear a crown that was never his. Four gates, four rival vassals and a Coronation Bell countdown stand between the party and the throne. The vassals hate each other more than they fear the heroes, so a small party that listens can turn one against another. It pays off the series for groups who played the first three and works alone for groups who did not. Read the full review of The Gnashing Court.

Get all four Krampus one-shots on Payhip →

Is there a lighter Christmas DnD one-shot?

Yes: both of our holiday heists keep the season fun, with just enough danger to matter.

Yule Be Sorry

Every child in the village of Pinefrost has fallen into an enchanted sleep, each one clutching a flawless toy. The clockwork factory on the mountain is to blame, and the party has one night to break in and stop the Fabricant before dawn locks the curse forever. Expect gingerbread golems on conveyor belts, wind-up soldiers with faded paint and carols piped half a tone off-key. It is festive, a little wrong, and a great fit for groups who like to plan a job. Read the full review of Yule Be Sorry.

The Winter Ball Heist

Ice elf thieves crash Lord Wintermere’s winter ball to steal the Bag of Eternal Gifts from Christopher Kringle himself. The party chases them from the grand kitchen through servant corridors to a frozen ballroom and out across the rooftops. It runs in about two hours at level 2, which makes it the easiest pick here for a new Dungeon Master or a short weeknight. Read the full review of The Winter Ball Heist.

What if your group wants winter without Christmas?

Run a winter survival story instead. Some tables are tired of tinsel by the 20th. Frostfall crashes an airship in frozen wilderness with a dragon hunting the party, and the twist is that the party stole something the dragon loves. The Cinderwell sends a small group into a Norse forge inside a glacier with a meltdown clock that never stops. And The Silence Yet to Come works just as well read as a pure winter horror story.

Are there free Christmas DnD one-shots?

Yes, and a few are excellent. We are happy to point you to them.

  • Winter’s Splendor (Wizards of the Coast, free PDF from Dragon+). An official adventure for levels 1-4 set at the Midwinter Gala in Waterdeep: a tiny fiend crashes the party, the guests are locked in, and the trail leads to the City of the Dead. It is written for about five players, so trim the fights for a smaller group.
  • Claus for Concern by B.J. Keeton (pay what you want on the DMs Guild). Icy villains have overrun Santa’s toy factory and the elves need adventurers to take Toyland back. B.J. lists it alongside other free and paid picks in his roundup of D&D Christmas adventures.
  • More free holiday picks. Arcane Eye keeps a good list of D&D Christmas adventures, including a free Krampus lair of their own.

If you want a free one-shot to teach the rules before the holidays, our own The Silent Cathedral is free for one player and one GM. More options are in our guide to free DnD one-shots.

How do you run a Christmas DnD one-shot?

Pick a tone, keep it to one night, and give the players something to unwrap.

  • Choose cozy or dread, not both. A table expecting cheer will balk at a ghost story, and a horror table will tune out a snowball fight. Tell them which one it is when you invite them.
  • Wrap the loot. Write each magic item or clue on a card and hand it over in a small wrapped box or envelope. Opening it at the table turns treasure into a moment.
  • Try a character swap. Arcane Eye suggests a Secret Santa twist: each player builds a character for someone else and hands it over on the night. It works well with a one-shot because nobody is stuck with the character for months.
  • Use the clock. Midnight, dawn, the third bell: holiday stories run on deadlines. A visible countdown keeps a chatty, well-fed table moving.
  • Check comfort levels. Krampus stories involve missing children and punishment. Spend two minutes before play agreeing on lines your table will not cross.

For the general craft, see how to run a one-shot in D&D and how much prep a one-shot needs.

What Christmas monsters can you use in DnD?

You do not need new stat blocks; reskin creatures you already have. These suggestions use 5e creatures at challenge ratings that suit a level 2-3 party.

Holiday monster Reskin this creature CR How to play it
Gingerbread soldier Animated armor 1 Crumbles into crumbs at 0 hit points; smells wonderful
Evil snowman Ice mephit 1/2 Bursts into a cloud of freezing snow when destroyed
The Yule Cat (Icelandic folklore) Saber-toothed tiger 2 Only hunts those who received no new clothes for the holiday
Belsnickel, the ragged gift-giver Bandit captain 2 Tests the party with questions before he decides to fight
Winter wolf of the Longest Night Winter wolf 3 Speaks, bargains, and serves something bigger
Krampus himself The version in our Krampus books Varies Already built for 2-3 players, so no reskin needed

For more creatures that scare small groups, see our list of scary DnD monsters.

Quick Christmas DnD ideas for your own one-shot

  • A village’s gifts all vanish overnight, and the only footprints lead onto a frozen lake.
  • A toymaker’s apprentice asks the party to deliver one last present to a house that burned down a century ago.
  • The feast is cursed: every dish the guests eat makes them a little more like the dish.
  • A reindeer stable owner hires the party because one of the herd has started talking, and it knows secrets.
  • The town’s great yule log will not light, and the cold is creeping in from the edges of the map.
  • A gift exchange between two noble houses is about to start a war, unless someone swaps the presents first.

Need more seeds? Our D&D one-shot ideas post has fifteen more, and seven formulas for one-shot openers will help you start strong.

Key takeaways

  • The best Christmas DnD one-shots for small groups are the four Krampus books, Yule Be Sorry and The Winter Ball Heist.
  • Every adventure here runs in one evening for 2-3 players, mostly at levels 2-3, with pre-generated characters.
  • Choose cozy or dread before the night, not during it.
  • Winter’s Splendor is a free official Midwinter adventure if you have a bigger table.
  • Reskin existing creatures for holiday monsters instead of writing new stat blocks.
  • The Krampus Quartet works as one night or as a whole December, in any order.

Frequently asked questions

What is the D&D version of Christmas?

The Forgotten Realms celebrates Midwinter, a festival on the longest night of the year. The official adventure Winter’s Splendor is set at Waterdeep’s Midwinter Gala, which makes it an easy bridge if your campaign uses the Realms. In a homebrew world, any longest-night festival does the same job.

What level should a Christmas one-shot be?

Levels 2-3 work best for most groups: tough enough to survive a bad roll, simple enough to learn in minutes. See our full guide to what level a DnD one-shot should be.

Can I run a Christmas one-shot with only two players?

Yes. Every Anvil N Ink adventure on this page is balanced for 2-3 players. Official adventures assume four or five, so trim encounters if you use one. Our guide to D&D for 2-3 players shows how.

Do the Krampus one-shots have to be played in order?

No. Each book stands on its own. Played in order, they tell one larger story that ends at the throne in The Gnashing Court.

How long does a Christmas one-shot take?

Plan for two to three hours of play, plus time for food. The Winter Ball Heist is the shortest at about two hours.

Get the Christmas one-shots

Pick up single books as PDFs on Payhip, or as paperback and Kindle on Amazon:

Want everything at once? Our first 101 books are available together for $200.

About Anvil N Ink Publishing

Anvil N Ink publishes zero-prep one-shots for Dungeons & Dragons 5e, written for the small groups most published adventures forget. Browse every DnD one-shot we publish, or see our Halloween DnD one-shots for the other big season.

The best Christmas DnD one-shots fit in one winter evening and leave your table with a story worth retelling at next year’s feast.