The holiday season brings with it festive times fueled by fun. Along with the experiences, we often see a flood of games that can charm the pants off any elf. Santa Claws – Monster Mash is just one of those games.

Created by a chap named Gary George, Santa Claws brings a bit of merriment and adds a touch of macabre by adding Monsters to the mix. It’s not really all that scary, as the game is geared more towards kids than adults. For kids who love Halloween, this is a great mashup of the two holidays – keeping kids entertained and adults laughing.

The game is very similar to other kids’ iOS games like Fruit Ninja, but with different characters and goals. The basic layout includes various stages: Santa Claws, Easter Mummy, Putrid Cupid, you get the idea. Gary created cute takes on various holidays and made games out of them.

Game play is simple. Each game consists of items that catapult from the bottom of the screen. Players then swipe each item to earn points and stay alive. One catch – do not swipe the bombs. Those will clearly take you out of game play, setting you back to the start of the game. Each successful swipe earns you coins and stars, that later become extremely useful in unlocking hidden items.

The screen will always show your star and coin count at the top right and left corners. You will also see how many strikes you have against you in the lower right corner.

Options include being able to control sound and music, which is a must for those with kids who can’t hear anything!

Each game will have a different set of items to swipe based on how far into the game you get. If you miss swiping three items total in a game, then its game over. Each swipe of a bomb counts as two chances.

My favorite game was Santa Claws, of course, because who doesn’t want to put Santa into action? It was such a funny game and I never expected some of the items I saw.

What I found very difficult and what made my kids get frustrated was that at times, a cluster of items would pop up close to a bomb, making it nearly impossible to avoid swiping the bomb, making it kind of an impossible situation to get out of or avoid.

While the graphics are quite simple, this game was treat for all; it acted as an escape for all us when things got hectic. I plan on still playing even after the holidays are long gone. The themes are cute and amusing and help to bring humor to the chaos we so often instill into a holidays that should be just fun!