Dear Santa

Dear Santa: Slot Overview

Other than both being well-known, easily recognisable characters, there aren’t a lot of direct connections between Snow White and Santa Claus. That’s all about to change, though, if casino game maker Red Tiger has its way. The studio has gone and designed an online slot for the festive season featuring the two characters, wrapping it up with a bow and titling it Dear Santa. If that sounds like the start of a letter containing a long, long list of wants and needs (PlayStation, V-Bucks, whatever), well done because this game includes a Christmas letter feature, as well as several wild types and a free spins bonus round to shoot for.

Other than dropping Snow White in there, Dear Santa is about as visually generic a Christmas slot as they get. Snow, mistletoe, baubles, a bunch of the cliches. But if Christmas time is an excuse to revel in all the familiar cultural cliches rather than scorn them, then getting lost in Dear Santa might be dandy. However, there are plenty of other slots that fit the bill in this regard, and Dear Santa does little artistically to stand out from the crowd.

To start writing your own letter to Santa (not really, but anyway) involves choosing how much you’d like to wager, from 10 c to $/€20, with the Christmas letter collection feature locked per bet level. Pressing the play button spins a 5-reel matrix, equipped with 3 rows on each reel, and wins are evaluated from the leftmost reel using 25 paylines. The RTP at best is 95.76%, and the volatility is medium-high.

Pointy 10 through Ace card ranks are the lower paying symbols, awarding 2 to 3 times the stake for a 5-matching symbol win. Up from them are candy canes, a rocking horse, a skate, and bells, awarding 4 to 20 times the bet for 5 OAK.

Dear Santa: Slot Features

The special symbols and features in Dear Santa include Snow White Wilds, Santa Wilds, Christmas letter accumulation, Christmas Present Wilds, and free spins.

Snow White Wild & Santa Wild

The Snow White Wild appears on the leftmost reel in the main game and in free spins bearing a random win multiplier of x2, x3, x5, or x10. The multiplier applies to all line wins passing through the Snow White Wild, which substitutes for any paying symbol. The Santa Wild appears on reels 2, 3, and 4 in the main game and expands over the entire reel if it can form a win after doing so. During free spins, one Santa Wild is expanded on the middle reel for the duration of the bonus round, but no additional Santa Wilds may land. The Santa Wild substitutes for any paying symbol.

Christmas Letters

The Christmas Letter symbol may appear on the rightmost reel. Each Christmas Letter that hits is collected in the mail box above the reel.

Christmas Present Wilds

Appearing only in free spins, the Christmas Present Wilds substitute for any paying symbol.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatters on reels 2, 3, and 4, as well as collecting 60+ Christmas letters in the mail box triggers 10 free spins. Scatters do not land in free spins, so retriggers are not possible. At the start of the feature, a Santa Wild is placed on the middle reels and stays there till the feature ends. During the bonus, Santa throws Christmas Present Wilds on reels 2 and/or 4 for each Christmas letter collected in the mail box. The amount is random, but no more than 6 at a time. If any Christmas letters remain in the mail box they are carried over to the base game, contributing to the next bonus round.

Dear Santa: Slot Verdict

If you’re the sort of player who doesn’t expect much from a Christmas slot since they’re often low-effort clones or token-effort originals, then you shouldn’t be too disappointed by Dear Santa. It is what it is: Christmas card stuff, shmaltzy, cheesy, lovably seasonal, take your pick. Aesthetically, there is little separating Dear Santa from a sizable bulk of other Xmas slots, apart from the unusual Snow White angle.

On the gaming side of things, not trying to be all Grinchy or anything, but Dear Santa doesn’t do much to stand out from a sizable bulk of Red Tiger slots, either. The studio’s more mediocre releases, at that. The base game is a case of trying to pile up the post when Christmas letters land, getting the occasional tingle when Snow White or Santa Wilds turn up, and shovelling mental snow till free spins trigger. Even then, Dear Santa doesn’t exactly hit the afterburner, despite the additional Christmas Present Wild function, and tops out at 3,580.6x the bet.

On the bright side, Red Tiger can tick its Christmas slot for the year off the list. Done and dusted. Dear Santa might provide a jolly or two for casual gamblers happy with a mid-tier, traditional-looking Christmas slot, not that there aren’t plenty of these to sift through already. But, for something seasonal yet more exciting, slots like Lucksome‘s Saint Nicked, or even Thunderkick‘s skin job Hot Turkey might be a better option.

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