I didn't grow up celebrating Christmas, but you'd think that managing and owning a couple of toy stores would have me loving the holiday. On the contrary: Seeing the way parents cowardly leverage Santa as a scapegoat to get their children to behave instead of assuming the responsibility of discipline themselves pisses me off like nobody's business. And even though one might think I'd have celebrated the gross consumerism and attempts to express love for family, friends, and Jesus by spending lots of money on an exorbitant quantity of gifts most people don't really need, I was shaking my head on the inside while smiling and Merry Christmas'ing and swiping credit cards on the outside.
I also live in an extremely hardcore Burn Harry Potter, Close The Public Library, God Abhors Gays, and Call The Exorcist, My Daughter Sneezed kind of town, which hasn't enhanced my sentiments towards religious holidays.

All this is to say, I'm well outside of what I perceived to be the target demographic for Azazel's Christmas Fable. When the game came out, I passed up on the opportunity to review it for this site, and never gave the idea of playing it a second thought. Until it popped up on sale in my Steam feed and I was on a streak of mediocre games and I remembered that several people whose opinions on adventure games I respect had spoken highly of it, "Even if you don't care about Christmas." This perfect storm of circumstances persuaded me.

And I'm glad it did, because Azazel's Christmas Fable is *easily* one of the best adventure games I've played in years. 
- The story and setting are unique...well, I guess the setting is kind of similar to that dumb Tim Allen movie, which I also am definitely not the target demographic for. 
- The voice acting is in the charmingly old-school point 'n click style. Think the digitized tones of King's Quest V's voices, acted in a similar 'not quite bad, not really good, Platonic Ideal of 90's adventure game acting'. 
- The humor in the game is probably the best part. It takes a lot to get me to laugh out loud while playing, but here I did, several times. And also commented to no one in particular, maybe the dog, "Man, this is *so* good!"
- Because the main character is an imp from Hell, I didn't find myself questioning his moral consistency like I do with a guy like George Stobbart, whose means often don't justify his ends. It's the perfect conceit for an adventure game protagonist!
- Puzzles are mostly inventory based, perfect difficulty, not quite Monkey Island 2, not quite your typical modern babysitting style where the character tells you exactly what to do next every time you pick up an item. There were also some nice logic puzzles, nothing that'll hold you up for more than a few minutes, but a pleasant challenge and welcome change of pace.
- Major kudos for having a satisfying final chapter and fun "Boss fight" at the end, and then really sticking the landing with a great ending.
- Bonus: There are little candies to find throughout the game, one in each screen, like a hidden object game. I didn't think I'd care so much about finding all of them, but I ended up having a great time doing it. 

The game isn't terribly long, but I wouldn't categorize it as a short game. If you pay $10, you'll get your money's worth of fun. Yeah, it's worth paying full price for. If you have to think twice about it, just pass on buying someone at work who you don't really care about a stupid Xmas gift that they don't really need. Azazel's Christmas Fable is a much better way to spend your time and money.

I hate Christmas more than you do. I would never even look at this game unless it was guaranteed there were no Christmas songs and no jingle bell sounds. I did do Christmas when my kids were little, out of societal pressure. I never held Santa over their heads, though. Now they’re adults and I can opt out, at least to the extent it is possible, which is not enough! Hmmph.

Bravo, this made my evening. I'm getting the game tomorrow.

I hate Christmas more than you do. I would never even look at this game unless it was guaranteed there were no Christmas songs and no jingle bell sounds. I did do Christmas when my kids were little, out of societal pressure. I never held Santa over their heads, though. Now they’re adults and I can opt out, at least to the extent it is possible, which is not enough! Hmmph.

Pfff, I doubt it. I took it easy. Like, on a scale of 'Putt Putt Goes To The Moon' to 'Black Dahlia', I took it 'Putt-Putt Goes To The Moon With An Illustrated Walkthrough' easy.

I couldn't get into the game at all. 1.) Isn't it Winter Burrow (okay, I'm having a very strange problem at the moment), 2.) I don't like the voice, and 3.) the game was only available with German subtitles.

And so I more or less deliberately failed the first puzzle – find something I can stand on to operate the lever. Maybe next year.

I played the game in English with English subtitles as the default, not sure which version you played.
That puzzle about finding something to stand on, there's plenty you can do before doing that.
The voice thing, I get.
No, it's not Winter's Burrow. It's hard to get into a game when you really want to be playing something else.

I played it in English with German subtitles, which is more confusing than English with English subtitles. Especially since the English in the game is really simple.
I knew people who only play games dubbed into German, and I can totally understand that.

I can read books in English, and I can watch English-language films and play games. But I only feel truly relaxed when I'm in German.

Seconded (or whatever position I'm at here). The voice kinda got on my nerves after a while, but generally speaking it's a fun little Christmas treat.

After five minutes, the voice was really getting on my nerves.