Sea of Thieves holiday update adds ice pets and glacial ship cosmetics today

Sea of Thieves is celebrating the holidays in its usual swashbuckling fashion with the Festival of Giving update, live now and packed with seasonal cosmetics, returning Voyages, and new events.

New additions to the Pirate Emporium include the gorgeous Frozen Horizon ship set and holiday-themed weapons, costumes, and emotes. Log in any time during December and you get the Frozen Horizon Tankard for free, which looks great for keeping your grog nice and frosty, but seems to give vomit an icy blue hue. But by far the coolest additions are the Glacial Curse Pets, which are cats and dogs that look like they've been turned into White Walkers from Game of Thrones. That's an automatic buy for me.

Pirates aren't known for their generosity, but the Festival of Giving update features an event that at least lets you choose to be generous if you want. Plundered Presents runs until January 20 and offers 5,000 gold for every treasure chest (up to five) that you gift to another crew. Meanwhile, you'll earn the Gold Hoarder Speaking Trumpet, Spyglass, and Tankard for spreading some holiday cheer.

The 12 Deeds of Giving event is a new Challenge track that rewards players with gleaming Eastern Winds rewards. Complete all 12 challenges and you'll be named the Master of Festivities. And if you've got the time, the limited-time Grogmanay comes with new Challenges where you basically blow a bunch of stuff up for an Order of Souls Bucket, Frostbite Cannons, and the Paradise Garden Cannon Flare.

Oh, and did we mention cannon flares? As we've been suspecting for a few weeks now, Sea of Thieves now has cannon flares that you can equip your cannons with and shoot our blasts of color along with the red-orange hue of exploding gunpowder.

There's also a whole host of bug fixes included in the new update, and you can see the complete list of everything new with the official Sea of Thieves patch notes.

If you're setting sail on your maiden voyage or just need a quick primer, don't miss our essential Sea of Thieves tips.

Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.