The holiday season is once again upon us, and it's past time that we here at Bulbagarden got the ball rolling with our annual Holiday Contests! This year, we have a total of three separate contests running over the holiday period, with over $2,250 USD worth of prizes up for grabs.

Pokémon Masters EX is today debuting the second of its Ultimate Battle challenges with the addition of Ultimate Battle: Thorton's Freezing Frost. Also dropping in-game today are the game's latest Legendary Gauntlet, along with a pair of new scouts.

The Pokémon Company has announced that Super Music Collections for Pokémon Sword and Shield + Expansion Pass, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and Pokémon Sword and Shield + The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero will each be released in Japan on Pokémon Day on February 27th, 2024. Pre-orders are now open on the Pokémon Center ONLINE website in Japan, while stocks last, and are limited to a maximum of 2 items per person.

The developers of Pokémon Sleep have given players a list of features and issues that are currently receiving development attention. This list highlights several of quality of life improvements that players can expect to see coming in an update planned for release later this month, prior to the start of the Holiday 2023 event that was announced earlier this week. Pokémon Sleep are also distributing a large gift bundle of handy in-game items to all currently registered players.

Project VOLTAGE, the special art and music collaboration project between Pokémon and the popular Volcaloid character Hatsune Miku, will soon be releasing the fifth of 18 music videos, with Kimi to Sora wo Tobu (きみとそらをとぶ) featuring Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka, from Vocaloid producer Kasamura Tota (傘村トータ), also known as machiomiii. The song's title translates in English as Flying in the air with you. The music video for the song will premiere this Friday, December 8th, at 6:30pm (JST) / 9:30am (UTC) / 1:30am (PST).

The final trailer for The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, the paid DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, has been released ahead of the release of Part 2, The Indigo Disk next week on Thursday, December 14th. This new trailer reveals a range of new features in the DLC, including for the first time in a main series title the ability to control your Pokémon directly. Additional details on these features, along with special distributions being made to celebrate the release were also given in a simultaneous update made to the official Scarlet & Violet website.

The Pokémon of Myth from the Sinnoh region, Dialga and Palkia, are making their first appearance in a 5-star Tera Raid Battle event in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet starting December 7th, at 4:00pm (PST) / December 8th at Midnight (UTC), and running through until December 21st at 3:59pm (PST) / 11:59pm (UTC).

Limited-time distributions of Darkrai and a Shiny Lucario were announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet today alongside the final trailer for The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 2: The Indigo Disk, which aired today across the various language Official Pokémon YouTube channels. Darkrai's distribution will be available until December 21st, at 11:59pm (UTC), while Lucario will be available until January 3rd, 2024, at 11:59pm (UTC).

Pokémon Sleep will be marking the holiday season later this month with the Holiday 2023 — Double Dream Shard Research event, running in-game for the week leading up to Christmas. As the name suggests, this event will give Researchers double the regular amount of Dream Shards through sleep research, as well as offering increased chances of meeting Shiny Pokémon. The game will also be receiving a small update ahead of this event, with a significant increase planned for the effect of Dream Shard Magnet S skill.

The Bulbapedia encyclopedia is always growing here at Bulbagarden! All sorts of edits and contributions sprout up every single day thanks to Pokémon enthusiasts from all around the world! Let's take a closer look at our editors' best contributions that have taken root during November 2023.

No Glitches Allowed (NoGA) will be hosting their annual everything-goes winter event from December 6th to December 10th. Pokémon Yellow and a multiworld randomizer Pokémon Red will both feature in the marathon, which can be watched from the group's Twitch channel. The event will be raising money for GO Rescue Pet Adoption Center, a no-kill dog shelter in Norfolk, Virginia.

More Alola region content returns to Pokémon Masters EX, with a re-run of the People Protecting Pokémon Villain Event, which originally ran as part of the Alola Chapter of the Villain Arc earlier this year. This event will run through to December 17th, at 9:59pm (PST).

Battle Pass 20 has arrived in Pokémon UNITE, bringing new holowear for Sableye and Mewtwo, along with other assorted rewards for players. The Version 1.13.1.2 patch has also dropped this week, enabling the Holiday events that were announced previously as well as bringing balancing changes to a wide selection of Pokémon.

Niantic has released details on the upcoming Catch Mastery: Ice event in Pokémon GO, that was first announced last week alongside the release of information on the Timeless Travels season. The event will be held in-game this Saturday, December 9th, from 10:00am to 8:00pm local time.

The official Pokémon Taiwanese website has announced that a special Taipei's Pikachu promotional card for the Pokémon Trading Card Game will be distributed this month, to commemorate the opening of Pokémon Center TAIPEI on December 8th.

After launching last month for streaming and download in both Japanese and English across a wide variety of music platforms, the music video for the English version of Biri-Biri by YOASOBI is now finally available from YOASOBI's official YouTube Channel. The song is directly inspired by After the Rain With You (Japanese: きみと雨上がりを Kimi to Ameagari o), the original short novel based on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that was released as a free-to-read web novel in Japan on November 10th.

The Adamant Time event, featuring Pokémon from the Kanto region, will be running in Pokémon GO next week from Monday December 11th at 10:00am local time, through to Friday December 15th at 8:00pm local time.

Pokémon GO's new Along the Routes event will begin tomorrow, December 5th, at 10:00am, running through to December 8th at 8:00pm local time. This event will introduce the travelling Pokémon researcher Mateo, who provides the Gift Exchange service for players exploring Routes, as well as feature the debut of Shiny Hisuian Sneasel.

A huge helping of Alola region content is coming to Pokémon Masters EX this week, with re-runs of the 2023 edition of the Top Speed Time Trial Event, and the Investigate the Foundation Villain Event, both of which originally ran alongside the debut of the Alola Chapter of the Villain Arc earlier this year. A trio of fair-exclusive Sygna Suit sync pairs featured in the Alola Chapter will also be making their return in a special Triple Feature Poké Fair Scout, while the Alola Challenge is starting this week in the Champion Stadium. Also starting today is a new Special Battle Event, featuring the recently released Neo Champion Nate.

While this week's episode of Pokémon Horizons was primarily buildup to the reveal of the fourth of the Six Hero Pokémon, I did like the mystery building up around the Lapras. A cargo ship thought it was helping them escape a fog, when it reality, Lapras was looting their food. Lapras's Pokédex entries going back to the first generation have mentioned how they are gentle and kind-hearted Pokémon, so that means it should be a good Pokémon, right?