Pokémon Masters EX continues to bring early Christmas gifts for players, with Misty & Psyduck's Special Sync Pair Event returning for a limited time until January 2nd, at 9:59pm (PST).

The Japanese Pokémon Center store has announced a new merchandise line called P'atelier by Pokémon Center, which is inspired by the moments of a shopkeeper who went to the Kanto region. This line of goods, which includes items such as dishware, loungewear, towels, pouches, cushions, keychains, bags, cans, notebooks, stickers and postcards, will be released on January 15th online, and on January 17th for physical stores in Japan.

Pokémon TCG Pocket has just recently released its first new booster set since the game released back at the end of October, Mythical Island. As is to be expected of a new booster set in a TCG, some of the cards are good! In this article I'm going to speculate and give my personal opinion on which of the new cards seem likely to be particularly impactful in the new metagame once they’ve disseminated broadly into the player-base, as well as some cards that I just think present a useful and interesting boon to various decks.

Hot on the heels of the release of the new Mythical Island themed booster pack, Pokémon TCG Pocket is launching a new Emblem Event, giving players the opportunity to acquire emblems to set on their in-game player profiles. This event will run through to January 9th, 2025, at 9:59pm (PST).

A new merchandise line centered around Pokémon dogs has been announced for Japanese Pokémon Center stores, featuring Pokémon such as Growlithe, Lillipup, Rockruff, Yamper and Fidough. This line will release on January 9th for the online store, and on January 11th for physical stores in Japan, with products ranging from plushies, clips, blankets, cushions, cases, mugs, bags, pouches, towels, frisbees, apparel, die-cut labels, notebooks, clear files and stickers.

BBC iPlayer's updated schedule reveals airdates for new episodes from Pokémon Horizons: Season 2—The Search for Laqua, the second season of Pokémon Horizons: The Series, which will premiere in the United Kingdom in January 2025. So far, the first three episodes will be released on BBC iPlayer on January 13th, and will air on CBBC on January 13th, 14th and 15th, respectively.

After completing the first season, episodes from the second season of Pokémon the Series, Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands (following the older television definition) , are now available on the Pokémon TV YouTube channel, with episodes being added daily. These uploads have audio tracks in a total of 13 languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Hungarian, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), and Swedish; with closed captions in 7 languages: English, Danish, Dutch, German (Germany), Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), and Portuguese (Portugal).

Pokémon Masters EX has an early Christmas gift for players today, with Giovanni & Persian's Special Sync Pair Event returning for a limited time until January 2nd, at 9:59pm (PST). A special Stamina Support Log-In Bonus has also been launched, giving players a boost to help them complete all of the current and upcoming in-game events in this holiday season.

A series of anime shorts based on monpoké (モンポケ), the official Pokémon brand for babies, kids and toddlers, has been announced for release on the Japanese Pokémon Kids TV YouTube channel in February 2025. The series will follow a Pikachu who arrives on monpoké Island, and falls in love with it while meeting lots of new friends. The staff for this series includes Reiko Yoshida for Series Composition and Script, and Animation Production by Fanworks.

The Japanese Pokémon Center Online store has put up a page for a new range of blind box figures called They Don't Listen To Me!, themed after Pokémon who disobey their trainers. Each blind box will cost JPY ¥500, and contain a randomly selected Pokémon from the pool 5 figures, which includes Charizard, Mewtwo, Umbreon, Larvitar and Starmie.

Pokémon Sleep's Holiday 2024 event will start next week on December 23rd. Alongside the start of this event, from December 23rd at 6:00am (UTC), a selection of special Holiday 2024 Bundles will be made available from the in-game store. These bundles will remain available until one day after the end of the event, on Tuesday December 31st at 3:59am (UTC).

The first Pokévideodex (Japanese: ポケモン動画図鑑 Pokémon Video Encyclopedia) short is now available on the official Japanese Pokémon YouTube channel. The remaining episodes from the first series of 10 shorts are being released on the channel on weekdays from December 16th.

Pokémon UNITE updated to Version 1.17.1.5 at 7am (UTC) on December 16th, amid the Winter Holiday event celebrations. This update brings balance changes to the newest Pokémon, Tinkaton, along with Shop and Event updates for the the ongoing Winter Holiday events. Specifically, this update fixes many of Tinkaton's shortcomings such as low impacts of moves other than Thief. Additionally, this update also brings bug fixes where moves of other Pokémon were not functioning as intended.

The Holiday season continues in Pokémon Masters EX, bringing gifts of returning seasonal content for trainers. With only a little more than a week to go until Christmas, the game is seeing a re-run of last year's Focus on the Shining Shot! Story Event. A collection of Holiday-season Sync Pairs from the last 4 years are also making their return in a pair of Seasonal Scouts.

French company Celio (of no relation to the Pokémon Storage System programmer in the Sevii Islands), has released yet another Pokémon collab. This latest collab features products themed after different cards from the Trading Card Game, along with products that allow the display of purchaser's favorite Pokémon TCG cards.

A new limited edition Garchomp figure by First 4 Figures, a company dedicated to the production of high-end collectible figures from famous franchises, is now up for pre-order on the Pokémon Center online store in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. Retailing at USD $299.99/GBP £249.99/CAD $389.99, this pricey figure is expected to ship in early February 2025.

The holidays are here in Pokémon GO! Shiny Sandygast and Dedenne wearing holiday attire will appear for the first time in Pokémon GO as part of Part 1 of this year's Holiday event, which commences this week on December 17th, at 10:00am, running through to December 22nd, at 9:59am local time. Part 2, which continues to December 27th, at 8:00pm local time, will see the debuts of Shiny Cetoddle, and Wooloo and Dubwool wearing holiday attire.

It’s not just Ludlow who hasn’t seen Olivine City for a long time, it’s us, the viewers, too! The last time Olivine City was showm, it was all the way back when Lyra first appeared in Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, where a picture of the port city was displayed during the documentary sequence. That was around 15 years ago now. Even Ludlow is affected by the passage of time.

Pokémon Masters EX today is launching a new Special Event as part of the Shiny Rayquaza Appears campaign that is being held across multiple Pokémon media, including Pokémon Masters EX, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and Pokémon UNITE.

Continuing on from the recent launch of the new Joyful Music with Everyone Story Event in Pokémon Masters EX, the new 5★ Holiday-themed Sync Pair of Bugsy (Holiday 2024) & Kricketune is making their debut today in a set of Seasonal Scouts. The Bugsy Seasonal Scout and Bugsy Seasonal Tiered Scout will both run until December 30th at 9:59pm (PST). The associated Bugsy Seasonal Featured Ticket Scout and Bugsy Seasonal Guaranteed Ticket Scout meanwhile run through to January 6th, 2025, at 9:59pm (PST).