Pokemon GO holiday update brings back Santa Pikachu and a few frosty friends

It's been a very busy month for Niantic, the studio behind Pokemon GO smash-hit. Several updates hit Android and iOS devices in December, which brought loads of new features and improvements meant to keep players engaged.

The latest update comes just in time for the holiday season and brings a host of Christmas-themed changes. For starters, the festive Pikachu is back for a limited time, and he's bringing a few frosty friends in the form of Ice-type Pokemon.

Furthermore, Niantic announced that additional Water-type and Ice-type Pokemon that were initially discovered in the Hoenn region in the Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire video games will also be appearing in Pokemon GO for the first time.

But there's more, as the developer confirmed that as a special bonus, the first PokeStop players visit each day between December 22 and 25 will reward a single-use Egg Incubator with the first Photo Disc spin.

On top of that, special boxes will now be available in the in-game shop. These boxes will feature items like Super Incubators, Lure Modules, as well as the new Star Pieces, but only for a limited time (December 21 through December 25).

The new update is already available on both the Android and iOS platform, so make sure to download it and start hunting for those new Pokemon.