Happy Holidays! By now you’re hosting parties, buying gifts, sending e-cards—but if you’re in the mobile gaming industry, you’re more likely to be getting ready to manage a hit mobile game while all of your developers are about to leave for holiday vacation. Having been a games Product Manager, I know how this feels. Bah!

Hang in there, Scrooge. We know our developers deserve a break during the holidays. But what about our players? All of their grinding, leveling up, high scoring, and leaderboard topping allows for our businesses to thrive. And speaking of participation, Fast Company predicts 2 billion apps will be downloaded during the week of December 25. Not a time to leave them hanging.

As business managers of our games, we want to run holiday promotions and reward our players during the holiday season. However, faced with the iTunes app submission freeze (this year it’s 12/21), limited time to meet our end of year goals, and an empty office, what can we do? Add this to your list: Simple holiday promotions to engage our players.

Here are some ways to reward your players with more of what they love—playing your game.

1. Send in-game holiday cards to your players. Why not get creative and send a “Thank You” as an announcement to your players? If you already have an SDK like PlayHaven in place, this is just a matter of crafting an image and scheduling the announcement. Naturally, I don’t suggest using religious imagery but a simple “Happy Holidays, Thanks for Playing” goes a long way to put a real face of appreciation on your digital app. If you’re afraid of being spammy, only target your paying or most active players. Price tag: zero development with PlayHaven. More after the jump »