Questions for the Hivemind: A Christmas Themed Game

First some background...

Over the years, I've read many blog posts featuring great and fun looking Christmas themed scenarios (for an example, see One More Gaming Project ). Encouraged by my success running a Halloween themed (well, zombie) game for family and friends in October, I decided to capitalize on the good feelings and run a Christmas scenario for them since usually, we don't have much to do on Christmas day after dinner.

I didn't have much of anything suitable for figures for the game - I really wanted some appropriately themed forces in addition to any "normals" that might appear on the table. A visit to eBay and a somewhat lighter bank account later, I had the core of my protagonists - some Memory Lane Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer figures.

For a scenario, I was thinking a "Defend Santa's Workshop" game, but 1) all of the players will be against me as the Game Master, so limiting my options as the defender makes things a little easier and 2) my players are of the "attack, attack, attack" variety. 

Also to keep figure painting and building to a minimum, a few select squads operating outside of the North Pole will be easier to cover using primarily the Memory Lane figures.

Here is a sample setup I threw down at lunch today just to test how things might fit on the table.

The final table will be far more holiday themed. Possibly in over the top fashion.

I'm planning on Santa's sleigh being shot down during WW2 (1943?) and the sleigh has landed in a German occupied village - a taste of Blackhawk Down. The village is held a squad or two (more accurately they are half-squads) and an MG team. Reinforcements in the form of the Waffen SS and some armor are on the way to pick up the sleigh for safe transport. The players will need to blow up the sleigh or try to drag it back to their baseline. There will be secondary objectives with blinds that include some that are just nothing - Santa, the reindeer, the presents, that sort of thing.

Credit where it is due, the skeleton of the  setup is based on Scenario H: A Sigh of Relief from The Men Who Would Be Kings - the sleigh is the "objective". 

For rules, I'm thinking a variation of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. and To Be Continued by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Fistful of Lead (FFoL) rules would be great, but I don't want to overburden the players with concepts they aren't used to gaming with - Shock and morale rules being chief among them. As role-players and video gamers they understand saving throws and hit points but they are used to handling their reactions to damage.

Though, I must say really do like the activation in FFoL and can see it working great in a multi-player game, so I can see stealing that and bolting it to some version of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

 

The Bumble will undoubtedly be a special "weapon" called in by the player controlling Yukon Cornelius. Probably some kind rampage rules after X turns or a failed Saving Throw by Yukon.

So anyway, that's the general idea.  

For the hive mind,  I have two questions:

1) If you've run or played in multi-player skirmish type games - when players control just a single squad, do you / they seem to prefer to activate the squad all at once, individually by figure, or say a combination, where a leader figure can activate the whole squad when they are activated? I realize it's all very vague because the rules are up in the air, but just looking for some general guidance.

2) Other than the characters and objective being themed to Christmas, are there any activities that you think should occur in or around the game that would be fun and capture the holiday spirit? The youngest participant is 10 (my son) and I am the oldest participant (we'll keep my age out of it!). Funny hats? Requiring singing a Christmas carol to get a bonus? Things like that. Anything involving props I can make to give to the players that their squads can find will go over well (several of the group are LARPers and live for that kind of thing). I just need ideas!

 Very many thanks in advance!