The Steam Winter Sale will kick off on December 22nd, according to PayPal.

A promotional email sent to PayPal members (visible below) revealed the sale ahead of Valve's official announcement (which tend to simply take the form of the sale commencing).

The online payment service has previously leaked other Steam sales in a similar fashion.

As for the nature of the sale, Valve has discussed its intent to phase out flash and daily deals in favour of broader, persistent discounts across the sale period.

No information about specific discounts has emerged, but occasionally the Steam database lets some information slip – so stay tuned.

Steam's winter sale is typically a bloodbath, with multiple publishers offering lucrative deals for the Christmas buying (and gifting) season.

Players should thusly be instructed to have a great holiday and to watch their credit limits.