The countdown to 2012 is on, and Microsoft is attempting to make these final days count with a twelve day holiday sale on Xbox Live. From now until December 31, the company is holding daily deals on Xbox Live Arcade games, avatar items, and other goodies, kicking off with today's half-off sale on Bastion.

On now for 600 Microsoft Points, Supergiant Games' action role-playing game is the first of a dozen games that will be featured individually over the next week and a half. The 12 days of game promotions is part of Microsoft's overall holiday promotion. That is, on top of the daily game deals, XBLA'ers have until January 2 to score big discounts on other games like Avalanche Studios' Renegade Ops (now 600 MSP), Sega's After Burner Climax (400 MSP), Majesco's BloodRayne: Betrayal (600 MSP), and Valve's Portal: Still Alive (600 MSP), to name a few. Deals on Avatar gear, game add-ons, and XBLA memberships are also on offer.

Assuming you even have money left over from the umpteen other holiday sales going on, Microsoft's latest promotion might be a good excuse to catch up on the XBLA games you may have let slip. Keep an eye on the daily deals on Major Nelson's (aka Larry Hyrb) Twitter feed.