IOI stated around the time of its release that Freelancer officially takes place after the one year timeskip at the end of Untouchable, and nothing has come up in that time that negates it. The whole reason 47 and Diana chose to continue their work and how also falls in line with what Freelancer provides us; a place where 47 can settle down and figure out who he is when he’s not working, but still pursuing his career. As the last chronological event to happen in the Hitman storyline, until another game comes along and shows that something else occurred after the two decided to join up again after Untouchable (which admittedly could happen), it is the current canon stopping point for the storyline.
I find it mind boggling that your mind is boggled about it. It’s called paying attention.
Seriously? Let’s think about it.
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The Holiday Hoarders mission is presented as a serious mission with the presence of the “teleporting” Santa the only thing out of the ordinary. Diana has a full mission briefing and everything, and the targets are just regular targets. Meanwhile, in the Easter Egg hunt, you’re just thrown into the mission with a brief description of what to do and you’re supposed to use eggs on people in costumes. It is not treated like a serious mission at all, and is more in line with the dream-like escalations in 7DS and Halloween.
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The Santa in question in the HH mission is revealed to just be a guy in a costume, as evidenced by the fact that you can knock him out and take his disguise, and like the lawyer from Sapienza and the director of GAMA with their wigs, the Santa beard is fake. The fact that Diana mentions in the briefing that there are reports of strange occurrences happening on the map means that this fake Santa is actively doing things that people notice, but since he’s not the real Santa and the mission is otherwise played seriously, the conclusion to draw is that the guy is using theatrics to act up the part, and the game mechanic presents it like actual teleportation even when it’s not, just like the gameplay mechanic of the ICA training facility treats those deaths like actual killings when they’re just “simulated.”
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The EEH, unlike HH, is played from start to finish as a fantastical mission rather than a serious one. Even in the serious missions, things that obviously don’t really happen in the real Hitman setting can be triggered just for the sake of fun, like the Kraken in Sapienza, and the UFO abduction exit in Berlin. These things are there and don’t actually happen, but the missions that they can be triggered in are canonical missions. Ergo, ridiculous things happening during a serious mission do not remove that mission’s canonical status. Ones like the Easter hunt, however, are not played seriously, and can only be considered as “real” canon events if they’re taking place inside 47’s head during a period of unconsciousness, like the entirety of 7DS.
Getting back onto the topic of the thread, these reasons are why, yes, the Undying can be considered a canon event, for anyone paying attention to how this series works as far as what can and cannot be considered canon.