Deck the Halls With All This Animal Crossing: New Horizons Holiday Joy!

Since I’m playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons with Northern Hemisphere settings I didn’t get that gorgeous snowy island landscape until this month. Now that it’s here I think I’ve fallen in love with my island paradise all over again. As the days passed, things have become more festive with the shops sporting Christmas decor and everyone’s favorite pup, Isabelle, decorating the cedar trees.

There’s also been an increase in DIYs, items at Nook’s Cranny, an entire winter clothing line at the Able Sisters, and something about snowfolk?

So let’s talk about it!

• All the DIYs!

The Falling Snow Wall is beautiful!

There are two kinds of DIY sets: winter and festive. The winter items revolve around using snowflakes while the festive items use ornaments. First, let’s delve into the materials and how to get them, then we’ll move on to the recipes.

Snowflakes: snowflakes are required to make winter recipes and come in two sizes: the standard size you catch with your net when you see it dancing around and large. From what I can tell, the regular snowflakes disappear if you miss catching them too many times with your net, but they spawn so much that you shouldn’t have a problem gathering plenty to make that snowflake wall or ski slope floor.

The large ones, on the other hand, require you to build a snowboy, which is… fine… I say through perfectionist gritted teeth.

Two snowballs will spawn somewhere on your island per day (note: take this time to catch the new December insect, the dung beetle, who will be around to roll up a snowball). I was lucky enough to have them spawn in an open path I have to my museum. You have to use these snowballs to make a snowboy, but it has to be perfect, otherwise, you’ll get nothing but ice-cold soliloquies where they tell you that you almost made it. If you make the perfect frosty good boy you’ll be given a DIY and a large snowflake. You can only make 1 snowboy a day and they retain their shape for 4 days, and no, there are no do-overs (unless you reset the game fast enough, I suppose).

Don’t think that means you’ll score 4 DIYs, no, you get the 1 from that particular snowboy and that’s it. The rest of the days, however, you can get 1 large snowflake as they dramatically melt away into the netherregions of winter. Now I believe your first ever snowboy will always give you a DIY and a large snowflake because it’s your first time and it deserves a reward, but after that, the rest of the snowfolk get real picky about how they’re made. Here’s a guide on how to make the perfect snowboy.

Unfortunately, the snowboys do, in fact, have the best winter recipes. If you’ve ever housed a penguin on your island you’ve probably seen the frozen counter or the frozen arch and said wish I could be part of your world. Stuff like that is from the snowboys. There are other recipes too, of course, that you get the old-fashioned way from balloons. Lucky for us, the snowboy recipes only require 1 large snowflake each instead of multiple large snowflakes.

Here’s a list along with how to get them and what you need to build them. Snowflakes are available up until 2/24/2021.

And now for all the snowboy stuff!

Baby’s first snowboy!

• All the toys!

By the time you read this you’ll probably have all the toys since they’ve been in the shop since December 1st and will be around until Christmas, but here’s a quick list of the toys and all their variations.

1. Dinosaur: comes in gray, brown, green, blue, and red. The toy is also semi-posable
2. Dollhouse: comes in red, blue, brown, orange, green, pink, and purple. The lights can be turned on
3. Kids’ Tent: comes in white, pink, black, blue and white stripes, floral, blue, brown, and colorful (red and yellow). Sadly, you cannot go inside the tent.
4. Mini Circuit: comes in red and white, blue and yellow, black and silver, and pink and purple. Can be turned on so the cars race each other and will keep going until you turn it off.
5. Pop-Up Book: the books are The Ocean Blue, The Mesozoic World, Savannah, and Flowers. Can be opened to show a pop-up image.
6. Puppy Plushie: comes in beige, red, lemon and white, spotted (white with black spots), black, tricolored (shades of brown), gray and white, and pink. Can be turned on so the pup barks and wags its tail. Will keep going until you turn it off.
7. RC Helicopter: comes in blue, red, yellow, green, pink, light blue, and purple. Can be turned on so it floats in the air but will come down eventually.
8. Tin Robot: comes in silver, blue, red, orange, yellow, green, pink, and black. Can be turned on so it moves (but it looks to move in place).
9. Set of Stockings: comes in colorful, cute, cool, chic, elegant, and natural. These get hung on your wall.

The only other thing I’ve seen in my shop is the round space heater, so I think this is everything! Shout out to my friends who have let me catalog things so I could be a multi-colored, toy wielding menace!

• All the clothes!

Sable has been BUSY this winter. You’ll notice the obvious holiday items like Christmas sweaters and dresses made to look like Christmas trees, but there are other items like various winter coats and ski jackets. It’s worth it to check your shop every day to see what’s available and get annoyed like I did when you realize the number of times you have to walk in and out of the dressing room to buy everything you want.

There’s also a complete Santa look which you may be tempted to pass up, but trust me, you want to buy it. It’s necessary for the next part:

• Christmas Eve event: Toy Day!

I need all of this.

Twas the night before Christmas, and I hope you’ve been talking to your villagers this month. I certainly have, nervous chuckle…

Actually, I’ve seen varying information on how this event works. One source says that you have to talk to your villagers throughout the month to find out what they want so you can give it to them during the event, and another says that you don’t have to do that at all. This one here says that you can give out the toys that have been in your shop, at the same time, it looks like you get the gifts from Jingle to pass out?

I know when I’ve talked to my villagers this month none of them really said anything about what they want for Christmas, nor have I seen any prompt about asking them? In conclusion, I’m gonna badger them endlessly until they either say something or tell me to go away, lol.

UPDATE: I started the game this morning and Jingle was already on my island! He had me make 3 festive wrapping paper sets (and gave me the DIY for it) and gave me the magic sack to start handing out presents! He also gave me a set of Toy Day stockings to hang in my house (and said something special might happen if I hung them).

He’ll be on the island until 5 AM so… I guess the event starts as soon as you start the game?

Oh, and he didn’t wait until I was dressed as Santa, either, but I’ve dressed up anyway lol. The villagers do react if you have the outfit on while delivering presents, which is really cute.

This guide here lays out the entire event and is the most updated one I’ve found when playing this morning. Happy Toy Day!

• All the rest!

These are items that don’t require any crafting, they’re either gifts you get automatically or stuff that’s available via Nook Shopping (yeah, remember that?)

1. Festive Wreath: given to you by a villager (mine came from Ruby the freckle-faced bun!)
2. Yule Log: in the mail from Nintendo
3. Mom Sweater: in the mail
4. Aurora Wall: Nook Shopping seasonal item until 12/31 in the Northern Hemisphere. EXTRA NOTE: There is a small chance that you’ll actually have the Aurora Borealis in your night sky! There are no extra benefits from seeing it (like when you have shooting stars) it just looks really pretty!
5. Midwinter Sweater: Nook Shopping seasonal item until 12/31 in the Northern Hemisphere

I hope you all have a wonderfully festive Christmas out on your islands. I also wish the same for all the characters who we can’t see taking a frickin’ break, like, can I please deliver a gift to Isabelle? Can Flick and CJ come by in Santa hats?

Can Blathers treat himself by taking my duplicate fossils for himself?

(Image: Nintendo)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—