This year we have overhauled Christmas to bring a fresh new experience to Gielinor, from a brand new Seasonal Quest to a dedicated Hub area filled with festive whimsy - and even an incredible opportunity for all Members to get their hands on a piece of RuneScape history with a new partyhat! We hope that you all have a wonderful time this holiday in Gielinor.
A Very Merry Christmas
The Christmas Village consists of a few different activities to help get you in the festive mood! We've got:
- Get on Santa's Nice List and you could be the owner of a black partyhat!
- A festive new Seasonal Christmas Quest
- Christmas Village Seasonal Activities such as Ice Fishing and creating Christmas decorations
- A Christmas Spirit shop filled with classic Holiday rewards
- Santa's Lodge which plays host to the Nice List
- Not-so-secret-Santa gift exchange
- A Giant Present on Christmas Day
We'll discuss these in turn below - jump to a relevant section by clicking the list above, or just keep scrolling!
Introducing the black partyhat
For the first time since Christmas 2001, you'll have the opportunity to become the owner of a brand new partyhat by being part of a Christmas Event in RuneScape! The black partyhat is a very rare drop available each Christmas - but to have your chance, you'll need to be on Santa's Nice List at the Christmas Village.
The black partyhat is exclusively available through gameplay when receiving your gift at Santa's Lodge, and there are no paid routes to gaining it or acquiring additional chances at the Lodge. Read on for all the details on the lodge and how you earn those Nice Points!
New Seasonal Hub - Christmas Village
Glistening with holiday cheer the Christmas Village is a brand new area located in the Land of Snow.
Here you will find a whole host of jolly activities and seasonal surprises for you to discover as you work with Santa and the snow imps to help raise Christmas spirit across Gielinor!
To make your way to the Land of Snow you could use the portal in the Burthrope event area or better yet check the lodestone network for a new route to the Land of Snow for the duration of the seasonal update!
Seasonal Quest: "It's Snow Bother"
While spirits have been raised in the underworld, Christmas Spirit has been declining across Gielinor. Santa Claus himself has taken notice, and has tasked the Snow Imps (and you!) to spread some cheer! Lumbridge, Falador, Varrock and Fort Forinthry deserve a Christmas makeover, so get ready to deck the streets in tinsel and lights. Once everything is adequately festive, you'll also give Santa a hand delivering presents to various iconic characters from across RuneScape!
This quest will have the places mentioned take on a much more festive look for the season and these decorations will be returning each year to make Wintumber a more merry time of year. The Quest will return each year around Christmas - but as this quest is only available for a limited time each year, it does not award a Quest Point and is not required for your treasured Quest Cape!
Completing the quest will award you with the following :
- Santa's Little Helper Outfit
- Winter Scarf
- Winter Hat
- A Christmas override for Fort Forinthry
- 2000 Christmas Spirit (We'll talk a little later about what this is used for!)
- 3 Experience granting lamps
- Access to a daily repeatable present delivery activity for some extra Christmas Spirit
- Access to the present wrapping activity.
Speaking of Christmas Spirit, let's talk about how you can earn more of it - and what it's used for!
Getting into the Spirit!
Throughout the season you will be collecting Christmas Spirit via repeatable activities in the Christmas Village and you will get a chunk for completing the quest. You will be able to spend this Christmas Spirit on various seasonally themed items (some old and some new) at the Christmas Spirit shop run by Holly the Snow Imp.
Festive Activities
The Christmas Village has a variety of activities that can be repeated to help you prepare for the season! Each of these award the player with Christmas Spirit.
Decoration making
After completing the "It's Snow Bother" quest, players will be able to return to the village and offer a helping hand in craft decorations! Take the unfinished decorations from the nearby chest, use your crafting expertise to prepare them and then deposit the finished decorations in the other chest to gain some Christmas Spirit and Construction XP.
Ice Fishing
Fishing is a serene pastime and so the Snow Imps have cut a hole in the ice to catch some fish, help them out by fishing up frozen bass, salmon and trout then deposit them in a nearby barrel to earn some Christmas Spirit and Fishing experience.
Crafting Snowballs
When Christmas cheer is high, and snow is all around, a Snowball fight is never far away. Time to prepare! Craft Snowballs at the pile of snow near the oven for some cheer and Crafting experience.
Keep them close by, as every now and then Smokey the coal will appear from the oven and need some help cooling down. Pelt Smokey with snowballs to cool him off and bag yourself some bonus Christmas Spirit.
Catch Snow Implings
The keen-eyed among you in the Christmas Village and out in the rest of Gielinor may spot Snow Implings that have appeared around the place! They're slacking off their duties to help with the Christmas Spirit! Catching them rewards Hunter experience and Christmas Spirit along with some festive-themed food or maybe some coal!
Gifting Presents
After completing the "It's Snow Bother" quest players will be able to receive a present from Santa's sack each day and deliver it to an Iconic NPC for even more Christmas Spirit!
Christmas Spirit Store
So, with all that said, you're no doubt wondering what your Christmas Spirit will get you. Look no further! The Christmas Spirit store hosts rewards all themed around Christmas. New ones, like the Winter Hat and Scarf, as well as several classic items from previous years' events! This store will return each year with the Christmas Village so don't worry if you haven't been able to gather up enough spirit to get everything, you will have more chances every year!
Christmas Spirit is exclusively earned via gameplay by participating in the seasonal activities of Christmas Village.
You will also be able to purchase any letters you missed from previous days with Christmas Spirit!
| Item | Type | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Hat (black and orange) | Item | 2000 |
| Winter Scarf (black and orange) | Item | 2000 |
| Letter To Santa* | Item | 400 |
| Christmas wand | Item | 2500 |
| Santa beard | Item | 2000 |
| Santa sack | Item | 2000 |
| Tinsel scarf | Item | 1500 |
| Festive jumper | Item | 2000 |
| Christmas jumper (KBD) | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 2500 |
| Christmas jumper (Rudolph) | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 2500 |
| Snowverload Head | Wardrobe Cosmetic Cosmetic | 1000 |
| Snowverload Body | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 1000 |
| Snowverload Legs | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 1000 |
| Snowverload Snowstormer | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 1000 |
| Penguin outfit | Outfit | 3000 |
| Snowverload Ice Sickle | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 1500 |
| Ice amulet | Item | 1500 |
| Ice Staff | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 1500 |
| Ice Bow | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 1500 |
| Ice Sword and Ice Off-hand Sword | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 1500 |
| Ice Shield | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 1500 |
| Horizon | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 2500 |
| Portable Snowfall | Wardrobe Cosmetic | 3000 |
| Sparkles | Pet | 2500 |
| San'tar spawnling | Item | 2000 |
| Stringy | Pet | 2500 |
| Rudolph Reborn | Pet | 2500 |
| Merry | Pet | 3000 |
| Chaotic Cookery | Emote | 500 |
| Snowman Dance | Emote | 500 |
| Freeze | Emote | 500 |
| Dramatic Point | Emote | 500 |
| Seal of Approval | Emote | 500 |
| Rockin' Around the Tree | Emote | 500 |
| Cracker Pull | Emote | 500 |
| Ice Skating Champion | Emote | 500 |
| The Snow-drobe | Emote | 500 |
| Snowboard (frosty) | Item | 1000 |
| Snowboard (shark) | Item | 1000 |
| Snowboard (skull) | Item | 1000 |
| Snowboard (penguin) | Item | 1000 |
| Snowboard (2016) | Item | 1000 |
| Snowboard (2017) | Item | 1000 |
| Ring of snow | Transmog item | 2500 |
| Snow globe | Item | 2500 |
| Snowverload plushie | Item | 2000 |
| Sir Coalington Embers plushie | Item | 2000 |
| Santa-napped Teleport | animation | 2500 |
| Santa | Title | 1000 |
| the Merry | Title | 1000 |
The Land of Snow and the Christmas Spirit store will be available till midnight on January 7th and your Christmas Spirit will carry over between the years so don't worry if you didn't get everything you wanted!
Santa's Nice List & How You Could Find The Black partyhat
Just up the hill from the village, you will find Santa's own lodge! This is a cozy little cabin where he will come and give out gifts to anyone who's on his Nice List that week.
Each week will have a brand new Christmassy cosmetic to collect with some special features - including the completely colour customisable Peppermint Outfit and some warming Winter Hat and Scarfs! Did you miss a previous week? Just having one Nice Point will also get you any of the weekly cosmetics you missed from Santa's Lodge on top of that week's new cosmetics so no one misses out on any gifts!
- Week 1: Peppermint Outfit
- Week 2: Winter Hat (red and white)
- Week 3: Winter Scarf (red and white)
- Week 4: Winter Hat (blue and yellow)
- Week 5: Winter Scarf (blue and yellow)
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the Winter Hats and Scarfs are from a few different sources, that is because they are all different colour combinations but if you collect all 6 from various sources across Christmas you will be able to combine them into an Omni Winter Hat and Omni Winter Scarf and like the Peppermint outfit completely colour customize them!
The Black Party Hat
We also wanted to add a distinctly special 'Scapey moment to our Christmas festivities with the arrival of the black partyhat!
By having a Nice Point, you'll have the chance to get a drop of the black partyhat. All players who have collected a nice point that week are in with a chance, even if you're not there at the time! To be in with a chance to win each week you only need to earn 1 nice point by delivering 3 letters (more on those below), but for every point you have earned that week, you will be in with an extra chance!
The lucky few (and we mean few - this item will be very rare!!) will set off a celebratory set of fireworks at the Lodge and an anonymized broadcast that a black partyhat dropped on that World. Even if you're not lucky enough to get the black partyhat, everyone who earned a nice point that week will receive one of the Christmas cosmetic gifts from Santa!
As this is a first for us, we'll be closely monitoring the drop rate of the black partyhat to ensure it's just right - if we need to make any adjustments, we'll let you know. We'll also be ensuring any catchup Nice Points over the maximum of 7 each week will be applied at the same drop rates before any changes for equal fairness (no early bird bonus or reduced chance here!)
If you are unable to attend the lodge when Santa has arrived, you will find your gift in the Sledge just outside the grotto. The black partyhat can be won from the sledge, not just Santa himself, so check in regularly! If you miss any weeks, you can also acquire missed letters (including from previous weeks) at any time to make sure everyone can earn equal opportunities to find the black partyhat - regardless of your schedule.
Santa's Arrival
Santa will arrive at the lodge at 8 pm Game Time each Sunday and stay for 2 hours until 10 pm Game time. During this time players will be able to enter the lodge and collect their weekly gift from Santa!
Before he arrives there is a little bit of merriment - Santa is a real showman, after all! 30 minutes before the arrival a timer will appear to remind players the Lodge is opening, at this time the Snow Imps at the lodge will begin throwing out some white and blue presents (from the wrapping paper) which players can collect from the ground and open up. You will also be able to transform into a snow imp or snowman for a little extra fun!
Letters to Santa
Every day, players will be able to gather up 3 letters to Santa and post them in the Wintumber Postbox just outside Santa's Lodge to earn a nice point! You can earn these letters by:
- Speaking to Clementine outside the lodge
- Completing all of your Daily Challenges
- Passively while completing seasonal activities in the Christmas Village
*You will get 1 letter for each of these steps. If you missed a letter, you will be able to pick up a replacement in the Christmas Spirit Shop for 400 Christmas Spirit.
Secret Santa
In a generous mood this season?
Have a quick chat with "Not-So-Secret-Santa" at the Igloo in the Christmas Village and you can anonymously donate items or coins to your world's Secret Santa gift pool! The donations can be anything you’d normally be able to sell on the Grand Exchange, with the notable exception of Bonds. In return, you’ll get to draw from the prize pool once every two hours – and who knows what gifts you’ll get?
A Giant Present
Finally noticed that Giant Present beside the igloo? From Christmas Day, December 25th, until January 4th, you will be able to crack this open and see what's inside!
What Else Is Going On?
Beyond what is going on in the village, we'll have additional seasonal events going on too - including a Wrapping Paper Event, Advent Calendar, Weekly Buffs and more. Find out all the other going on here.