Christmas 2011



During the Christmas 2011 season, Aywas released the seasonal Adventure area Holiday Lane and let players explore there to collect Candy Canes and Snowflakes which could later be traded for items and pets at the Seasonal Shop, as well as many seasonal pets and items.

The Holiday Tree was created as a way to give gifts to other users, and Advent Calender was active daily.

Platinum Breeding Coins were released December 11, 2011 to be sold in the Cash Shop for 85GP for 2 weeks (from 11th December - 26th December 2011). More holiday-themed items were released into the Cash Shop on December 16, including Stockings, Holiday Breeding Coins, Holiday-Colored Coal and Tiny Giftboxes.

On December 21 and December 23 the BP Shop was stocked with special seasonal items.

On December 18, users could collect special Belsnickel bells to put toward a Christmas Museum collection. On December 21, a seasonal set of Plushies were released along with a Caroling game where users could sing carols to other users to collect points toward prizes.

To celebrate Christmas day, on 25th December users were sent the items Winter Star and A Magical Christmas, the keys for the 'Unlocking Christmas' feature were released into Holiday Lane, Elaborate Present and Platinum Breeding Talisman were released in the BP Shop and all GP purchases had an extra 50% free.

The Seasonal Shop opened on January 4, 2012.

Four Christmas shopkeepers were released on January 8, 2012 and could be created using a Snowman Capsule available in the Trash for Treasure shop for a month.

Candy Cane Custom Crystals and Candy Cane Custom Orbs were released into Holiday Lane for 24 hours starting January 11, 2011 at 12:12am.

Holiday Lane
Holiday Lane was an Adventure region released on December 1, 2011. It featured many of the same items as the Holiday Forest from December 2010, including Candy Canes and Snowflakes. It was scheduled to close on January 11, 2012.

Candy Cane Custom Crystals and Candy Cane Custom Orbs were available in Holiday Lane for 24 hours starting January 11, 2011 at 12:12am.

Cash Shop
Special holiday-themed items were released into the Cash Shop on December 16, 2011. They included some items from Christmas 2010, but also some new items. Platinum Breeding Coins were released December 11, 2011 to be sold in the Cash Shop for 85GP for 2 weeks (from 11th December - 26th December 2011).

Special items for sale in the Cash Shop:

BP Shop
On 21 December, 2011 and December 23 the BP shop was stocked with special Holiday-themed items which were available until January 1, 2012. On 25 December Elaborate Present was released into the shop, and Platinum Breeding Talismans were released for 24 hours to reward those who were online on Christmas Day. Special items for sale in the BP shop:

Seasonal Shop
The Seasonal Shop officially opened on January 4, 2012 although it was stocked for days in advance but needed several revisions before the official release. The shop currency was Candy Canes, Snowflakes and Snowballs.

Holiday Tree and Gift Giving
The Holiday Tree was a way to give presents to other users on Aywas. You could select a specific or random user to give a gift to, and could give either an item or a pet. The gifts couldn't be opened until December 25, 2011.

Additional to the Holiday Tree there were official forums for gift giving from the Aywas staff. 12 Days of Christmas - Santa Wishes allowed users to post a wishlist and users would be randomly chosen to receive their request.

31 Days of Christmas - User Features was open to nominations for users who had contributed to the site. Users who were chosen would receive a gift from staff as well as a special user spotlight. Featured users were:
 * Cheshire (#5252), December 1 for her Adoption Center Contest
 * Shadowfiles (#9437), December 2 for creating and maintaining the Aywas Wiki
 * Rae (#10736), December 3 for her wishlist and chat thread
 * Chlo3 (#29599), December 4 for returning BP from a mistaken auction bid
 * Hiiro (#755), December 5 for her friendliness and helpfulness in the forums
 * Chianya (#12264), December 6 for her Newbie Adoption Center
 * Alexina (#352), December 7 for her generosity in giving Christmas gifts
 * Siilk (#25326), December 8 for her advice and contributions to new site members
 * Kat HRB Santarina (#80), December 9 for her generosity to her friends
 * Malicus (#30617), December 10 for figuring out an Explore glitch
 * Kaze (#989), December 11 for her "Love Your Life; Live Your Dream!" thread in the Yay forums
 * Lala-Elf #2782, December 12 for her forum promoting self-esteem
 * Nilaa #5880, December 13 for her pick-me-up messages on user profiles
 * Beer #728, December 14 for her many site colorations
 * Daenerys (#18246), December 15 for giving away free customs and custom designs
 * Adiel (#18786), December 16 for her generosity to new members of the site
 * Serith (#9483), December 17 for his Favourite Custom of the User Above You and Compliment the User Above You forum topics
 * Sir Christus (#8130), December 18 for donating BP to new users
 * Zephy #215, December 19 for her site breedings and many donations of items and designs
 * Phuzzaphobia #29978, December 20 for her free custom donations
 * Cosmos (#25837), December 21 for her Christmas custom design giveaway forum
 * Rain Bullet (#409), December 22 for her acts of kindness to strangers
 * MARC (#1364), December 23 for his friendliness during Scav Hunt 2011 and sociability around the site

Advent Calendar
The Advent Calendar was also used to give out prizes. Below is a calendar of all the advent prizes given out during December 2011.

Shopkeepers
Four Christmas shopkeepers were released on January 8, 2012. They could be made using the item Snowman Capsule which was available in the Trash for Treasure shop for 1200 Trash Points.

The four shopkeepers were:

Belsnickel
The Belsnickel page was released on December 18, 2011. It celebrated a German tradition. Users could collect a bell every two hours over the course of the day, and a full collection of seven could be submitted to receive a Holiday Silver Potion.

The seven Belsnickel bells were:

Plushies
The seasonal Plushies were released on December 21. There was a set of seven which could be exchanged for a prize on 25th December. Three - Ice Switch Soli Plush, Decorated Ryba Plush and Peppermint Vyne Plush were only available through the Advent Calender while the other four - Candycane Corra Plush, Winter Coat Woolith Plush, Snow Worm Chorlu Plush and Flurry Fens Plush were available for BP from the Plushie Shop and later Candycane Corra Plush, Winter Coat Woolith Plush and Snow Worm Chorlu Plush were available in the Seasonal Store. The full collection could be submitted in exchange for a TV Christmas Dinner. Plushies in special collection:

Caroling
The Caroling feature was released on December 21, 2011. Users collected one carolling energy every ten minutes and used it to sing to users who were currently online, with a maximum of four energy possible at any point. Users were awarded a note every time they sung, and the notes could be exchanged for prizes. Each prize could only be claimed once per account, and the notes had to be in the right order. Carolling while having three notes already would bump off the left-most note. While unwanted notes could be deleted at any point, new notes were always added to the right, thus it was not possible to add notes to the beginning of a song.

Each of the three songs cost a variable number of carolling energy points. The one point song mostly gave green notes, with a few blues. The middle song cost two points, and was most likely to award a blue or green note, rarely a red and very rarely a gold. The most expensive song at three points could only yield blue, red or gold notes, with red the most common.

The four kinds of notes were:

The available prizes were:

Unlocking Christmas
On December 24th it was announced that Christmas Keys and Elaborate Christmas Keys would be appearing in Adventure for 24 hours only, on December 25th. Those that accumulated enough keys could unlock up to three Holiday Doors for prizes. The regular keys appeared loose on the ground, while the elaborate keys were in chests or from random pet events. Both types could be purchased from Merchants as well.