Animal Crossing Players Are Making Amazing Christmas Islands

The treetops are glistening in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Snow came to Northern Hemisphere islands in Nintendo's village simulator earlier this month and players have used the seasonal change as inspiration for some incredible displays.

December saw the addition of new seasonal items, including a handful of toys that are sold on a special display at Nook's Cranny. Players can collect snowflakes, gather special festive DIY recipes, and even build a snowboy every day by rolling two snow balls that spawn somewhere on the map. If they do it with "perfect" dimensions the snowboy will reward them with special winter DIY recipes. Players have used the rewards from completing these activities to create a snowy paradise.

These new toy items, like dollhouses, are great for forced perspective displays. Players put small objects together to make it seem like they are far off. One player used all the color variants of the dollhouse to make a hillside winter village, complete with a horse drawn carriage at the base.

Seasonal items, like gift boxes and light-up reindeer, have been used to make Santa's workshop, holiday light shows, and snowy cabin getaways using the holiday items.

Some displays have repurposed items that have been around the game since March. A few players combined electrical poles and wooden swinging benches to make ski lifts. They positioned the items in front of each other at three different heights to simulate a mountainside resort.

The holiday items and recipes look fantastic, but can be difficult to get. The only way to obtain the snowflake and festive DIYs is to shoot down balloons, so players have to spend hours waiting for balloons to float over their islands. These recipes are only available between December 15 and January 6 for those who don't time travel, making the slog to get them worse.

"So tired of grinding balloons. I have spent so many days doing it for mushrooms, Fall stuff, and maple DIYs," said Redditor sweetpotatothyme. "It would be so much less painful if our villagers could be craft seasonal DIYs. Or at least throw us a bone and let them show up in a couple bottles a week."

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is nearing its one year anniversary and Nintendo still has more content planned for the game, including another update in January. It's been one of the biggest success stories of 2020 and it doesn't seem like the excitement around it will die down soon.