FarmVille Brings More Holiday Cheer
It's been a whirlwind of updates since we covered the first round of holiday happenings in FarmVille. No blinking allowed in FarmVille, ever. This week there's a whole new slew of merriment. Get excited, I'm sure there's at least one thing that will bring you some good 'ole fashioned holiday cheer.
Thank You from Zynga
This week in FarmVille kicked off with FarmVille's Farmer Appreciation Week where FarmVille takes a moment to show thanks to its hard-working farmers. Double Mastery was in full effect until yesterday. Several holiday themed market items became available on the cheap with Farm Coins. You can still check those items out here. Everyone was gifted a free no-strings-attached Sleigh Ride Horse just for logging in and visiting our farms. Not one, but two Limited Edition holiday themed crops were released with Farm Coins- no Farm Cash permit required. The crops include the Snow Woman crop and Christmas Tree crop. Gasp! Zynga finally used the word "Christmas" to describe a Christmas Tree. Can you believe it? They also used the word Hannukkah instead of covertly referring to it by some other name. Recognizable terminologies that we can all appreciate-- a gift in itself. Moving right along, Market Stall and Crafting Silo expansions were added to give us more room for bushel storage. The collective capacity on Market Stalls is now at 900 maximum bushels. Much appreciated.
One of the other things that Zynga is doing is letting us know that they are listening to player feedback and the popular demand for more land. At the top of everyone's wish list is always more FarmVille land and preferably Farm Coin attainable expansions. Zynga released FarmVille Haunted Hollow farm's land expansions for Farm Coins up to the 36x36 expansion. Check out the Farm Coins prices here. They've also given elite FarmVille Freaks something to strive for- a new 50x50 expansion only available for FarmVille Home Farm. The 50x50 "Soooooo Big" expansion (count 'em six o's because it's just that big) is the largest FarmVille expansion to date. It currently is available exclusively with Farm Cash and has a hefty price tag of 280 Farm Coins. Remember, before you can purchase it, you must have already purchased all the prior expansions as well. Ouch.
It's nice feeling appreciated isn't it?
Holiday Over-drive
The countdown to Christmas is on and the holidays are in full swing. Many farmer favorites such as the Holiday Tree gift collecting and Santa's Sleigh have made their return to FarmVille for the 2012 holiday season. There are also some new features to help you maximize your gift collecting efforts and cash in on FarmVille freebies. Check out the highlights below.
All About Gifts
The Holiday Tree feature is back for 2012 and works the same way as last year. Simply place a Holiday Tree on your FarmVille farm and fill it with Gifts that you can send and receive with your friends. The best way to stockpile gifts is to send gifts to your neighbors and stockpile the return gifting. It's a surprise what's inside, well sort of, unless you like spoilers then you can take a peek of the 2012 Gifts breakdown here (no unwrapping required). Keep in mind, there is no official gift opening until December 24th, Christmas Eve.
The Return of Santa! Santa Clause is back in FarmVille with the Santa's Sleigh feature. Your old one from last year is no longer harvestable for Gifts. Instead, you'll get Farm Coins from the 2011 version. If you opt to build a shiny new 2012 edition Santa's Sleigh it will be happy to let you harvest it for extra Gifts to stash under your Holiday Tree. Out with the old and in with the new.
More FarmVille Freebies
As always, there's several ongoing FarmVille events such as escapades, challenges, countdowns, and quests that are readily available with fresh holiday rewards. Don't miss these events to snag some holiday themed FarmVille freebies.
Caroling Village multi-stage escapade found on the outskirts of FarmVille farm towards bottom.
Nick's Challenges in Mistletoe Lane exclusively. Nick continues his campaign for mayor. Click on his voting booth found on the top left corner of your Mistletoe Lane farm.
Around the World countdown offers sixteen days of holiday prizes, plus an exclusive bonus prize.
Traditions Around the World quest has nine parts and will be available for about two weeks (arrives Thursday afternoon).
We've seen the board game, now you can visit the virtual FarmVille Hungry Hungry Herd promotional farm. Find this farm to the far right of your in-game neighbor bar. Click on its icon to initiate your visit. No hard work here at all, just visiting the farm and scooping up a freebie, the Hungry Hungry Cow that resembles one of the board game pieces. Immobile legs, a grape stuffed mouth completed by a puddle of grape juice-- it's how I like my FarmVille cows. Something about it just makes me laugh, be sure to check it out for yourself.
 | Angela Morales created and manages FarmVille Freak, the largest FarmVille fan site, which provides news, tips and in-game updates for Zynga's Facebook farm game as it happens. She is also the co-author of FarmVille For Dummies book. Yes, it exists. |
