Do your Sims have a(ny) particular festive season(s) or similar? What do they do?

In my most recent custom 'hood, my Sims do Christmas but I plan to include more holidays soon, following Phaenoh's calendar.

I'll put out decorations for certain families but don't ever buy them gifts.

I use it as a good time to invite the extended family over for dinner and spend time with each other and catch up. :lovestruc I only do it for Thanksgiving and Christmas though. Never really cared much about New Years.

Don't really celebarate holidays in my hoods, that's one of the things I like in real life, but find not that fun in the sims.

Though maybe I should make up some holidays for them "National Orphalesion Day" "Orphalesion Appreciation day" "The Splendour that is Orphalesion Day" "Let's cower before Orphalesion and thank him that he didn't decide to play our neighbourhood as an Apocalypse Challange day", you know, just something like that.

Sometimes I set up holiday decorations for storytelling, usually for winter holidays like "Snowflake Day," plain ol' Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the like. Sometimes "Spooky Day"/Halloween and Thanksgiving in the fall. They're never really set up formally, just whenever I feel like it (it gets pretty funny when I celebrate a winter holiday on one lot, and the next lot has recently moved in, so they're still in summer :P)

Well, in my one hood the Mayor will throw a big party and invite all the VIP's in the hood (and they will have to attend, of course, it is the mayor). She will give them some gifts from her stuffed inventory, and they, in turn, will go and visit community lots and hand out these gifts to the poor
Some families and friends will have small dinner parties and exchange gifts, Santa will not be invited to all of them, though. Some families will have the annual family reunion.
Decorating? If there is space for something, maybe
In my military hood, the soldiers will party on as normal - which is really every day. They don't have space for Christmas trees, but some outings (it is work, of course!) will be organised.

I don't ever let the holiday season happen, because the snow slows my computer too much.
No holidays in my neigborhood!

I don't have holiday seasons in general, but my Test of Time neighbourhood has a Fall Festival, where the wealthiest Sim (measured at the Neanderthal stage in variety and quantity of fish) gains status, becomes a Big Man with a slightly larger lot and nicer "cave" than everyone else, and holds a potlatch in which he gives away much of his fish.

Snow does not equal holidays, if that was true us Aussies would have none! How about doing an Aussie Christmas, mid summer, the beach or pool and lots of salads. In game I have Christmas also mid summer because for us down here that is when it is. Please creators remember us poor Southern Hemisphere people, don't make everything about jumpers/sweaters we need some tshirts!

I try to. I have Phaenoh's Holiday Calendar and it helps remind me of any upcoming holidays for my sims! So my sims celebrate Xmas in winter, or will go on a hike during Halloween (closest thing to trick or treating). Considering my sims have longer life spans, it usually works rather well.

I have a festival for each season. I try to get all of my families on a community lot at the same time, (teleportation) and let them do seasonal activities. Like for Winterfest, there'es a town snowball fight, ice skating, going inside and drinking cocoa, then back out again. I do play real life holidays, but only during the actual real life season. I wouldn't be in the mood to break out the Christmas tree in June or dress my Sims for trick or treating in January.

I celebrate generic christmas-ish holiday in Winter, generic thanksgiving-ish holiday in fall, and then day long breaks from work or school in summer and spring.

My Sims always do Xmas and New Years, but not all families I make my around each year to those who have not yet celebrated. ( I keep a list of who and who have not )
But if the household have kids, yes they will get a visit from Santa.

Did Cat of Evil Genius ever make those Aussie short shorts? XD

I wonder what it's like to barbecue your Christmas Dinner.

Not really that spectacular, it's just barbecue that happens to be at Christmas. And not everyone around here does it either, my family never did.

That actually makes me wonder if my old neighbours from when I was a teen have gotten out their "Christmas decoration" consisting of neon signs of passages from Leviticus again...

And sun dresses, and new swim suits, and lovely sun hats with wide brims, and new sun glasses, and new beach towels too! Like Jo, I live in the southern hemisphere, but I live in South Africa, and it is high summer here. And it only snow on a couple of high mountain tops in winter anyway

My Mum bought me a Christmas T-shirt as one of my presents today, Jo, and it totally reminded me of you and this thread! :-D It does have long sleeves, though, so still not really Australia-friendly.....

I would quite like to see some Christmas-themed summery clothing for people whose sims celebrate during the summer as well, though. If any of my sims ever visit Twikkii Island during the festive season they could definitely use some festive T-shirts!

Some people do wear long sleeves against the sun though, so it could be used when it isn't boiling. Christmas was only 31C, so it was quite pleasant. It's the day after Christmas here now, Boxing Day.

When I remember to, i really like to have Christmas for my sims! I love the tree and santa! I think I may have done the new year's party a few times as well. Generally, except for weddings I am bad at remembering to throw parties even though I enjoy playing through them!

Mentioning Santa, plus my watching "The Santa Clause" on Netflix this evening (unsurprisingly, like many ostensibly "kid-movies" that I only saw as a kid until re-watching recently, there are lots of jokes I didn't get watching it years ago! ) raises what could be an amusing question: How do your Sims address the question of Santa Claus with their kids, especially for those of you who play a neighborhood without supernaturals or magical occurences? The fact that Santa exists in the world of TS2 means that it can't be the same exact approach used by parents IRL, either of making it an exercise in imagination thing for young kids, or just using it to explain the nature of things that just have to be taken on faith or disbelieved altogether, yet without some headcanon to explain it, Santa really doesn't fit with a non-magical 'hood.

Generally in my 'hoods (which do include some supernaturals, most notably aliens, sometimes witches/magic users) Santa is basically just another supernatural sim, I guess. If I ever played a 'hood without supernaturals (or where I wasn't willing to have a supernatural Santa for whatever reason) I would probably head-canon the "Santa" who comes when you have a Christmas tree and make cookies as being a sim dressed as Santa who has been hired/asked to pretend to be Santa and come and visit the household's kids. I would ignore the fact that he just materialises (I think?) and assume that the parent(s)/carer(s) had somehow set things up to make it appear magical and exciting for the children. I don't bother with Santa visits unless a household has toddlers/children, and I don't bother with them for all of those households anyway, so I guess that Santa could conceivably be being paid to appear. If I was playing an integrated 'hood I could even have a sim whose (winter) job was to dress up as Santa and work in a shopping centre grotto or something, and then pretend that he did the evening Santa jobs to make some extra money, seeing as he already owned the Santa costume! :-D

In SimHampton, Santa Claus is a regular (NPC) Sim, just like the social worker or the computer delivery guy from earlier legends*). He has no special powers and is better-known to most Sims as one of the political commentators on SimHampton TV. However, the commentator in question is never clearly seen on camera (a variety of camera tricks and costumes are used to ensure this happens) and is careful not to laugh and be super-serious while deploying his TV persona, so only his colleagues have any idea that Santa Claus is a well-known (if not exactly well-loved) TV personality. The TV station pays for all the presents and the hire of reindeer, because the goodwill generated by the event benefits them as much as anyone else. Unlike in real life, the Sims of SimHampton do not believe he necessarily shows up at midnight or requires all children to be in bed to avoid any "naughty lists".

The main problem is, invariably, convincing the people of SimHampton to invest in fireplaces, given that Sims have well-known difficulties in stopping cinders from jumping the line...

(SimHampton has a lot of supernatural elements, but I find it amusing to have this completely non-supernatural element amongst them).

* - "Computer delivery guy" is modded out but his computer is buyable at the regular price from the catalogue in my game.

When I first got TS2 I did every holiday as they rolled around. Doing this in the time frame as the game, it gets old after awhile. I finally turned aging off, put my seasons to the time of year it is (but leaving out winter), and now play Holidays as they roll around on the calendar. Who gets to celebrate? The families I play on that Holiday. Birthdays are celebrated once a year (I grow them up when it is their time). My sims live very long lives and only see snow when taking a mountain vacation. And I agree with joandsarah77 snow does not determine Holidays.

I live in North Florida, which rarely gets snow. I have seen snow in Florida 4 times, but I did live in upstate New York and know what "snowed in" means. My sims seasons are Summer, Summer, Spring, and Fall. The only thing I ever wonder is if everyone plays their game to their own climate?

I generally do, yes, unless I'm playing a themed 'hood of some kind. I do always tend to use Northern hemisphere seasons, one day I want to make a 'hood where they will be celebrating "Winter's Day" in summer! :-D