I love these. I'm obsessed with the Christmas and Holiday themed downloads :D

Me too!

I'd love for them to make another Christmas stuff pack. Now that we can decorate our towns and not have it kept that way year-round (at least we can set them to not be up outside of winter in-game), I'd love to be able to go all-out.

It really disappoints me that they've already confirmed no Christmas trees. I wish we had outdoor Christmas trees, and a big one for the outdoor square!

(I'm still a kid when it comes to Christmas decorating. lol)

A big, two-story tree with lots of lights and a big star on top! (Who's from Whoville are optional)

I wonder what the Sims 3's Santa Claus (if there is one) will look like. Chances are, we'll probably have to buy him with Sim Points. :/

No Santa! Apparently, EA wants to appeal to everyone world wide.

The Sims 2 used to have a Holiday Stuff Pack that featured a santa claus Sim to go with the winter season. Though, I guess I can see the logic in not including Christmas since it may be a more religious theme and not practiced worldwide. But still, if it does have to do with religion, then why include Easter (saw easter egg hunting in the video)?

I think it's because, while Santa Claus and Easter Eggs both have their origins in Pagan religions, Santa is more overtly "Christmas", while egg hunting (or similar "treat hunting" celebrations) can just be considered "Spring". That's just my opinion, though.

Personally, I'm waiting for a mod that renames Snowflake Day into Hogswatch.

I've never associated Easter Egg hunting with anything other than Easter.

It's clear that EA doesn't actually follow any such logic with this. Santa Clause appeared in both of the first two The Sims games. They're probably holding him off for something later. I'm hoping it is a Stuff Pack.

Yes, it does seem odd that they would include Easter egg hunting for the first time, yet skip adding Santa Claus (Father Christmas, Pere Noel, etc.). We can't reckon that they're trying to avoid anything overtly Christian, as Easter is about as Christian as it gets. Most "holidays" are based or taken from Pagan feasts or celebrations simply because they couldn't get the Pagans to convert to Christianity any other way. Or so says the History Channel. In Sims 1 and 2, Santa was included with Holiday packs.

The modern concept of Easter is a "christian" holiday. However, rabbits, eggs, even the name Easter, are ALL pagan, derived from Spring Fertility festivals. That's why I think they kept the eggs, because they are a Spring thing. Like I said, just my opinion. It could have been something as simple as they wanted to keep the holidays generic, and couldn't find something else to put in for the spring one.

In The Sims 2, yes. However, in The Sims 1 the Christmas tree (which is the object that combined with the base game objects of cookies and a fireplace brought the NPC Santa) was either a part of the base game or a part of Livin' Large. I forget. Either way Santa did not come in a holiday pack in The Sims 1.



I know that these holidays were not originally Christmas, Easter, etc. But that was a loooonnnggg time ago, and it's not common knowledge. Hence why we still see "Jesus is the reason for the season" all of the time despite the fact that Christmas is really derived from a celebration of the winter solstice and the days becoming longer again.

The point being, Easter egg hunts are going to be associated with Easter, no matter where or when the practice really originated from. And, as far as I know, Easter is very much a religious holiday to people today. I could be wrong on that, but it is nothing like what Christmas has become... So the notion that we can have Easter egg hunting but not Christmas stuff like Santa is nonsensical. Again, EA has no consistency in this regard. They even used the word Christmas (*gasp*) in one or more of the Christmas objects they released for free on the store.

I mean the fact that they can add Christmas lights, and a celebration where we open up gifts (clearly advertising it as Christmas) but say they can't add certain things because they can't add Christmas objects is just annoying. I understand not adding religious symbols. But Santa is not a religious symbol. Nor are more Christmas trees.

As an atheist I don't even see what's so Christian about Santa (and yes I know about St Nick). He's practically a deity himself! He's got a godlike power to deliver physical goods to billions of people in 24 hours. The deer seem quite pagan. They magically fly FFS. All that seems like heresy to me. Santa's just a supernatural creature like leprechauns and underwear gnomes. Also, if they want to appeal to an international audience why are all the cities SO American?

Pity there's no reindeer since there's already deer!

The fact that he's a Saint makes it Christian. The fact that he does all those supernatural feats on what has been adopted as Christ's birthday also makes it Christian.

As to why all the worlds/cities look so American. Since they're based in California, it quite possibly is a slight fact that they have nothing else familiar enough to them to model something different. Or, perhaps, they feel if the worlds/cities aren't "Americanized" enough, Americans won't like it. That's only a guess, of course.

Easter eggs and Christmas Santa doesn't have anything to do with being Christian, nothing in those practices are religious, however they are perpetuated by the business community. You know, those that worship money and how to get the most out of consumers.

A second style has been confirmed!



Although I don't like it as much as the first style. I'm hoping that there are more to use. This leads me to believe that there will be. Hopefully we get one with the standard bulbs, like the type in The Sims 2.

Sorry about the second posting, figure it's okay after being days since the last one.

There is another set of lights. Hopefully there are more.

EDIT: Nevermind, I was ninja'd!

a few summer's ago, i went through that like crazy. and it sucked then because it was like august, but i had a bunch of christmas music on my computer and a bunch of sims 2 christmas downloads.




the santa claus could actually be considered religious. the holiday of christmas is christian and it celebrates the day jesus was born. and there's background history about st nick. my thoughts are that it probably definitely ties to religion. the holiday is definitely over commercialized though.

Because I am not a super religious person, other than respecting the work of a higher power. Some religions make a human a saint for whatever reasons, but I don't look at humans any more special than me. No disrespect to those that do, but I still don't find the season religious. Don't mean a thing to me except the businesses get lots of my cash and I love seeing the smiles on the little ones faces.

i was just saying it's a religious holiday. anyone can celebrate it and not be religious. i do too.

No point in arguing about it Christmas is different things to different people. Christian, pagan, commercial, cultural. Same thing with Easter and Halloween Nobody's wrong.

As for eggs but no Santa Claus, makes perfect sense... after all, the winter holiday has gift giving too. And the game presumably doesn't call those eggs "Easter eggs".



EA can hire artists from anywhere in the world... they're a multinational company. But they have to choose SOMEWHERE to base their design on, so why not where they are? We do have worlds which resemble other parts of the US, and other countries too, after all.

There are some other factors too... the suburban environment is ideal for technical reasons. You have houses that are far enough apart that you won't have to render too many sims in too small an area, which is challenging performance-wise... but not SO far apart that you'd have to have a giant world to accommodate a reasonable number of sims. American suburbia works perfectly here. (They created the illusion of a city in LN without sacrificing performance by limiting playable families to one per high-rise.) You do get that kind of spacing elsewhere in the world, but it does fit.

And as for geography, pre-seasons, there is perpetual sun. Fits Southern CA, but not that many other places I live in Southern CA myself... and, aside from three months in the winter when it MIGHT rain, it is pretty much like sunset valley (or even more like Starlight Shores)

I know what Southern California is like, I was born in Long Beach, CA. I lived there until 1998.

As far as the holiday thing. I didn't intend to argue the point and just let it drop.

I'm quite happy that it isn't explicitly Christmas: for me, Christmas is in the summer. In the country town near where we sometimes spend Christmas, Santa turns up on a fire truck (assuming the fire truck isn't putting out bush fires somewhere). I know most sims players are in the northern hemisphere and not interested in a summer Christmas, so I wouldn't expect it in the game, but I like that it's not being forced at the wrong time of year for me.

AWWW thats awesome! I was thinking just now that it would be awesome if we had Holidays in Sims 3 like Christmas, Halloween, Valentines day, etc.etc. imagine kids all dressed up and going trick or treat! or celebrating thanksgiving/Christmas, that would be totally cool!

We are getting those holidays but they're called, Snow Day, Spooky Day, Love Day, and Leisure Day! I believe thanksgiving is Giving Day or something like that, can't remember D:.

It looks like its roof only on those ones so maybe they come as roof decorations?
And maybe some in the buy mode for other places like doors, walls and such...

Thats what i think anyway haha :D