What’s New To Do In December & Winter 2022 For Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Seasonal Items & Events)

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The Winter and Holiday season is just around the corner in Animal Crossing: New Horizons as we enter December bringing new seasonal events and items to enjoy throughout the month!

In this article, we’ll cover absolutely everything new or noteworthy to enjoy during Winter and December 2022 in Animal Crossing: New Horizons including holiday events, limited time seasonal items, new creatures to catch, and much more.

Christmas Toy Set Items

Starting on December 1st and running all the way until Christmas Day, you can purchase eight different new Toy themed items at the upgraded Nook’s Cranny. They’ll be sold in the special seasonal furniture slot found in the bottom left of the shop.

Each item comes in a bunch of different variation colors and styles, but unfortunately can’t be customized by yourself, so you’ll need to visit other islands or trade with other players in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Alternatively, you can customize them with Cyrus and Reese at Harv’s Island as of Version 2.0.

What’s extra fun about these new items is that most of them have interactive toy-like elements to enjoy! For example, the RC Helicopter item can actually fly high up into the air.

You can view the entire Christmas Toy Set in our complete guide to the items here.

Winter Clothing & Accessories

Did you know the Able Sisters changes their clothing inventory in Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the Summer and Winter seasons? If you think you’ve seen it all after checking every day, expect to see a few new surprises starting on December 1st!

In the Northern Hemisphere, items like the Snowflake Sweater, Dreamy Sweater, Fleece PJ’s, Snow Knit Cap, and Patchwork Coat are just some of what you’ll find.

Plus, a couple new Christmas clothes will come into play for both Hemispheres like the Holiday Sweater and Festive-Tree Dress!

For our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, they can expect a similar introduction of new Summer clothes and accessories at Able Sisters! For example, the Bold Aloha Shirt and Sailor’s Tee will become available.

Winter Snowflake Items & DIY Recipes

While it’s possible to experience snowfall on your island at any time starting in Late November, the snow will begin to stick to the ground on December 11th in the Northern Hemisphere!

When this occurs on December 11th, new Snowflake seasonal crafting materials can start to be found floating in the air around your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You can catch them with your Net using some careful aim, similarly to Maple Leaves and Cherry Blossoms.

By using these Snowflakes, you can craft a whole bunch of different Winter Snowflake DIY Crafting Recipes like the Falling-Snow Wall, Iceberg Wall, and Snowflake Pochette. The recipes can be unlocked from flying Balloon Presents, as usual.

Thankfully, there’s not too much of a rush on collecting everything in the world of Snowflakes as you’ll have until late February before the snow goes away for Spring.

Learn everything you need to know about catching Snowflakes and see the entire set of Winter Snowflakes Recipes in our complete guide here.

Build A Perfect Snowboy

When the Snowflakes make their arrival as snow sticks to the ground, there’s one more special feature you can enjoy exclusively during the Winter season in Animal Crossing: New Horizons! Each day during the snow cover period, you’ll find two tiny Snowballs near each other in a random open space on your island.

You can kick these Snowballs around a bit until they start to grow enough to be properly pushed by your hands to roll into whatever size you wish. By pushing the two Snowballs together, a full-fledged Snowboy can be formed!

If you can manage to make two perfectly proportioned Snowballs for a head and body, you’ll build a Perfect Snowboy giving you a Large Snowflake and a special Winter Large Snowflake DIY Crafting Recipe. For three days after, your melting snowman can give another Large Snowflake.

These recipes from building a Perfect Snowboy are exclusive to building a snowman and all require a Large Snowflake — they can’t cannot be obtained from flying Balloon presents like the other Snowflake recipes.

Learn everything you need to know about how to build a Perfect Snowboy every time in our complete guide here.

See The Aurora Borealis

When the winter snow fully sticks to the ground on December 11th, alongside Snowflakes and Snowballs, you’ll be able to start spotting beautiful Aurora Borealis weather events on your island for the very first time in the Northern Hemisphere!

That’s not to say you will get to see one anywhere near that specific date as every island has a unique weather pattern, but there’s a good chance one will occur sometime during December for you, or in January if not.

If you’d like to know exactly when to look out for the Northern Lights on your island, we recommend trying out Ninji’s MeteoNook weather pattern tool. By inputting enough data, you can find a near perfect schedule of your island’s upcoming weather including Aurora Borealis and Meteor Showers.

Winter Solstice Items (+Summer)

The Winter Solstice seasonal event is celebrated in Animal Crossing: New Horizons from December 15th to 22nd every year in the Northern Hemisphere.

During this period, players in the Northern Hemisphere can pick up four special limited time items for the Winter Solstice from Nook Shopping’s Special Goods section including:

• Bathtub With Yuzu
• Tangyuan
• Aurora Wall
• Midwinter Sweater

The new Bathtub With Yuzu item is sure to delight fans with a relaxing aromatic Japanese inspired bath in their winter homes, and the Aurora Wall is arguably one of the most beautiful wallpapers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons!

As for Southern Hemisphere players, they can purchase a different set of four seasonally appropriate items including the Sunflower Crown, Sunflower Rug, Sunflower Sunglasses, and Maypole.

Christmas Ornament Items & DIY Recipes

Beginning on December 15th when the festive season comes into full swing, a new series of seasonal materials for Christmas will become available in the form of Ornaments! This applies to both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, of course.

Look out for select cedar trees on your island to be decorated in beautiful festive lights for the season, and give them a shake for a chance at getting a Blue, Red, or Gold Ornament item to craft with. It’s very similar to the Acorns & Pine Cones for Autumn.

After you’ve gathered some Ornaments in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, be sure to shoot down flying Balloon Presents to get the various Festive Christmas Ornament DIY Crafting Recipes available including the Big Festive Tree, Illuminated Present, and Jingle Wall.

You’ll have about three weeks to collect all of the Ornaments and crafting recipes you desire before they disappear after January 6th in the new year.

Learn everything you need to know about getting Ornaments and see the entire set of Christmas Ornament Recipes in our complete guide here.

Toy Day Christmas Eve Event

All of the new holiday items and materials in Animal Crossing: New Horizons we’ve already covered are leading up to this month’s big holiday event — Toy Day!

Held on December 24th for Christmas Eve, this festive event will have you meeting returning character Jingle the Reindeer from past Animal Crossing games as he comes to your island spreading holiday cheer to all the residents.

Jingle will start off by tasking you to get to work on crafting some Festive Paper with Christmas Ornaments to wrap up all of his presents.

Once you’ve crafted enough Festive Paper for Jingle, you’ll be given a Magic Bag stocked full of presents to distribute all around your island to every one of your villagers as you pretend to be Santa Claus.

After completing all of Jingle’s holiday work, you’ll receive a few festive themed rewards including the Toy Day Sleigh, Toy Day Stocking, Gift Pile, and Jingle’s Photo. You can also do gift exchanges with villagers.

For full details about the Toy Day event on Christmas Eve in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, check out our complete guide here.

New Year’s Eve Countdown Event

There’s still one more last event to experience in December, and that’s at the very end of the month for the New Year’s Eve Countdown! This event naturally occurs on December 31st every year with early decorations available starting at 5AM.

Later in the day at 11PM, the party comes into full swing with villagers crowding the plaza and the countdown music amping up. Light sticks, party poppers, and New Year’s Hat or New Year’s Silk Hat items are all available from speaking to Isabelle and Tom Nook.

Finally, a huge countdown clock is present outside counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds until the New Year — with a fabulous fireworks show celebration once the clock hits Midnight! You won’t want to miss this one.

For complete details on everything in the New Year’s Countdown Event, check out our full guide here.

New Year’s Nook Shopping Items

Separately from the New Year’s Countdown event held on December 31st, an expansive collection of other New Year’s Eve themed items are sold at Nook Shopping between December 22nd to January 5th.

There are five food themed items, presumably for enjoying at a New Year’s Eve party, available from December 22nd to 31st every year:

• Sparkling Cider
• Twelve-Grape Dish
• Berliner
• Olivier Salad
• New Year’s Noodles

Another six more items can be purchased during a longer period from December 22nd to January 5th every year:

• Yut Nori
• Kadomatsu
• Otoshidama Envelope
• Kagamimochi
• New Year’s Shimekazari
• Osechi

Finally, a special Zodiac Figurine item is available with the exact item sold depending on the year. For this year, you’ll find the Zodiac Rabbit Figurine from December 22, 2022 to January 5, 2023.

As an extra, the 2021 Celebratory Arch or 2022 Celebratory Arch items are available when playing in from December 22, 2020 to January 5, 2021 or December 22, 2021 to January 5, 2022, respectively.

However, it remains to be seen whether Nintendo will release a 2023 Celebratory Arch item or not, as there currently isn’t one in the game. If we had to bet though, it’s more likely they won’t given previous announcements about future updates, plus the already released future Zodiac Animals.

New Bugs, Fish, and Sea Creatures To Catch

As with any other new month in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the rotation of bugs, fish, and sea creatures currently available to catch on your island will change around in December starting now.

Perhaps most notably, the Dung Beetle becomes available in December on Northern Hemisphere islands. This special bug can only be found during winter times when snow has stuck to your island’s ground, which occurs starting on December 11th.

Other major adjustments in the Northern Hemisphere include the Pond Smelt and highly valuable Stringfish found at river clifftops.

On the Southern Hemisphere side, players can discover the beginning of Summer season with a healthy assortment of new high-value sharks including the Great White Shark, Whale Shark, and Saw Shark among many other additions.

For a complete list of New Bugs, Fish, and Sea Creatures to catch in December for both hemispheres, check out our complete guide here!

Well, that just about covers absolutely everything happening during December in Animal Crossing: New Horizons! We hope you’re just as excited as we are to experience all of these fun new additions in December. Personally, this season has always been my favorite time in Animal Crossing as it brings back memories of Animal Crossing: Wild World’s launch in December 2005!

Stay tuned to Animal Crossing World for everything on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, including our extensive Guides section here. Our most popular pages include What’s New In December, Redd Art, Snowflake DIY Recipes, Build Perfect Snowboy, Christmas Ornament DIY, Toy Day Event, December Critters, Bush Types & Colors, Villager Houses, Sea Creatures, K.K. Slider Songs.

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