I just cancelled Winterfest

When I edit the major holidays like Christmas and New Year's, I always put Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve the day before. I only add activities I know I will do with my sims and would do for the holiday anyway. Christmas Eve is about baking, decorating the house and tree, and Father Winter. Just adding lights to the house meets the decorating activity. Christmas Day is opening presents, giving presents to each other and grand meal. You can have just one activity on your holiday, and as long as your sim does it you will get the benefits instead of the sad mood. The holidays are so much fun!

When I'm not in the mood for holidays I edit them into no tasks for that day, so when the holiday popped up, you may get a paid day off (if I have forgotten to unchecked), but no bad feelings. Also when I'm in mood again or changed the family I have still the holiday on the original day. With that method I follow my years ingame, with the big plus that a random holiday rarely comes up, the bad ones got eradicated on sight.

@SikoahGrace I like that approach and I use it too- I have a lot of grumpy single sims the day after Love Day for example, but I feel like that fits.
If a family doesn't celebrate a holiday themselves because it isn't their tradition, it can get annoying/depressing that all the rest of the world seems to be celebrating the holiday. A weak little Sad +1 moodlet seems fitting for that too.

(Easy enough to overpower a +1 sad moodlet with positive moodlets from something simple like a cup of tea or pretty decorations in this game, anyway.)

I tend to look at the calendar at the start of a rotation (about a week) to remind myself about work schedules and birthdays, so that's often when I notice Neighborhood Brawl and can delete it. That's the only one I don't want in my game at all. (I always agree to the popup that says it won't come around next year, but it always comes around next year anyway.)

"ModerateOsprey;c-18039189" wrote:
@Stormkeep Ah didn't realise you can edit them. Good stuff :)

I was hesitant about buying seasons, but I have really fallen in love with the way the world changes.

Yes you can edit them, you can add and delete traditions as you see fit, so you can have holidays with no traditions to fulfill at all if you want. So Winterfest for example you can remove the traditions you don’t like and replace them with some you do, or delete them all entirely and leave it up to you how your sims celebrate each time it rolls around. You can delete the holiday entirely too, and then move it elsewhere on the calendar, like a lot of Southern Hemisphere simmers remove Winterfest and change it to Summerfest or just Christmas but put it in Summer because it is a Summer holiday for them. Or you can just never add it back at all if you wish.

Also all of the edits you make will remain throughout the life of that particular save and apply to all households in all worlds unless and until you edit them again. So you don’t have to re-edit each time the holiday comes up. You do have to know you can’t edit a holiday while it’s in progress though. So you have to catch it before it happens, or wait until the season changes after it’s over to scroll through the calendar and edit it once it’s over. But you have pretty much complete control over the customization of them.

I edit most holidays. I tend to make it simple. For New Year's they just have to make a resolution. For most other holidays I have them do the holiday toast or drink or whatever it is called. Of course, since my sims don't party, this usually means they stand in the kitchen or the bathroom drinking several glasses of water till the holiday need is fulfilled. Me, evil? Nah! B)

I edit holidays all the time. I usually don’t play families, so I generally remove the Grand Meal and simplify Winterfest and Harvestfest to something a single sim living alone might do to celebrate. Some I remove altogether, like Brawl Day. I also delete or add in as I feel like playing the holiday, because sometimes I’m just thinking, “Didn’t we just do this?” I also have custom holidays like Sulani Heritage Day or ArtsFest.

"Elliandre;c-18039749" wrote:


Oh my gosh that is an amazing idea! In all this time I never thought to put a Christmas tree up on a commercial lot. Next time the holiday comes around in my game I will add one to my coffee shop and decorate it for Winterfest. Thank you for mentioning that. :smile:

What I do is save a version of certain community lots for each of the major holidays. That way when I holiday comes around I can just pull in the version specific to that holiday if I want/need to. The nice thing about doing it that way is you can take more time to really deck it out for a holiday if you want, knowing it's not a lot of work for just "one use".

We need seasonal lot markers back for commercial lots.

"EmmaVane;c-18039779" wrote:
We need seasonal lot markers back for commercial lots.

Yes, I agree. I'm a big fan of Seasons, it's the pack I'd pick if I had to pick just one pack for the game. The same was true in TS3 and in TS2.

Seasonal lot markers so that lots change automatically with the Season is the one feature of TS3 which I miss most in TS4. I know most people would pick "open world" but honestly, it's not even a close second for me.

"Stormkeep;c-18039764" wrote:

"Elliandre;c-18039749" wrote:


Oh my gosh that is an amazing idea! In all this time I never thought to put a Christmas tree up on a commercial lot. Next time the holiday comes around in my game I will add one to my coffee shop and decorate it for Winterfest. Thank you for mentioning that. :smile:

What I do is save a version of certain community lots for each of the major holidays. That way when I holiday comes around I can just pull in the version specific to that holiday if I want/need to. The nice thing about doing it that way is you can take more time to really deck it out for a holiday if you want, knowing it's not a lot of work for just "one use".

That is also great really idea! I will have to try it. I have got so many great ideas that have made the game so much fun just from reading the forum. :blush: