Christmas update to Act 2 Prizes was unfair!

sandrakillett wrote:
not only didn't I get the gingerbread house finished at level 5 but I also didn't get any reward for the characters that had been in overnight nor did I complete act 1 and, therefore, did not receive the 20 donuts prize!

I think there is a misunderstanding about how the 20 donut prize works. You get 20 donuts for completing every task in the weekly challenge. For more information, see the weekly challenge guide here http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/10384665.page

There is still time for you to complete two weeks of challenges and get 40 donuts. These challenges are independent to other activities in the event, so completing the ginger bread house or completing act 1 would do nothing to obtain the 20 donuts. Be careful next week, the time table for the last weekly challenge appears to be shorter than usual http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/10388593.page

There also seems to be a misunderstanding on how event task work in general. The timeline is for when you have to have a task completed by, not just started. Sometimes EA extend events or let you collect after the fact, but that is not something to count on. It's best to pay attention to the event timer and budget your time accordingly.