Holidays in Runescape

Ever since October 31 2001, special holiday items have appeared in Runescape. While they were not very well plotted, appearing some years and not others, in different holidays too, they were quite a surprise that was well received by the Runescape community. The earliest holiday items were tradable, and became extremely valuable over the years. Some of the first are sold at hundreds of millions of gold pieces, and are often signs of wealth. Later, holiday items became untradable, but the time in which you could find them increased, and it became possible to recover them if lost.

The first holiday item appeared on Halloween 2001. It was a number of simple pumpkins, which have pretty much disappeared for good, since most characters ate them, restoring 14 health. That same year came what would be the most valuable holiday drop ever. On Christmas 2001, Christmas Crackers were dropped all over Runescape. They required two players to pull, and one got a colored party hat while the other got a random item. Since they were only dropped on Christmas day, many people never even got them, and those who did wouldn’t realize their value for many years. Eventually, Christmas Crackers became the most valuable item in Runescape, selling at over 600 million today. However, they are almost obsolete, and even the mighty party hats are now a sign of wealth, selling at prices in the millions.

Now seeing that holiday drops were started, people began to expect more in 2002. This time, there was also a drop at Easter, the Easter Egg, which healed a small amount of health. More valuable is the Halloween Mask, which was a colored mask dropped only on Halloween. Their prices also skyrocketed in later years, making them another renown symbol of wealth. Finally, Christmas 2002 brought out the Santa Hat, which was added to the list of valuable rares.

But by now Jagex was taking notice of how players were selling these things for millions of gold pieces. Jagex had not intended the items to be pawns to economical earnings, but rather just to be something to add some fun to the holidays. So in 2003, Jagex stopped making holiday items tradable. Players went on the outrage, wanting to be able to get more, but with no success. The Easter drop, the Bunny Ears, were non-tradable. Players were unable to get another too, seeing a message telling them they only had one head to wear them. In Halloween, the scythe was available, and could be used as a weapon. It, like the bunny ears, was non-tradable. Things got so bad in this year with the non-tradable holiday drops that there was no drops for over a year!

Now in 2004, after missing a number of holiday drops, they finally returned in the form of a Yo-Yo for Christmas. Jagex also changed the way drops were received by having you talk to a NPC for the drop. The NPC would also be available for the entire holiday season, not just the holiday, allowing more people to get the drops. The Yo-Yo had the ability to perform some very cool tricks, including a walk, a loop, and a crazy throw.

Now the holiday drops were in full swing, requiring you to do a mini-quest to receive the item. In Easter 2005, players had to help the Easter Bunny hand out eggs to get the Rubber Chicken weapon. The eggs disappeared after Easter, but the Rubber Chicken could still be used. Having stats in the negatives, it is a ‘fun’ weapon meant for use in the Duel Arena. Halloween this year had players traveling to Lumbridge Swamp to insult a zombie. After being insulted, the zombie would lose its head, which the player would have to chase after. You could even have a little chat with your Zombie head once you had obtained it. Durring Christmas 2005, players painted ornaments for scarves and assembled marionettes for hats. The more they assembled/painted, the more scarves and hats they got, up to four different kinds. They could also get a different type of marionettes by decorating the tree at Varrock.

Easter 2006 had a very fun reward. After helping the Easter Bunny give out eggs, the player was rewarded with a Easter Ring, which allowed the player to morph into a small egg, which was quite visually enchanting. Halloween 2006 had the skeleton clothing, which was obtained by dismissing Geists (’Ghosts’) from Diango’s workshop. Players could also cut off roots of an evil tree in the workshop to get a Jack-o-Lantern mask, which could be worn. Christmas had players rescuing some children in Karamja to earn a Reindeer Hat, which had an emote to have players prance around. Members could also get a Wintumber tree to plant in their gardens that year.

2007 was also a good year, starting with the chicken suit in Easter. After helping the Easter Bunny save Easter (Again? He’s really getting behind on his work). The chicken suit also improved the flap emote. Halloween this year had you helping the Grim Reaper with odd jobs, including cleaning his house and checking a training area. Doing so netted players the Grim Reaper Hood and the Zombie Hand Emote. Christmas 2007 was quite fun, allowing players to build snowmen and throw snowballs. After building a snowman, you unlocked the Snowman Dance emote and was able to go to the land of snow. Getting the snow globe allowed players to fill their inventories with snowballs (even after the event was over). You could also build a snowman in the land of snow and outfit it with equipment to have it attack other snowmen, which was very fun!

Finally, 2008 started off with the classical Easter Bunny needing your help, this time finding three eggs and making a chocotrice, which you could command to fight in a little cave. Completing the event allowed you to turn into a giant easter egg and break out. The Halloween event had players dressing up and going trick-or-treating to earn candy. The trick animation could be learned, and once you had enough candy, Maggy the witch would give you either the Warlock or Witch outfit (depending on whether you are a boy or girl). Thanksgiving got its first event this year, being able to find a Cornucopia from turkeys around Runescape. You’d also get the Give Thanks emote to turn into one of your feathered friends. The Cornucopia can hold 14 points of food. Finally, Christmas 2008 had you taking a Snow Imp and looking for Jack Frost. After finding him, you needed to ‘fight’ him and eventually unfrost his dad, who is none other than Santa. Winning this event earned players the Freeze emote and a Santa Suit, which differed slightly between males and females.

If you lost a Holiday item that you had already found, you can get it back by going to Diango, who will have free copies of any non-tradable holiday item that you already found. If you missed one though, there’s no way to get it…

So the holiday items were well loved, and there’s no denying that they are a sign of being around for a long time, as well as the earlier ones being a sign of wealth. So enjoy, and maybe next holiday season, be sure to look for those holiday items!