Once again it's that time of year...Christmas! We know that not everyone celebrates Christmas, but we'd like to wish you all Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Joyous Kwanzaa and/or whatever else you may celebrate. If you don't celebrate anything, we hope this winter is your best one yet :)

We've opened another new village for your enjoyment- Polareia Borealis. Here you will find most of our holiday modules, from the Ice Hotel to the Dreidel game at the peanut stall. You can also try to build the best snowman in all the wizarding world! Or maybe you'd just like to visit the Ice Castle!

We also have opened a Holiday Gift shop which can be found in each village. This is the place to go to buy your family, friends, and even rivals presents for the holidays. The gifts can be opened starting on Christmas Day (December 25) at the fireplace in your Common Room. You will have until December 31 to open them all. In the meantime, you can visit the Fireplace inside your Common Room to check to see how many presents are waiting for you! Everyone will receive at least one present so be sure to open yours on Christmas Day! (NOTE: Some of you may see references to Valentine's Day at the Fireplace. Just ignore it and pretend it says Christmas. xD It's just a typo and doesn't affect your presents.)

In the past we have had a few problems with players being nasty to each other with the Holiday Gifts Anonymous Sender feature. This year, we have in place a security measure to ensure that no one is truly anonymous. Although the recipient of a not-so-nice gift will not know who the gift is from, the Staff will know. Those that send nasty messages through the Holiday Gifts will be dealt with in the same way as if it was said in chat. Offensive messages on gifts can be reported by petition, just like offensive owls, through a link in each gift.

For a little friendly House competition, each House has been given a Holiday Tree to decorate. Players can go to their Common Room and help decorate it by using forest fights, gold and/or gems. The House with the best tree at the end of the year will earn the House buff for the entire month of January.

We hope you enjoy these new features and once again, Happy Holidays!