UPDATE BUNNY 1/9/15: More on this in a large post coming. Date HAS been confirmed to be extended to the 18th!!!
Hey there Hoppereenos.
Christmas is in our towns. The snow is falling. The Elves are running amok. You are trying to figure out what to do with all the gifts. So naturally that means you want some kind of guide or Calendar to help you get an idea of what totals to strive for each day to get all those Personal Prizes. 
We will have more info coming on how to hit these targets each day Math wise, but here is at least a general idea of where you want to be at the end of each day. Now due to the build time and tasks needed to launch the event in full swing, I started the collection a day AFTER it started (12/25) and end it a day BEFORE it is set to end (1/13). This will ensure you have it all collected before they shut it down. Also keep in mind you will progress as the game goes on, so you may not earn a lot at first, but that will change as you level up the Canon and increase Bell Collection. 
(Tap on Image to see it enlarged)
So basically around 1,184 Bells collected each day to get you where you want to be BEFORE the event ends. A little less if you started on day the Event launched. As you can see…there is just 4 short on the final count…but you can make up for those on any of the days prior.
Now for the breakdown of the prizes…
| Gifts Earned | Prize Unlocked |
| 1,000 | North Pole |
| 1,700 | Canon Control |
| 3,700 | Elf Bottler |
| 6,500 | Sequel Stop |
| 10,100 | Annual Gift Man |
| 13,800 | Little Helper Ralph |
| 17,700 | Spruce Caboose |
| 22,500 | Tropical Island |
Now what comes AFTER you get all the Prizes? Well, FREE DONUTS of course!! In the usual fashion, as you keep earning gifts you will eventually hit a point you will get a chance at the 3 gift boxes. This case it is every 4000 extra Bells earned.
So every time you hit an EXTRA 4000 gifts, you take a chance to tap on a box to see if you get 3 donuts inside. If not, then you can collect the 1 or 2 or pay $50,000 to keep trying til you get the 3 Donuts. 
(I tried my usual trick of pressing and holding on the far right box until the lights cycled to hit 3. It worked a few times. Worth a try.)
Again, you WILL earn more Bells as you progress so do not let the numbers get you down. Each level hit helps out more and more and more. (Elf Bottler, Canon Control, Level Up Canon, Tasks Completed, Etc.)
There you go. A calendar to keep you on track, some details on where the prizes award, and a bit info of what to expect after all the prizes are won. What do you think so far? Where are you at? Liking the prizes? Let us know.
~Bunny
(In Comicbook Guy voice) I *will* be winning the spruce caboose barely but I will never patronize said establishment. Worst island ever.
So by “UPDATE BUNNY 1/9/15: More on this in a large post coming. Date HAS been confirmed to be extended to the 18th!!!”
We have till the 15th to collect the bells??!?!! I hope so, am about 1500 bells away😕
See this post…
http://tstoaddicts.com/2015/01/10/glitch-updates-event-end-date-and-more/
I love this event. For me it was very hard to get all the prizes as I couldn’t play the game for 4 days. I had only 13 friends and that wasn’t enough. I added one week ago 20 more friends. I had to play very tight and finally I will get the island tomorrow some hours before the event is ending 🙂 Very exciting!
It would’ve been more thoughtful for EA to discount the Christmas items that some didnt get, like an after Christmas sale. It is almost Valentines day after all.
I’m so glad I got the island ’cause on NYE I broke my arm. I tried my best and I succeeded. At least I barely missed a Minute!
3MJB
I just got the tropical island and had to send homer to it, but when it ended, I didn’t have any other quests. Is that the only one there is?
Yes. Short and sweet.
Did anyone notice that if you tap the cannon control building at a friend’s town it sows you the cannon level? I can prove it, Wookie, your cannon is on level 14.
-3MJB
I’m not struggling with bells. Two gifts left and I only have four friends that are tappable. I think it’s the amount of elves being fired. I’m sat on just over 2000 at level 21 with no other tactics, no cheats and no money spent. *****
Did you mean 2000 or 20000?
Worst event ever. Why are we still talking about elves & Santa in the middle of January? ??
So is it the worse as it is still going? Because I am quite enjoying all the Freebees I have gotten. Including donuts.
Just really bored with this event. My bottle zapper thing works but not a fan of it. The prizes I didnt think were that worth it (although Helper Ralph was very cool!). Its dragged on a bit & now to see they are extending it… *yawn*
Christmas is for the month of December not all of Jan as well. You can start buying things in the shops from September so therefore the Christmas break is from Feb to August – 7 months… just tired of it all really.
I’m really curious to find out why some people are hiding there elf caves? Sometimes it takes forever to find it. I started phase 2 about 5 days into the game and really had to make sure that I get double points from neighbours visit. Putting the cave near the cannon really is the best option for everyone.
I’ve wondered this, too… Just so annoying to me, lol. I’m guessing they just haven’t thought about it?
At first I found it really annoying, too, but then I turned it around in my mind and decided to look at it two positive ways…. 1) A lot of people won’t bother to hunt for it, so it’s more likely that it will be tappable when I get there. 2) In a game that really doesn’t offer much in the way of complex interaction, this kind of adds a “Where’s Waldo” gameplay element.
That said, I long ago started keeping a “cheat sheet” listing where various neighbors with hard-to-find caves were keeping them, especially for times when I’m in a hurry (or am cycling through for the umpteenth time that day, since I just keep going round and round until I can get double bells for all 120 taps).
Hard to believe no one has mentioned how to upgrade the cannon from LVL 14 to 15 takes 1080 DONUTS!!!!! I would speculate to get to level 20 and the appearance change would easily cost 7000 donuts (from LVL 14).
Some folks have expressed this. Even the dialogue stated the cannon is rigged for donuts and that we’re all cheap. EA is right and I wish it had been possible but that’s just the way it is. A miss on EA’s part but oh well.
But why would anyone do that?!? It’s not like having an upgraded cannon is that big a deal.
Got my final bell prize this morning, Jan 9. No donuts spent, but I did hoard elves for about 1 week of play time so I could get better bell value for them. Based on my remaining bank and the elves that will generate between now and the end of the event, I should be able to hit the donut bonus once. I still have an elf deficit of about 150 elves, but I’m not too fussed about it at this point since I have cleared the prizes.
When visiting neighbors, I only tap elf caves and cannons.
My cannon is currently level 14, I expect to be able to get enough cogs to get to level 15 before the end of the event. Based on my observation of neighbor towns, level 14 is roughly the maximum you can expect to be at right now without using donuts for cogs. (I have been looking at neighbors’ cannon levels via the control building, and my first tap through today was when the 14s started popping up.)
I’m on level 15, but I fail to see how it helps me, considering it just shortens the cool-down time. Would have been nice to just have the top levels be a +1 for the elf-bottles shot!
Is there a walkthrough available for part 2 of this Christmas update? I am no longer generating tasks for characters, the only remaining holiday task is to update the elf canon (x/20 times). I just want to make sure I’m not missing something. Thanks!
Yes, here’s the link 🙂
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/12/26/turbo-tappin-christmas-2014-phase-2-project-after-party/
I was reading through the comments on here and people are pissed that there are not enough elves. Firing elves alone will not get you to the tropical island.
I’ve upgraded my cannon to where it now has a cooling time of 2 hours 30mins, is firing 12 elves at a time and giving me back 6 bells per elf. That’s 216 elves every 3 rounds on the cannon. I log on the game in the morning, before I head to work. There’s plenty of elves (all night to regenerate, plus 4 from the elf portal), actually more than the 36 required for 3 rounds of the cannon. 216 elves. Good start to the day. When I get back from work, I clear the town of elves which gives me enough to fire the cannon 9 times (3 rounds) before I go to bed again. So altogether that’s 864 elves from the cannons alone. Not enough.
The key is visiting all your neighbours, and only click on THE CANNON and the ELF TUNNEL on each town for double bell payouts. If there are no explosive or bell symbols above them and you can’t tap them, move straight on to the next town and try again. Don’t tap any other buildings in neighbours towns apart from the cannon and tunnel. Just keep cycling through all your neighbours doing this. You will get 30 taps at the highest bell payout and if you tap only the cannon and tunnel, at 10 bells each per tap, there’s another 300 bells.
864 + 300 = 1,164
Keep cycling through your neighbours again only tapping the cannon and tunnel and you will get 6 bells for a good few taps, then 4 bells, then eventually 2 until you reach the daily limit. And you should easily clear 500+ bells from visiting neighbours daily.
864 + 500 = 1,364
It is a time consuming process but it is the only way to reach the 22,500 for the tropical island. Also check your own cannon and tunnel regularly and they will give you 5 bells each time. Easily another possibly 50+ bells daily.
1,364 + 50 = 1,414
Apologies for this lengthy comment but I thought I would break it down to show people that its possible to collect more bells than the daily guideline in the calendar on this page. I have never purchased premium currency in this game, and didn’t start Christmas part 2 until 2 days after it began due to the servers being down. But I now have 20,500 bells and should have the tropical island on Saturday hopefully. All without spending any donuts.
IT CAN BE DONE.
“It is a time consuming process but it is the only way to reach the 22,500 for the tropical island.”
That’s the only part I disagree with, I have not been doing that and will still get the island. It’s still a great method that many are using.
The “daily guideline” is there to show what you need to average per day to get all the prizes, not how much you can get per day. Quite often people are behind the calendar early on as you normally get less currency earlier in events.
One more thing: Your friends will generate more bells for you if you put your cannon and cave next to each other. Folks are going through their friends very often trying only to click cannons and caves to play catch up / get donuts. They may not find and click your cave (giving you extra bells) if they have to go hunting for it.
I don’t know. I have really not gone out of my way to hunt through friend’s towns for double bells on the cannon and tunnels. Up until a couple days ago, i just merrily clicked along in other towns like I always had (and I don’t have a big friend list, maybe 15-20). I’ve tried it the last couple of days and that’s just so darned time consuming for a scant few extra bells, especially since I find I can’t tap on their cannon/tunnel more often than not. I do however try to keep my cannon and tunnel clear for people who visit my town.
I have predominantly earned my bells through canon firing. That said, I’m a fully day ahead of the schedule. I have never conserved elves and always fired whenever I could fire a full barrage. I will get the island probably some time on Sunday night.
It sounds like you’re doing pretty well with your strategy, so that’s good. But the difference between tapping on just caves and cannons and tapping on other buildings isn’t just a “scant few bells,” it’s *hundreds* of bells per day! But, yes, it definitely tasks a lot more time and patience, so I’m happy that’s it’s been rewarding me with free donuts (via the post-island rewards) for my trouble! 🙂 (I don’t mind the work all that much…easy enough to do while watching TV, etc.)
IM less than 200 away from the Island…..so excited….
When visiting friends towns, ONLY click on the cannon or elf tunnel. You will get twice as many bells that way. Of course you need friends that check in regularly to clear them and a full friends list. My dad did this and he already has the island.
For those wondering why you can’t buy bells with donuts: That’s essentially what you’re doing if you use the “Get It Now” button on the prize track. You’re spending about 5 donuts for every 50-55 bells you need.
I got a friend who already has the tropical island. On top of this he also has smaller islands in the sea. Were there ever such smaller islands in this game?
They weren’t in the game at the time of you writing this. It was content that was coming (as in it’s in the game as of 0800GMT 1/9/15)…but most likely that friend is playing a hacked game.
I didn’t realize what you were saying the first time I read your reply, but now I see – the small island are here! 🌴🌴 So glad there’s one freemium one available, too! :). I’ve placed two of them now, but I bought an extra couple to keep in inventory, in case I expand my ocean sometime in the future. (Might even stock up on a few more before the deadline….)
Great idea. I didn’t think of that. I’ll buy few extra ones too. Thanks
I have now 340 elfs in stock. I will start shooting them off by tomorrow, when I will reach the level with six bells for each elf. All together it will make 470 bells difference instead of shooting them off right now.
Not that much, but as I’m 2 days behind, I’ll need every bell. Still 300 elfs missing at the end. I only can make it, when I catch 60 of the 5 extra bells from canon or elf cave.
I could have saved more elf’s, but then I wouldn’t have enough time for shooting them off ( I don’t want set my alarm clock for waking up at night..).
Try collecting enough bells for the last prize without any friends towns to visit. Totally impossible! I have no registered friends – LOL
So get some – it’s really easy to do! You don’t have to know these people in real life or anything. Just go to the Add Friends area on this site and either send friend requests to the people who have posted there looking for friends and/or make your own friend-request post. There are also other sites where you can find people looking for TSTO friends (just Google it). When you add them through your Origin account, there’s no contact with them outside of the game, so there’s nothing risky about doing it. Without neighbors, it’s really hard to do well in this game.
I didn’t have neighbors for the first year I played. Then i was told about the site on TSTO addicts where you can “add friends.” It is great! And the game is so much more fun with neighbors! You can earn the prizes! And you get to see lots of different Springfields. I was having trouble getting elves, but I read the advice from others and should be getting my island today. Add friend!! Good luck!
I don’t understand how people are running out of elves.
144 elves spawn per day, or so I’ve read. If your cannon is around level 10-12 you can only fire it 4(x3) times a day before eating into your reserve supply of elves. If you fire it 6 times you just lost 72 elves, do that for 3-4 days and your reserve should be gone.
So here is a question I have…when I click on the trophy it says I have 5+ days left to compete this event but when I click on the question mark next to the bells/bottled elfs/gears it says I have 10+ days left. Which one do I trust?
Trophy. I am looking into the date issue.
Thank you! I was hoping EA came to their senses and extended the event due to the ratio of elves produced. I am one day behind on the calendar…d’oh!
im out elves too going to hold off on firing my cannon for 12hrs maybe that may help me collect more elves and ryan toyota is right you need lots a friends they me out a lot
There is no need to wait 12 hours. I calculated how many I need per fire. Once I have that number I fire and reset the canon
Ohmygarsh guys, I see all these comments about finding elves In big towns with lots of trees, etc, but had assumed everybody does what I do. I do this with all events where you hunt. Just go into the build/edit screen and then hide the roads, the bldgs, and the decorations. First, all floaters ($, etc) are hidden in build mode, second when you hide everything else, you only see characters, making the elves ez to spot. Since I clear elves first thing, I often have floaters and everything in the way, so when I’ve got all the elves I can see, I go into this mode to get the last one or two hiders.
They’re not complaining about finding the elves. They’re claiming that there aren’t enough elves available to find.