Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
The snow is falling in Springfield, which can only mean Winter has arrived in our pocket-sized towns! And what better way to celebrate the Winter holidays than with presents?!!
This morning a Mystery Gift element was launched in our games, where you collect vouchers to earn returning Christmas/Holiday content. And who doesn’t love presents?
I know a bunch of you have loads of questions about the ins and outs of how it all works, so let’s break it all down…
As we always do, let’s start with the basics…
What Are My Gift Box Options?
The options are:
Silver (1,000 
)
Gold (1,400 )
Platinum (2,o00)
What Are the Prizes In Each Box?
A variety of prizes are available from Christmas Events past. So if there’s something you didn’t get, here’s your chance to get it. Some were formerly premium items, others were event prizes. Here’s a look at what’s in each box…
(if you click on the item name it’ll take you to the previous post about it)
How Do I Earn Gift Vouchers?
Gift Vouchers can be obtained two different ways. The first is by playing the Gnome in Your Home game every 4hrs. In addition to Chicken Fingers and Books, and guilt dust, the Gnome will also award Gift Vouchers. The amount of vouchers you earn from the Gnome will increase as you level the Gnome up. Here are the payouts at each level:
| Level | Reward |
| 1 | 22 |
| 2 | 24 |
| 3 | 26 |
| 4 | 28 |
| 5 | 30 |
| 6 | 32 |
| 7 | 34 |
| 8 | 36 |
| 9 | 38 |
| 10 | 40 |
| 11 | 42 |
| 12 | 44 |
| 13 | 46 |
| 14 | 48 |
| 15 | 50 |
You’ll also be able to earn Vouchers through various items purchased through the event. Certain items will award a voucher rebate… 
And you’ll get Vouchers back. Here’s the breakout of the Voucher Rebates and the items they’re offered on…
Click the links to be taken to detail posts or SIB posts if available
| Item | Rebate |
| Best Snowman Ever | 240 |
| Gingerbread Mansion | 420 |
| Murder Horn | 1500 |
| Snow Monster | 420 |
| Reindeer | 120 |
| Fancy Igloo | 120 |
| Duff Beer Tree | 60 |
| Ice God | 60 |
| Holiday Totem Pole | 60 |
| Bonestorm Santa | 270 |
| Frosty the Hitman | 270 |
| Candy Kevin | 270 |
| Kearneys Other Son | 540 |
| Duff Center Arena | 1200 |
| Giant Outdoor Fireplace | 210 |
| Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers Babysitting Service | 720 |
| Elf Home | 360 |
| Egg Nog Bar | 360 |
| Festive Trashcan Fire | 20 |
| Exotic Petting Zoo | 205 |
| Pig of Paradise Pen | 90 |
| Wooly Mammoth Pen | 90 |
| Land Octopus Pen | 105 |
| Nativity Scene | 1050 |
| Marge Snowman | 60 |
| Lisa Snowman | 60 |
| Grampa Snowman | 60 |
| Ice Sculpture Couch Gag | 100 |
| First Ever Christmas Tree | 45 |
| Dancing Reindeer | 135 |
| Xmas Trees Slightly Irregular | 180 |
| Large Iceberg | 150 |
| Medium Iceberg | 90 |
| Dunking Device | 480 |
For returning items, you’ll notice a bunch are back in the stores now. Some will be coming back in the coming days.
New items added to the store will also have rebates attached to them. We’ll let you know what they are once those items hit.
Now here’s the part that’s a kick in the pants….if you already own those items (as in you got them for free as prizes during past events, or you paid donuts for them) you get nothing, as far as vouchers back. You’d have to buy stuff over again, if you can. (you’ll notice a bunch of stuff in your store now.
Incoming rant…
This kind of ticks me off. It’s like EA is once again punishing loyal players who have played for years. Not cool EA, and I hope you make an adjustment. Even if it’s a partial voucher award for all the donut and sweat equity long time players have put into the game. You should give us some kind of voucher bank to start with, as credit for all of the items we already have. It’s just not cool. So EA please make an adjustment to this. It’s Christmas after all.
Note: Listen I’ve got a few of you telling me EA has every right to do this, they’re a company they’re supposed to make money etc. I get it. And if you’ve followed this site you know that I always defend EA when it comes to reducing the price. Or having you grind something out etc. But you’ve got to understand, in the rant above I’m not talking about grinding out the vouchers. Please understand that. I’m talking about the fact that if I wanted more of the premium items in the store with the vouchers offered, I CAN’T BUY THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE UNIQUE.
Therefore I can’t take advantage of the same offer you can. Where you can spend 150 donuts for Murderhorn AND a Platinum box item. (or something similar), long time players are at a disadvantage with this one and it’s just not how you reward loyal players in my opinion.
If this was about grinding it out, I wouldn’t say anything. Because everyone is at the same place, and those who’ve spent donuts already or who have played for years are at a slight advantage because they’ve got less stuff in their boxes.
But this case…it’s a direct kick in the crotch from EA to those who have played for a long period of time. Grinding things out for years (as most of these were prizes at one point) or spent donuts already.
Even if they offered half the amount of vouchers for the items we already own I’d appreciate that. This way it just puts those of us who’ve played for a long time at a disadvantage and THAT is what’s frustrating.
End rant…
How Do I Get A Mystery Box?
When you launch your game today you’ll receive a few popups about the Mystery Box.
You’ll then receive a task to Open a Silver Mystery Box..
EVERYONE will get this task, even if you already own everything. (if you own everything you’ll default to an Island, and then the box will disappear)
You’ll then be given 1,000 to open the Silver Box (basically for free). Tap on the Purple 1,000 icon to start the box…
NOTE: Opening ANY of the 3 boxes will clear the task. So if you want something in the other boxes save the vouchers and wait to open another box. Again it does NOT have to be the Silver Box to you open to clear the task. So save them if you’d like (Thanks to Gio and several readers for pointing it out…)
Let me also point out, that you can buy the boxes straight out without having Vouchers. The Silver is 50 Donuts, Gold 70 Donuts and Platinum 100 donuts. IF you’ve collected vouchers already, those prices will be reduced. It’s .05 donuts for every ticket you have. So if you have 20 vouchers, it’s 1 donut off the price.
Oh and clearing the tasks rewards 25
Once you’ve completed the initial Mystery Box you’ll find it again in your store…
Simply tap the View Button to bring up the Mystery Box Trio to select a box to open.
I Don’t See the Mystery Presents In My Store?
If the Mystery Presents Icon disappears from your store, than you’ve likely already obtained everything available in the boxes.
If you don’t think that’s the case, contact EA.
And that’s really it to the Mystery Boxes my Friends. For fear of being yelled at…it’s basically the Wheel once again. EXCEPT…there are no “filler” prizes. Once you earn an item it disappears from the box, so it’s fair. And every prize is a decent prize. (in other words there are no pink fountains, or snowmen to fill up your inventory trying to get a good prize)
It’s not a bad addition to the games, and if EA makes that adjustment to award older players vouchers for items they already have it’ll be even better!
What are your thoughts on the Mystery Presents? Do you already own most of the items, so are your boxes pretty small? Do you think you’ll take a Mystery Present “plunge”? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
Dear EA
All I want for Christmas is an ‘Item Search’ button. I’m pretty sure I don’t have the Nativity Scene and the Ice God but trying to find something in my SF is hard enough when I know it is there somewhere. When it is something that I might not have, it’s an impossibility…
Please EA
🙏🙏🙏
….And we rEAlly nEAd a sEARch button for NPC’s. I have Guinea 🇬🇳 Pig roaming my Springfield, but I haven’t seen it for EAges!😡
Absolutely… there are too many items across four or five years of TSTO, and they’re not always filed under the category you think.
Yes and the majority aren’t sorted at all! There should at least be a tab for each holiday.
Even a general “Holidays” tab would be helpful!
as long as we’re asking for things we’re not going to get, how about a tab for things that have a bonus percentage? that would make maximizing our bonus much easier!
That and more sorting options in storage!
If you don’t have Barney, could you still get the Plow King skin? Phone won’t let me go back to see older messages so sorry if this has been answered already
Yes. It’ll go in your inventory
Done as many others did, had a request to buy a silver box and did just that, didn’t know I could save for a better platinum item totally peeved with that, feel this Christmas event just isn’t right, EA better laid plans or was that the the plan to upset all the long term players 😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠
I should have realized to save my vouchers. The only item in my silver box was the animal shelter and I didn’t really want it. Gold only has Victor’s Secret, so I guess I’ll save up for a platinum box or two.
I did the same thing.
I hear ya, there’s only 2 things on the “things you can get” that I didn’t have, and I got one of them from the freebie first box. The only thing left is fort sensible. I also have about 99% of the items you can buy, so this portion of the event is less than thrilling for me.
Besides, I’m not spending a dollar or a sprinkle on this event in protest. And I’m not going into that rant, don’t worry. Too volatile.
So, I got the Springfield pet place for free. That’s cool, I’ll take it. 🙂
i have no nativity scene or ice god available. why? don’t have these things
I think they become available tomorrow.
So essentially, if you already have all of these items, the vouchers are useless? I guess that’s why I haven’t seen the Silver Box quest.
That would be correct.
Lovely…maybe I’ll be able to trade all of my unused vouchers for 1-3 donuts. 🙂
Not really trying to play devil’s advocate, but maybe in the near future there will be plenty of awesome new offerings for long time players that newer players will be unable to get because they spent all their donuts on the returning items 🙂
LOL…one can hope.
I agree with the rant and hope EA is listening. I haven’t been playing nearly as long as many of the others (since Sept. 2014), but it’s no fun that i can’t get the vouchers because I have a ton of those prizes, but the gift boxes are full of even older prizes that I do not have. Oh well…
I can only image how frustrating it is to make this post and have 90% of the people not even understanding why you’re “ranting”..
Read the post, guys.. It’s not that hard to understand.
Very informative post. I’ve been freemium forever (an occasional scratcher here and there) so this is all benefiting me personally.
Just because something is benefiting me ~personally~ doesn’t make it any harder to see your very valid point. 😉
(Also, got 126 donuts on 3 scratchers!)
– Jocelyn
Side rant, but they REALLY need to fix this 6-second “Learn about Christmas” bug; I don’t mind that it’s there, but the fact that it causes each task list to reset, instead of jumping to the previously-used time (e.g., 8-hour task,) forcing me to scroll on EVERY SINGLE ONE is really cramping my style, here. I need to keep as many people indoors as possible, and if things get out of sync, I can’t use the Unemployment Office properly.
I’m kinda bummed I got festivus cbg. I have his premium karate suit so this will never get used. Oh well I still appreciate the gift. Also I do kinda agree with alissa however a lot of the stuff I have that I got for free I WOULD NEVER spend hard earned cash/sprinkles on it. Not as much as they’re charging anyways. On a side note the one thing I’m glad I did buy was lil. Lisas recycling center as it has paid out time and time again.
Before knowing what I was doing and before reading the posts I spent my vouchers on a silver box. At least I got the only thing I wanted from that box . I finally got the Christmas raccoon.
“It’s like EA is once again punishing loyal players who have played for years.”
Yes and no. On the other side, the players who have been playing for years got a lot of the now-premium items for free as part of events and never had to spend the sprinkles that newer players have to. But I do understand the frustration.
Bought the Silver box ‘cuz I had the dumb task to do so, and won Christmas Racoon. Bullet dodged there! I only want the stuff in the Platinum boxes (Plow King and Mr. Plow would be nice, but I’m not gonna risk getting all that other stuff that I don’t really want,) so I’ll be savin’ like crazy!
You’re totally missing the point.
reindeer. Reindeer. REINDEER!!!!
squeels of delight 🙂
LOL! That’s what I said! I was starting to think I’d never own one, but now I have a herd.
I’m happy cos I was moaning that there wasn’t enough to spend donuts on, I put that right today! I might even buy more stuff even though I don’t really want any of the stuff in the Gold or Silver categories. Might as well, huh?
Great post, Alissa – I especially appreciate all of the links you provided! 🙂
One question, for whomever might be able to answer it….do the plow skins come with the plows, too?
Plow King no. Mr plow doesnt have one but one of his tasks shows him riding around Springfield
Thanks! 🙂
Guess if I get Mr. Plow, I’ll have to hope to get the plow itself, later. (Or do I already have it…I seem to remember that I do have a snow plow, now that I think of it…can’t remember whether it’s out or in inventory…need to go check!)
YES! I got festivus CBG I was so upset that I missed him!
I love that skin…do you know whether it’s a premium skin now? My CBG pretty much lives in his karate skin, since it the only premium one I have for him, but I do like the Festivus one a lot, especially in the colder weather!
Cool….and no I’m afraid he doesn’t….also…..am i the only one who doesn’t have donuts in the store….
Is it my imagination, or is the elf home a steal? It seems like the payoff for these is great. You get doughnuts back for buying. You can buy more than one. It pays cash and XP when in play, and adds to your % bonus. I’m trying figure out if there are any drawbacks to buying many of these?
That is exactly what I was figuring, so far I bought two and I might end up with more before this is over.
Another plus is that it has one of the better donut-to-voucher ratios.
You talked me into it…spent my last discretionary donuts on elf homes…now I have an elf suburb 🏡🏡🏡 (or is it a miniburb?…they are kinda small) next to my spooky houses in Despair Heights. Too good a deal to pass up, just like the wailing walls during Halloween. Thanks for the nudge.👍
The only things I don’t have are one silver, one gold and 4 platinums. Of the platinums, the only one I really want is Sophie, and the one I don’t want is the North Pole Station.
I just bought the Babysitter Bandit, and with the Gnome and no other purchases, it looks like I might be able to buy 2 platinums, so I’ve got a 50/50 chance for Sophie.
Of course, I know I’ll get the North Pole Station first.
There are a couple of premium items that I’m on the fence about, so if I don’t get Sophie after the first two, I might have to buy a few more things to get a third platinum.
I already have a lot of the premium items that went up for sale though.
I have a hope that they will increase the voucher drops for the gnome, or like Alissa said, pay out vouchers for premium items that you already have.
Got Festivus CBG right out of the gate. Doubt I’ll use him much, but it was the one prize I missed from that event. If I can get Sophie when I buy the Murderhorn, I’ll be a happy camper.
Just a thought to those who feel cheated they bought things earlier. You have been receiving rent or bonus % since you bought the items. If you add them all up since you bought them are they worth more than the discount you would have received by waiting? So far I received the animal shelter and Victor’s Secret as gifts. Not so great. In fact most of the gifts are meh.
Seriously, this x1000.
I buy something, I get a year’s worth of enjoyment and/or use out of it, why would I feel cheated when it gets hugely discounted a long time after I bought it?
If nothing else, I’ve at least spared myself a year or so of “man, I really wish I had that thing.”
True, true…no complaints here, and I don’t care about voucher refunds for items I already own. It would be nice to have a new item offered, tho, so I could be trying to save up vouchers…it’s fun to play along with everybody else.
You guys are missing Alissa’s point….it’s not that stuff is being offered at a discount, it’s that those who already have those items can’t buy them now to be elligible for vouchers. If they offered non-unique items, at whatever price, discounted or non-discounted, then people who already had those items could still participate in earning vouchers. Her issue isn’t with the fact that folks can now get items at a lower price than when she got them.
Personally, it’s not a huge issue for me (partly because there are still several things in each category that I don’t already have), but I do wish people would stop getting on her case for saying something that she wasn’t saying.
This is accurate. Sandra! I’ve received a handful of texts from Alissa…all saying “they don’t get it.” As someone who only has two items being offered, there is little reason to even play this part of the event. I”m not spending donuts to get gift vouchers, to by stuff that already passed on over the past three years.
A more equitable way to do this, would be to offer “voucher credits” for items you already owned. That is parity. But, again…for EA, it’s about donuts, not being magnanimous.
Patric,
Pull Alissa aside and quietly tell her to wait ~a dozen years.
Real life experience with teen-agers
Blah-blah-blah car blah-blah-blah keys blab-blah-blah
🤔
Y’all are my practice for when riley’s a teen
I’m not even referring to Alissa’s post, but the very frequent and loud complaints made whenever something premium gets offered at a discount or free.
Those I never complain about…for the record 😉
Indeed not!!
I agree that those who have everything might feel shortchanged. I have only five items to get on one of my games, but I want only one. But don’t you feel shortchanged when you have leftover crafting items you can’t use because you don’t have the right one? Hopefully EA will add items to the gifts later for those who didn’t get to play.
Vouchers function as a limited-use type of donut, since anything you can buy with vouchers can also be bought with donuts, at 20 vouchers per donut. Consider Duff Center Arena: 200 donuts, 60 donut rebate, plus 1200 vouchers (or 60 donuts worth). That’s the equivalent of 200 donuts with a 120 donut rebate, but with the restriction that 60 donuts of that rebate may only be spent on mystery gifts (so it’s effectively worth much less, perhaps 20-30 donuts or so).
So I don’t understand why some long-time players are OK with newer players getting a pure-donut rebate on an old building, but not if the newer players receive part of that donut rebate in the form of vouchers. It’s OK for EA to give them free donuts back, but not if they get rebated in a currency comparable to but worse than donuts?
Everyone is missing the point on this. It’s that the options to purchase items (because most of the returning stuff is unique) limits the number of vouchers those who have most of the stuff can get.
Frack! A fort! Darn raccoon ducked me a second time. Got Helter Shelter the first try which was good but I’ve been wanting the Christmas raccoon.
You can have mine, Brandine keeps trying to make a pot pie out of him….
LOL! If only we had the ability to trade items to neighbors. 🙂
I already have all this old stuff. I have yet to unlock any of this year’s items because I’m not interested in this year’s Christmas event. Time for a break from the game, I guess.
Thanks Alissa. The 1000 voucher is. I longer available to me – that’s what happens when you’ve played so long 🙁 I’m with you on the rant
Ugh this sucks, I didn’t even get the pop up for the mystery box. Yet I see some items in my store that earn vouchers. (Cant even see how many vouchers I have earned so far) Pretty sure I have everything that EA is offering for this but still would’ve been nice to see the initial pop up of the mystery boxes.
I did not get the box where it says mystery gift bonanza and it did not give me a task to buy silver boxes. I bought some premium items this morning and got some voucher rebates.
What I really want is MORE LAND!!!! It seems the buildings are getting bigger and bigger, but the land available isn’t keeping up.