What to do in Animal Crossing New Horizons on Toy Day

Happy Toy Day, everyone!

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Whether you’ve had your copy of New Horizons for over a year already or you’ve yet to experience every in-game event, there’s something to keep you entertained on Toy Day.

Toy Day happens on December 24th every year (so it’s a bit of a shame for anyone getting New Horizons for Christmas), and It’s a great excuse to grab some new items to get you in the festive spirit. (On second thought, maybe it’s just as well it’s not after Christmas Day.) Here’s how you can get into the festive spirit on Toy Day, whether you’ve prepared or not.

What happens on Animal Crossing’s Toy Day?

Jingle the Reindeer is on your island and he’s standing in for Santa. Well, actually, you’ll be standing in for Santa, but we’ll get to that. Jingle has a job to do, and he needs your help. Not only does he need to get everyone’s presents delivered, but he’s forgotten the Gift Wrap (to be quite honest, I think Santa needs to fire the guy). Of course, being the one everyone calls on for everything, it’s your job to help out.

Craft Wrapping Paper for Jingle

The first job you’ll be given once you speak to Jingle is to get him some wrapping paper. He’ll give you the DIY recipe for this if you don’t already have it from last year, and all you’ll need is three yellow ornaments, three red ornaments and three blue ornaments. Once you have these, you’ll be able to craft three pieces of wrapping paper to take back to Jingle.

Upon delivering the festive wrapping paper to Jingle, he’ll reward you with a gift of your own, some lovely Toy Day Stockings to hang on your wall on Toy Day night. Not only that, though, but he’ll “reward” you with yet another job!

Deliver Presents to your islanders

Jingle must just want to make the most of his time on your delightful island, because he apparently can’t deliver Santa’s presents himself. Instead, you’ll need to do it for him while he just wanders around aimlessly (really, Santa, this dude needs firing). Jingle will give you all the equipment you need, i.e. his magic bag. Once you’ve got this and look appropriately dressed as Santa’s assistant, you can head around your island, giving gifts to each and every islander.

Return to Jingle once you’ve delivered all of the presents – one for every islander, so a maximum of ten – and he’ll reward you once more for doing his job for him. This time, he’ll give you a DIY recipe for a pile of gifts, and your very own decorative Santa Sleigh.

What do I need before Toy Day?

There are a few things that you’ll need on Toy Day in Animal Crossing New Horizons, so it’ll help to have these in advance. However, you don’t really need anything before the big day because – if you’re anything like me and leave everything until the last minute this time of year – you can still get everything done on the day.

Collect Ornaments from Cedar trees

The main thing you’ll need is ornaments from the fir trees you might have dotted around the island – not having any Cedar trees planted around your island before Toy Day is the only way you’ll miss out on the festivities. Having said that, as long as you’ve got decorated Cedar trees on your Island this December, you can gather all the ornaments you need on the day. Find out how to gather this festive little item in our separate guide on how to get ornaments in Animal Crossing.

Buy toys for your neighbors

The other thing you may want on Toy Day does take some preparation (unless you’ve got stuff lying around from last year), but is not a requirement to take part in Jingle’s Toy Day events, and that’s toys! Timmy and Tommy Nook have been selling toys in Nook’s Cranny all month, and you can hand them out to your fellow Animal Crossing islanders as lovely Toy Day gifts. In fact, you can actually gift anything to your islanders, so (I didn’t tell you this) if you want to get rid of unwanted stuff that’s taking up storage space, then today’s the day. It’s not like you’ll do it in real life, right? Right?!

Anyway, you’ll need to make sure your gifts are wrapped. If you don’t already have wrapping paper, you can buy some from Nook’s Cranny, craft some once you’ve spoken to Jingle, or – here’s the good one – the villagers you’re trying to give a present to will even give you their own wrapping paper. Yep, you read that right. Try to give them an unwrapped gift, and they’ll provide you with paper to wrap it in first. Easy.

What else can I do on New Horizons’ Toy Day?

There are still plenty of things you can do on your Animal Crossing island on Toy Day to get you in the festive spirit. Well, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway. Sorry if you’re having Toy Day in the Summer, these won’t apply to you.

Catch Snowflakes

Similar to the maple leaf and cherry blossom seasons, you might see some beautiful, sparkling snowflakes floating in front of your eyes. Again, much like the orange maple leaves and pink sakura blossoms, these can be caught with a handy net. You might find you need these snowflakes for certain seasonal DIY recipes, other recipes, though, may require larger versions of these snowflakes…

Make Snowboys – DIY large snowflakes

From mid-December (for Northern Hemisphere players only), your island will be completely covered in snow, and you might spot a couple of snowballs lying around on the ground. These snowballs can be turned into magical talking snowboys! Obviously.

You can create any fashion of crazy snowboy if you want. Big head, small body? You got it! Huge body, tiny head? Go for it! However, if you know just how to create the “perfect” snowfolk, you’ll be rewarded with DIY recipes and large snowflakes, which can’t be obtained any other way. Your adorable new buddys will then remain on your island for a few days, until they slowly melt away. Warning: Don’t talk to them when they’re melting, it’s really sad. You can only build one snowboy per day, so check out our guide on making the perfect snowboy if you’re not willing to waste your snowballs with trial and error.

If this still isn’t enough to keep your New Horizons excitement going nearly two years after it came out, don’t forget you can now get the new DLC Happy Home Paradise to add a huge new extension to your Animal Crossing experience.