Animal Crossing: New Horizons Winter Update Coming This Week

The holidays are getting near, and a new update will let you celebrate the festive season in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. A free winter update on November 19 will add holiday events like Turkey Day and Toy Day along with other evergreen gameplay features.

Turkey Day (November 26)

The Animal Crossing equivalent of Thanksgiving will take place on November 26, with an appearance from Franklin the turkey chef. Franklin will need your help gathering ingredients for the dishes he's making for the feast. If you help him properly prepare for the holiday, he'll give you a special gift.

Toy Day (December 24)

In December, Toy Day will take place on Christmas Eve. It's very much modeled after the actual Christmas holiday, with decorated trees and an appearance from Jingle the reindeer. You can help Jingle deliver presents to receive a gift from him.

But like Human Christmas, the celebration actually lasts all month long. From December 1 through 25 you can purchase toys from Nook's Cranny and don a Santa cap or other holiday clothing from the Able Sisters shop. Plus the Plaza will get progressively more decorated for Christmas throughout the weeks leading up to the holiday.

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New Year's Eve

Between December 26 and December 31, you'll be able to buy festive New Year's Eve items. Then on New Year's Eve itself, you can take part in a countdown event starting at 7 PM. Ring in the new year with your animal buddies.

New Reactions and Hairstyles

The update will also add nine new reactions and six new hairstyles, available through the Nook Miles program. You'll be able to purchase a Hip Reaction pack or a Stylish Hairstyles pack to unlock the new cosmetics. A trailer showed off some of them in action, including a Yoga and Ta-Da reaction, and several of the hairstyles.

Home Storage, Random Dreams, And Save Transfers

Packrats will be able to store more in their homes with a Storage Upgrade, thanks to a new option available through Nook Services. The Home Storage expansion will bring you from a max of 1600 items to a whopping 2400, which should help you store all those holiday gifts.

You'll also be able to visit random islands in Dreams, so you'll no longer need a code to see what other villagers have been up to. To celebrate Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp turning three years old, you can claim a themed smartphone model by linking both games to your Nintendo account.

Finally, a new Island and Resident Data Transfer will let you move all of your save data, island, and residents to another system. The feature will also let individual users who aren't the Resident Representative move their data to another system.

Another update is planned for late January, according to the teaser video.