Winter Festivals

Notable birthdays this season are:

Pet Show

This contest takes place on the first Thursday of Winter.

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Head to the town plaza and talk to Woofio between 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm to begin the contest. You'll then select a pet from a list; you do not physically need to bring your pet to the town plaza to participate.

During the competition, Woofio will demand the pets to complete a specified trick, which is a series of sequential button presses. Follow the commands in the correct order to successfully complete the trick. Pets with higher training skills (the fire icons on the pet's Animal Info profile) will have more complex tricks, which will earn more points towards the pet's contest score:

Tip: You can pause the game after the button sequence appears to review what buttons need to be pressed to complete the pet trick.

After completing 10 tricks, the score tally will be judged. First place is 50 Pet Food, a large boost to friendship with your pet and the villagers, and a large boost in the pet's training skill. First-time winners will also receive a Pet Show Trophy for the farmhouse Memento display shelf. This trophy is only awarded one time, as there isn't a silver or gold rank for the Pet Show.

Second place is 20 Pet Food and a medium boost to friendship and training, while third place is 10 Pet Food and a small boost of friendship and training.

Hearth Day

This event typically happens on the second Tuesday of winter, sometimes on the first Tuesday depending on the number of Tuesdays in the season.

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This is a gift-giving festival where you give warm, cooked meals to the villagers to increase friendship. If it is your first year, Mayor Felix will visit the day before to explain the festival and give 3 Hot Pot meals so you can participate.

Qualifying meals will note "Makes a good Hearth Day gift" in their recipe description. Some of these meals are:

Cups of tea also counts as a qualifying gift, but you first have to process the tea leaves into cans of tea, which "can" take a while (har har har...)

Gifts can be given to all villagers in Zephyr Town. The advantage of this day is anyone who has 3 full hearts or more will give you a warm meal in exchange for your gift. This is a good way to receive some nice meals and, potentially, some new recipes you might not have learned yet. The Hearth Day gifts are in addition to any other gift you give this day, meaning you can give 2 gifts per person - a normal gift and a Hearth day gift.

The gifts you receive from villagers do not qualify as Hearth Day gifts. Basically, you can't re-gift the gifts they gave you as Hearth Day gift. They would just be normal presents.

The gifts you receive will be 1.5-Star of quality. If you're really good friends, with at least 6 full hearts of friendship, you will receive a 3-Star quality gift instead.

The meals you'll receive in exchange for Hearth Day gifts are:

Animal Show

This festival happens on either the second Friday of the season or the third Friday.

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This is a rank-based contest where the relationship (heart level) with your animals is judged by Woofio. If you win, the quality of the goods the winning animal produces will increase. In fact, every animal of that type will have a boost in quality. For example, winning with a Chicken will increase egg quality for all Chickens, but will not influence egg quality of Silkie Chickens because that's a different animal family. A Cow is different from a Buffalo. You get the idea.

To begin, talk to Mayor Felix in the town plaza from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm. He'll ask you to select the contest entry from your barn. Pick the animal with the most number of friendship hearts as your best contestant, then sit back and let the judging begin!

Having a full Health bar is also important. A sick animal, even by just a little bit, will reduce your chance of taking first place.

Bronze first-prize will receive 9 Delicious Fodder Seeds, a large boost to the animal's friendship and happiness, and a large boost with the villagers' friendship levels. First-time winners will also receive a Bronze Animal Show trophy for the Memento display shelf and a Animal Show Bronze Decor item for the bazaar stall. Second-place will receive 9 fodder seeds and medium boosts, while third place receives 10 Fodder and small boosts.

A bronze-show winner can be entered into a future show to earn silver rank, and then entered again to win gold. You don't have to enter the same animal to win future ranks. The future contest entry animal simply has to be from the same family as the past winner.

A silver rank first-place winner will receive 9 Fast Fodder Seeds and a large boost in villager friendship and animal friendship/happiness levels. First-time winners will also receive a Silver Animal Show trophy and an Animal Show Silver Decor bazaar stall item. Second place winners will get 9 Delicious Fodder Seeds and medium boosts. A third-place finisher in the silver rank competition will receive 20 Fodder and small boosts.

The highest-level gold place winner will receive 9 Soothing Fodder Seeds and a large boost in villager friendship, animal friendship, and animal happiness. First-time winners will also get the Gold Animal Show trophy for the memento shelf and a Gold Animal Show Decor for the bazaar booth. Second-place in the gold competition will receive 9 Fast Fodder seeds and a medium boost with the villagers and contest entry animal. Third place will receive 30 Fodder and a small boost of friendship/happiness.

The products produced by the winning animal will also expand past 5 stars of quality. Bronze winners can produce 6-star quality goods, while silver winners can produce 7-star quality goods. Winning a Gold-rank Animal Festival will add your BRAND mark to the produced goods, resulting in a 3x boost to the products' sale price.

Miguel will start accepting orders for Delicious Fodder Seeds, (420 G), Fast Fodder Seeds (420 G), and Soothing Fodder Seeds (1260 G) after you acquire them, either from a contest win, a title achievement, or any other way.

Horse Derby

This event takes place on the third Wednesday of the season, or sometimes the second Wednesday, depending on the number of Wednesdays in the season.

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When you're ready to enter, talk to Mayor Felix at the entrance of the Equestrian Park race track. You do not need to bring your horse with you. Felix will ask which course you want to challenge: Bronze, Silver, or Gold. You can gain access to the longer Silver Course by taking first place with bronze. Win the Silver Course to gain access to the challenging Gold Course.

The winter derby is similar to the summer Horse Derby, but this time you collect bells to tally your score instead of earning points by consecutively jumping horse gates. Each small bell is worth +20 points, while the large red bells are worth +200 points each. Follow the course around the track to collect as many bells as you can. There are no bonus points for consecutive bell collecting and no penalty for failing to clear a horse gate. Stamina-recovering carrots will be scattered around the track for your horse.

The guarantee win scores are:

I've won with fewer points (e.g., 9900 points and still took gold), so try to collect as many bells as possible. You can practice up to 3 times per day at the horse track to train the horse's stamina, which allows the horse to go faster without needing a stamina recovery carrot.

Taking first place will reward you with 30 Horse Treats, a large friendship boost with the villagers, and large boosts to the horse's friendship and training levels. First-time winners will also receive a trophy for the Mementos display shelf inside the farm house, either Bronze, Silver, or Gold.

Second place is 20 Horse Treats and medium boosts of friendship/training, while third place is 10 Horse Treats and a small bit of friendship/training.

Crop Show

This content happens on either the third Monday of Summer or the fourth Monday, depending on how many Mondays there are that year.

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In this festival, this season's plant produce is judged based on star rank. Each category won will increase the maximum star rank of future-produced crops. Ideally, entering (and winning) using crops that regrow will give you more bang for your buck compared to entering single-harvest crops. The one multi-harvest crop that is harvestable during winter is Broccoli; everything else are single-harvest crops. Fruit trees are Apple, Lemon, and Orange.

Between 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm, head to the town plaza. Have the contest entry crop held in your hands and talk to Mayor Felix to submit the entry. Crop master Matsuba will then judge the crop based on its star rank. The higher, the better!

Winning the bronze rank will reward you with 9 Cabbage seeds of 1.5-Star rank, a large boost of friendship with the villagers, and a max limit of 6 stars for the winning crop's star rank. Second place is 9 Burdock Seeds of 1.5-Star rank and a medium boost of friendship, and third place is 30 Fertilizer (1.5-Star) and a small bit of friendship with the villagers. First-time bronze winners will also receive a Crop Show Bronze Trophy to display on the farmhouse Memento shelf and a Crops Show Bronze Decor small decoration for the bazaar stall.

Silver rank grand-prize winners receive 9 Daikon Radish Seeds (3-star), a large boost of friendship with the villagers, and a max limit of 7 stars of quality. First time silver rank winters also receive a Crop Show Silver Trophy and a Crops Show Silver Decor. Second place in silver receives 9 Burdock Seeds (3-Star) and medium friendship boosts. Third place is 30 Fertilizer (3-star) and a small boost of friendship.

High-ranking gold contest winners receive 54 Broccoli Seeds (5-Star), the large friendship boost, and a BRAND associated with the winning crop, which boosts the sale price by 3x. Second-place gold winners receive 9 Burdock Seeds (5-Star) and a medium friendship boost, while third place awards 30 Fertilizer (5-Star) and a small friendship boost.

A branded crop will lose its BRAND status once processed or cooked.

Starlight Night

This event takes place on the fourth Thursday of Winter.

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This is a social gathering of merriment and food. The day before the celebration, talk with a marriage candidate to learn what their plans are for the Starlight Night. The candidate must have at least 4 hearts of friendship. They will invite you to one of the three locations available: Cafe Madeleine, Mayor Felix's house, or Sunnywood Hotel. Other villagers will be attending, too.

Kagetsu also participates in this event, which will take place privately with just the two of you at her shrine, followed by a quiet walk through the town. Talk to her the day before to receive her invitation.

If you are married, this event will take place at your farmhouse with your spouse.

Head to the designated party location and then talk to your party date between 8:00 pm and midnight to start the party; it won't begin just by entering the area. There will be a small scene with everyone in attendance. A smaller, more intimate conversation will happen afterwards between you and your date. You'll receive a large boost of friendship with everyone in attendance, and an even greater boost with the person who invited you to the nighttime gathering.

This event will end with you going to bed for the rest of the day.

New Year's Countdown

This party takes place on the last day of the year, regardless of the day of the week, even if it is a Saturday.

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Everyone will gather in the town plaza to reflect on the year's worth of accomplishments. Talk to Mayor Felix by the clock tower from 10:00 pm to midnight to start the festivities. You'll watch a cut scene of the celebration and earn a boost of friendship with the villagers. Even Kagetsu will attend if you've seen her 4-Heart event.

This event will end with you going to bed. You'll wake up around 10:00 am on Spring 1.