What is your favorite type of holiday event?

Some holiday events are big and flashy and take over major cities or entire games, with tons of stuff to collect — and potentially miss out on — while other games acknowledge a season with some small, forgettable token. There are pros and cons to each approach, so I was wondering, which do you like better, and why?

On the years when I’m mostly staying home, and especially before I had kids, I really loved the holiday festivities in games like WoW, where there were tons of holiday items to collect and ways to celebrate the season, from consumables like cookies to eat (and hoard until they’re moldy), to reskinning entire major cities in festive colored lights or spikes depending on your faction. I collected more than my share of Lil Helpers and other wacky gifts in that brief holiday period. However, now that I’m sitting down to ask this question after spending all day baking real cookies and washing real matching festive jammies and setting up playlists, and just before I set up all the stockings and stuff from Santa well into the evening… well, I kinda wish these holiday events were more like Hearthstone‘s. Play a couple games, earn a token or two, and if I’m too busy to log in, I’m not missing out on collecting some special thing til next year — or never.

Then there are the approaches in between, like Spirit City, where there are lots of holiday items to earn and display but once they’re in game, they’ll just be there available to earn from now on. You don’t have to worry about binging the game in order to collect something that might complete your look in six months, or might be great for a guild “Christmas in July” event in, you know, not the next week or so. Also, as someone who is pro-Three Kings Day, I like having the option of turning everything off in my own time, since that falls after most of the Blizzard holiday events end.

So, \ where do you sit? Are you all about the limited time game-altering holidays, or are you sick of FOMO? Do you use your games as an escape from real holidays, or do you want to be steeped in them? Lastly, if you’re missing out this year, would you like to buy one of these Lil Helpers? I have a few dozen burning a hole in my pocket.