ACNH DIY Recipe Guide: Christmas

It’s the holiday season, and from December 15th until the beginning of January, players can obtain festive DIY recipes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Unfortunately, actually obtaining these recipes is a bit troublesome, as it’s almost completely reliant on luck. You’ll have to do a lot of balloon popping and even more idling, so make sure you have a slingshot at the ready! If you’re looking for more details, let’s get right into it with a complete list of ACNH Christmas DIY recipes!

Shake Cedar Trees

To actually craft these recipes, you’ll need ornaments, which you can find from fully-grown cedar trees! Some of them have colorful lights on them, so give them a shake and eventually, an ornament will drop onto the ground. There are red, yellow, and blue ornaments, and you’ll need all three to craft the new festive furniture. Some recipes require wood, clay, or iron, so make sure you stock up on those too.

Shoot Balloons

Unlike the snowflake DIY recipes – which you can obtain from Snowboys and balloons – you can only obtain festive recipes from balloons that spawn over your island. From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., balloons will spawn starting at either the west or east ocean, and from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., balloons will spawn on the opposite side. This variable differs for each player, so be sure to check before you start hunting. Two balloons can spawn within a ten-minute period, but it’ll take them a little while to float over to the beach.

In my experience, balloons most often spawn when the last digit of the clock is either 4 or 9. Keep an eye on the time and make sure you’re on the right beach, and you should be able to pop some balloons pretty quickly. The contents of each balloon are random, though, so you’ll have to hope you get a recipe. You can also find recipes from message bottles that spawn on your island (and Nook Miles Ticket islands, too)!

Furniture List

There are a grand total of thirteen festive recipes. These include the big festive tree, the festive rug, the festive top set, the festive tree, the holiday candle, the illuminated present, the illuminated reindeer, the illuminated snowflakes, the illuminated tree, the Jingle wall, the ornament mobile, the ornament wreath, and the tabletop festive tree. That’s a lot of balloons to shoot. It’s probably best to have the game running in the background with the volume up. Listen for whistling wind and shoot down as many as you can!

Feel free to take a look at the gallery above to get a feel for what each item looks like. Most of the holiday furniture is actually really nice — especially that festive rug! Of all the DIY recipes to collect, these are my absolute favorite. There’s nothing quite like decorating your Animal Crossing island with some holiday cheer! If you have any questions, please direct them to our Discord community!

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