1. Return of the Advent Calendar. Works the same as last year mostly. Windows hold either prizes or decorations for the Pine Tree event. On Sundays there is a rare possibility you will find a divine. Je'Taime was possible the first Sunday, not sure the other days yet, or if these will be the divines in the live version. If you miss logging in to open a window you can pay to open it later, which starts at 500e, and I suspect it goes up with each window opened. My guess is that the Calendar will start on Dec. 1, then the Pine trees will open a week or two later.

2. Howrse.De's (German) birthday candle hunt. Works the same as candle hunts we've had for France and INT's birthday. You get clues to find 10 candles and when you get all the candles we get a prize (Vintage Apple). Super easy, and fun, so I won't bother posting the clues which looked to be the same ones as previous hunts. Someone posted the date for this, but I can't remember what it was

3. My Beautiful Pine Trees (main event):
It's quite different than we've had it in previous years. Please make note of the arrows/boxes/highlights etc. I made around important sections.

New divines:
Thor
Thor is one of the Nordic horses.
Lift the veil that has descended on the Nordic worlds by winning points with rides to Asgard, Midgard and Niflheim. Take care when choosing which ride to go on!
When you get to 420 points, the veil is raised and Thor gives you a prize:
eclairzeus 1 x Zeus' Lightning Bolt
This horse cannot be sold.

Loki
We do *not* know his perk yet. Judging by the images of the Xmas packs, we'll have to buy the Packs (costs real money) to get him. He'll likely be released later on in a TC or Fleece or something like the divine from last year, is my guess.

Blitzen
As noted in the Contest spoiler above she is gotten from the Pine Tree tutorial to help us earn decorations. We get to keep her *even after the event ends!!* but she won't have any bonuses. It's unknown at this time if she'll be able to enter regular competitions, or if she'll keep the skills gained from the contest.

Falahorns!
Looks like one of the Xmas Packs will contain a new Falahorn (that name is derived from the new Falabella Special Horses page. We don't have any perks/info for it yet, but it looks like a unicorn Falabella.

Pine Tree prizes:
The prizes probably don't seem like much, but keep in mind we are getting a free divine out of this. The tree and horse statue ornament are decorations to be used in the contest. The red tack items (Noelle) are a new tack set, that are identical to the one Blitzen wears and we'll be able to put those on regular horses.

Every year Howrse offers the Christmas Packs that can be bought with real money. Aside from the images posted we don't yet have details as to this year's price, date release or exact contents.
I'm not sure we were given this info during preprod last year anyway.





The Pine Tree offer:
Decoration Packs for 1 pass= 3 tinsel, 3 baubles, 3 ornaments.
I don't know if we'll be able to buy the divine ornaments (the tree and horse statue things) with passes or if maybe they will be in another pack. We've only been told of the Decoration Pack, but the Potions contest gave us two different packs and I don't remember the second being released on preprod.

Where to start...
Here are the ornament requirements I've collected. Still missing the other divine tree requirements. If you open the images and hit CTRL+scroll with the mouse wheel you can zoom in. Keep in mind it's possible for the requirements to change when this goes live.


If you want any of the divines, I recommend focusing on trees that each level you can complete with one decoration pack (I highlighted those). The blue highlights are more ideal because you only need 2 of each type and the Packs give 3 of each.

To get Thor in particular:
Since you have to first unlock trees by Blitzen gaining skills (you gain skills by decorating trees), focus on the Oriental tree first as each level can be completed with 1 Deco Pack. When you get 90 skills to unlock Bristlecone, work on level 1 only and complete that X times until you get 120 skills to unlock the Love Tree. Complete any or all of the first 3 levels as needed (you can either just do the first level, or go all the way to the A.Tear level if you want as the skills for finishing the Tears level is the same as if you'd completed the first level 3 times anyway) until you get 200 skills to unlock the Plant Tree. You now want to get to the 3rd level (the ornament level) and complete that level 11 times as on preprod at least we need 11 divine ornaments to get Thor. Since the 3rd level gives Blitzen 96 skills along with the ornament, the process of getting the ornaments will give Blitzen enough skills to unlock Thor's tree.

The details are sadly lacking, but since you can see the skill requirements to unlock each tree (that is the number underneath each tree name), along with the skills gained at each prize level and the ornaments required, someone might be able to figure out a better strategy with the info I've provided. But it also depends on if ornament requirements change or if we're able to buy divine ornaments during the contest.

The next promo will be the cards, which will probably start tomorrow.

The New Zealand Cards Promo. It is likely that the promo with start this Thursday,
as they usually do, but we can never be completely sure.The Pine Tree promo (as described by Legacy Ann in the post above yours), will take place *after* the New Zealand Cards Promo. We do not yet know what promo will be after the Pine Tree Promo.

The christmas event looks fun! the christmas themed tack is adorable and the divine you get for completing the tutorial is cute too

Definately going to be looking to try and win the nordic horses i never seem to complete any group and spent so many passes on getting Fenrir that I kinda feel committes to completing the nordic horse set now

A few lucky players make it into the testing (prepod) for upcoming promos and game changes before new info is released to the general public of Howrse. They can choose to share with the rest of us info on those upcoming promos and game changes before they're released "live", available for all players see. So yes, the next promo (which will most likely start in a few hours for most of us) is the New Zealand Cards because of clarification from players who participated in prepod.

the cards start today, or if it's delayed because of the last event?