Valentines 2011, or "Start Your Rockets, Ladies and Gents!"

It's a farming extravaganza!

I managed to get all relevant characters to 85 to farm the holiday boss for the mount (or, in Dusty's case, the rose helm).  This makes me happy.

An important change: you no longer queue from the LFD pane.  You now have to go to Detective Snap Snagglebolt [H] or Inspector Snip Snagglebolt [A].

Previous years: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.  2010 has the achievement info you'll want.

Lunar Festival 2011, or "Where are the Elders!"

A few elders have moved around, such as Stormwind's Elder being placed out front of the city (the game tells you to go to the destroyed park, but it's wrong).

Lunar Festival 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.

Pick up the Lunar Festival quest.  Head to your Alliance or Horde Harbinger.  Pick up the quest to shoot off rockets.  Get 8 rockets (any color), 10 [Red Rocket Clusters], and 10 [Firecrackers].  Keybind the [Red Rocket Cluster] and shoot off all 10 as fast as you can to get an achievement.  Repeat with [Firecracker] for another achievement.

Grab your invitation, use it in the column of moonlight, go here and get the Omen quest.  Head for this spot and look for a group killing Omen (if you do this in the first day, he is always being downed -- later in the week is much harder).  Help if you can.  You want to stand in him while he's dead, it doesn't matter if you helped kill him.  Turning in the quest with the buff on you from his corpse (dying removes it) gets another achievement.

Elder Time

There's a list here, but it's not 100% accurate for Cataclysm yet.  I'm sure it will be fixed by the end of the week, but here's a good rule of thumb: if you can't find an elder where it's supposed to be, go to wowhead and search for the elder's name (given in the wowwiki listing).  Under the Comments tab, go to the most recent comments and glance over them for the elder's new position.  You will always find the answer there.

If only coordinates are given and you don't use coordinates, go to Tools > Maps and select the area you're in.  As you hover over the map, it will give you coordinates and you'll be able to see where on the map your elder is.  :)

After Getting All Elders

Buy clothes with your tokens.

You're an elder now!

Winter Veil 2010, or "Srs Post for Srs Holiday"

Ironforge/Orgrimmar
a short list of supplies

• /kiss a Winter Reveler every hour (found at Inns)
• Buy and learn all 3 holiday recipes from a Smokeywood Pastures vendor.
• Buy a snowball from a Smokeywood Pastures vendor.
• Do the Greench quest chain.
• Do the Metzen quest chain.
• Get attuned to Ogri'la.
• Set aside a Fruitcake and a Holly from doing Metzen.
• Get a hat from dungeon bosses.
• Get clothes from a tailor.
• Get boots from a leatherworker.
• Save all snowflakes.
• Find your local Wondervolt Machine.
• Keep your Winter Veil Disguise Kit.

Dec 25th: Get your presents at the Ironforge/Orgrimmar trees.

For details on how to use these items, see my 2008 post.

Winter Veil Hats, or "Still Available in Northrend"

Winter Veil Bosses
The denizens of the dungeons of Northrend are also getting into the holiday spirit, and some dungeon bosses even wear festive Winter Hats just like Greatfather Winter's. Defeat a Winter Veil boss, and the boss' hat is yours!

Winter Veil bosses of Northrend:
Grand Magus Telestra (The Nexus) - Red Winter Hat
Jedoga Shadowseeker (Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom) - Red Winter Hat
Mage-Lord Urom (The Oculus) - Green Winter Hat

Cataclysm Winter Veil bosses
Deadmines (Heroic) - Admiral Ripsnarl
The Stone Core (Normal + Heroic) - High Priestess Azil
Blackrock Caverns (Normal + Heroic) - Corla, Herald of Twilight
Shadowfang Keep (Heroic) - Lord Godfrey
Grim Batol (Normal + Heroic) - Drahga Shadowburner

(source)

More Winter Veil details this weekend, maybe, I think. I need to do it on 2 characters, and that usually prompts posts.

Anywho, feel free to check out the previous years: 2008, 2007, and Ogri'la tutorial.

Looks like I didn't do 2009. Would make sense, since we'd just moved and there was a blizzard and we were holed up at my brother's house with our cats.

Horde Travel, or "Can Finish Holiday?"

There's one itty bitty issue with the new world -- Horde can't get to Darnassus or The Exodar without massive effort.  This interferes with Pilgrim's Peril.

First, there are no boats from Darkshore (Auberdine was destroyed).  So I corpse-hopped through Stormwind for an hour to get on the boat to Darnassus, arrived, and their level 85 guards, always on watch, killed me and sent me to a graveyard in...

...Darkshore.

Since there's no boat in Darkshore, and since I found the hard way that fatigue does kill ghosts running on foot, you almost make it but not quite when you run as a ghost across the ocean.

But it's possible, according to an extremely dedicated person on Wowhead:

i ran up the Darkshore coastline till i was as close as possible to Rutheran Village. Popped my elixir, jumped on my 100% mount and ran across water. You will fatigue but the bar begins to replenish as you get close to Rutheran. Once you hit land you can either take the boat to Exo or run like heck for the portal into Darnassus. You will more than likely die entering the portal or coming out the other side. No worries you will be at the gy in Teldrassil, not back on darkshore. Rez and hit the table in Darn. I then swam via the water channels in Darn to the portal and then jumped on boat and headed to Exo. The tables here are very easy to get to as i did not aggro any guards at any point.

As God is my witness, I am going to earn this freakin' turkey pet.

Pilgrim's Bounty, or "Oh Hey, Another Holiday I Forgot"

Husband: "I've been messing with [Husband's Best Friend] all day.  I'm 1 bubble from 80 on my mage but I keep going around doing all the Pilgrim's Bounty cooking and stuff instead of dinging.  It's driving him crazy.  I think I'll stay 79 for as long as possible."

Me: "Oh hey, it's Pilgrim's Bounty!  O.O"

So, considering that I'm going to see the new Harry Potter in 2 hours and don't have time to investigate the holiday properly (I have never ever done PB before), just be aware that it's Pilgrim's Bounty this week and you can level cooking for cheap on your characters.

And there's a turkey pet if you get the holiday achievement.

I'll write something guide-ish up later.  Guide after break.

Twilight Infiltration, or "More Cataclysm Pre-Events"

I'm home from work sick.  *cough/sneeze*  So let's do this in as efficient a way as possible. (Alliance will be up when I get to it.)

Hallow's End Latecomer Guide, or "Husband Is Nice and Doing Holidays With Me"

This is to help anyone who wants a quick list of what they need to get done but doesn't want a huge explanation.

Preparation:

• Handfuls of Candy: Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outland
• Southshore Quests: Alliance / Horde
• Headless Horseman Kill
• Hourly Trick or Treat
• Stop the Fires / Let the Fires Come

Keep these items:

• G.N.E.R.D.S.
• Tricky Treats
• Tooth Picks
• Jack-o-Lanterns
• Wands

Hallow's End 2010, or "Fun With Headless People"

Even if you don't do holidays, note that A Long Strange Trip will continue to give you FREE super-max flying speed.  No need to drop another 5k gold if you prefer spending time over money.

Hallow's End 2009, 2008

Sorry this post is so lame this year.  I have work in a half hour.

Direbrew Lost, or "Instance Not Found"

Neither my Zuluhed nor my Moon Guard characters can get into Direbrew this morning.  My groupmates are equally unable.  Perhaps this will be fixed later today?

Brewfest 2010, or "Yay! No Fighting Over Mounts!"

Not much new to tell this year.  Peruse 2009 for the quests, or 2008/2007 for previous versions of this holiday.

The Keg-Shaped Treasure Chest reportedly drops the following:

• Ram Mount
• Kodo Mount
• Direbrew's Remote
• Bloody Shanker
• Tankard O' Terror

The boss only drops trinkets now.

Also, the boss is pretty easy.  For example, the tank was afk the entire time on Birdfall's run.  The mage died and the hunter tanked.  Just stay away from his disarm (a sort of whirlwind) and you'll take minimal damage.

Pirate Day

In case you forgot, get your pirate achievement today only.

Troll and Gnome Takeover!, or "Ohmygoodness, It's About Time"

Horde:

• Go to Orgrimmar.  Travel south out of the city to the very southern tip of Durotar.  The quest giver is on the eastern side of Sen'jin Village.

Alliance:

• Go to Ironforge and head to Tinkertown.  Talk to Mekkatorque for the quest.

Past the break are the specific questline walkthroughs.  Don't continue if you don't want spoilers.

Midsummer 2010, or "More Pets, Less Waiting"

For refreshing your Midsummer memories, feel free to look at my 2009 and 2008 festival posts.

Confirmed:

You can get a bag of goodies off the boss once a day.

You can run the boss for cloaks as much as you want.

A Blue says that the Scorchling is no longer available, though some players claim to have gotten it in their bag this year and the phrase "does not appear to be available" is pretty wishy-washy. New info tells us the Scorchling is not out of the game, it's just not on Ahune anymore. It will be available from a different source in the future, along with other elemental pets. No further info on what that source is or when we'll see it.

The following definitely drop from the bag:

• Ice elemental pet.
• Frostscythe.

Tips on using this holiday to gain experience faster than normal:

Midsummer Fire Festival in 1 Week!

Next Monday (the 21st) is the start of the fire festival, and it's time to start thinking about all the things you need to get done that this holiday can help you with:

• Leveling Alts -- Use the ribbon pole for a 10% xp buff.
• Ahune's Scorchling -- If you have yet to see (or win) a Scorchling pet off of Ahune, this is the first holiday with individual goodie bags and LFG queues.
• Gear -- Like that cool scythe or an epic cloak!
• Achievements -- If you still don't have the violet proto drake, get that finished up!

Birdy's Plans

• Put a dent in my little warrior.
• Try for the pet on Birdy and Dusty. (Don't know yet if it drops from a special bag like the mounts will or if it's a random drop off of him. I'm guessing bag, but you never know.)
• Get gear for my freshly 80 mage.

Violet Proto-Drake, or "I'm So Sleepy I Forgot To Post This"

I had to run Utgarde Pinnacle, which I did at 6AM, and badabing badaboom. Done.

This is more than just my 93rd mount. The violet proto-drake represents one of my favorite parts of the game -- holidays. Holidays have an amazing amount of nostalgia for me. Except for non-combat pets, holidays were the first things I got excited about in WoW. Not just excited, but felt truly at home. It was like they'd made the holidays, these frivolous little events, just for me.

I loved the decorations, the atmosphere, the toys and clothes and pets. I reveled in it the way only a lowbie, unfettered by the pressures of endgame, can.

I had fun. No competition, no uberness, no "my mount is bigger than your mount." Just simple, uncomplicated delight.

So the violet proto-drake is special to me. Not as a number or a speed or a color (though, seriously, yay purple). But as a symbol of what I love about this game--

--the uncomplicated delights.

>_>, or "Yes, I've Done My Orphan Quests Already... On Two Characters"

Birdy and Dusty now have 2 more pets each. I've done the Azeroth and Outlands quest lines (note that the Northrend quest line has not respawned, either intentionally or due to a bug that will not be fixed this year).

See, I dreamed that I had to pee. Then I woke up and did have to pee, so I went to the bathroom and found we had a problem with our toilet. I then woke up husband who called maintenance and long story short I've been up and playing since 5AM while husband has run around getting the toilet fixed. (GOD, I love having him around.)

So it's not even 9AM on the first day of the holiday and I have all my orphans done for the week.

Children's Week 2010, or "Preparation, Preparation, Preparation"

I will be trimming the older posts to reflect updated information for this year, so if you want achievements and all that, use the links provided.

• Alliance Azeroth
• Horde Azeroth
• Outlands
• Northrend
• Achievements

This post will be about preparing to take advantage of opportunities.

Noblegarden 2010, or "So Easy A Level 1 Can Do It"

Am I joking? No. My husband's best friend decided that his bank character, to be as swank as possible, needed a title. "The Noble." I'll be interviewing him after the break.

I rabbit costumed Husband's Best Friend's Bank Alt in Un'goro for [Hard Boiled] and decided to teach a level 52 the foolishness of killing a level 1 with two 80 escorts. Final score: 4 me, 1 his rogue main with a full 5 minute chase where he tried to up his score to 2 (he was angry that I ruined his escort quest) and a wacky aftermath where I hid and my druid friend came back and encouraged me to yell random 4-letter words such as "Hiya!" and "Pink!" to lure the rogue out so he could pounce him.

(I conspicuously left all the other alliance in the area alone, waving and smiling and letting them get the thorium I wanted if they reached it first.)

He didn't come back to try and kill me, but I did get whispered and asked for help with a quest because I'd made my presence known with all that yelling. I didn't reply because I didn't want to go back out with a homicidal main parked in the area and gunning for me. I also had gotten all the kills on his alt that I wanted, so I hearthed.

Moral of that story? Violence begets violence which begets more violence.

Noblegarden Tomorrow

Which is, like, 2 hours from now. I stay up late. >_>

I don't think there's anything to add this year, but I'll try to come up with a little something.

See my Noblegarden 2009 guide for your holiday needs.

And mages, don't forget to get the [Polymorph: Rabbit] this year!!