Deep Dive into the Sims 4 Calendar System

Originally the family calendar was added to the game as part of the Sims 4 Seasons expansion pack, but in 2021 it was added to the base game. In this post, I will deep dive into all the features of the calendar system (such as events, holidays, birthdays and more) so that you can play the Sims 4 knowing exactly how the calendar works!

How To Use The Calendar In The Sims 4 

Access the calendar in live mode on the bottom left UI close to the centre of your screen. There are three main features of the calendar that everyone has access to for free with the base game: 

1. Work, School, and Birthday Schedule 
2. Add Events
   • Players can plan events up to two weeks in advance. 
   • It’s possible to have multiple events in a day but they must be at least an hour apart. When the second event starts it will finish your first one, so both won’t happen at the same time. 
3. Lunar Phases
   • This doesn’t affect gameplay unless you have the Sims 4 Werewolves game pack, but it is displayed for all players. 

Below are all of the features of the calendar that are added for different packs: 

Seasons Expansion Pack Calendar Features 

• Holidays 

Learn about how to make, edit, or delete holidays in the calendar in this post! 

• Weather 
  • Players can see the forecast for the next seven in-game days 
• Filter All Event Types 
  • Useful when you have a lot of sims with different schedules in the household or if you like to play with lots of holidays. 

• Favourite Events or Festivals
  • On the left hand side of the calendar there is a heart that you can select next to each event to favourite it. 

More Calendar Features (And The Packs They’re A Part Of) 

• Festivals 
  • City Living
  • Snowy Escape 
  • Cottage Living 
• Stay Overs 
  • Growing Together 
• School Team Events 
  • High School Years 
• Wedding Events 
  • Wedding Stories 

Gameplay that the Calendar is Useful For in the Sims 4 

Here’s a list of ways that the calendar feature can be used to enhance your gameplay: 

• Remembering birthdays 
  • It can be useful to know when your sim’s birthday is, so that you can plan a birthday party for them or you can have a kids bed already placed in their room for when they’re no longer a toddler. 
• Reflect your reality better 
  • The Sims as a game is meant to emulate everyday life. In life we can plan and predict what’s coming up in the near future, so it only makes sense that our sims can too! 
• Plan days off work or school to plan a vacation 
  • The calendar shows the school and work schedules of all the sims in your household. This is very helpful for planning vacations (especially trips to Granite Falls or Selvadorada which are exclusively vacation worlds). 
• Keep track of festivals and events 
  • This is particularly useful for the Sims 4 Cottage Living expansion pack because each weekly village competition requires different entries. It’s super helpful to know whether your sims should be growing oversized crops or baking pies for the upcoming competition. 
• Use for challenges  
  • Sometimes the calendar can be really helpful for staying on track with challenges. For example, in the grey generation of not-so-berry challenge I create a family movie night holiday every weekend so that I don’t forget to host them as part of the challenge. 
• Keep track of when the season will change 
  • If you have the Sims 4 Seasons installed, then knowing when the season will change is needed in order to keep your crops alive. Use the calendar to know when it’s time to move crops that are about to be out-of-season into sheltered areas. 
• See weather forecast and use for planning events 
  • It can be useful to know what the weather is going to be for the next few days in game in case that affects which activities you were planning on making your sims do.

FAQs 

Why is my sim’s birthday not on the calendar? 

The calendar will only show your sim’s next birthday and not all of their future birthdays after that. 

If there is no birthday showing on the calendar at all, then your game might be set to have auto ageing off. Go to game options (top right hand corner of screen in manage worlds or live mode) and navigate to gameplay using the sidebar. There will be an option for auto ageing active households. Make sure this is set to yes in order for your sims to age naturally and their birthdays to appear in the calendar. 

How many days in a year in Sims 4? 

The length of the seasons in your game determines the length of a year. Season length can be changed in game options under the “environment” category. Here’s the break down: 

• 7 day seasons => 28 days per year
• 14 day seasons => 56 days per year
• 28 day seasons => 112 days per year 

Note that the “year” I’m referencing above is not the same as a human year in game. Your sims don’t live for years in between different life stages. It’s a matter of days or weeks in the game for each life stage.

How do you skip days (or seasons) in Sims 4? 

You can skip days by skipping seasons in the sims 4. After enabling cheats (learn more here), you can cheat to skip ahead to the next season by typing seasons.advance_season into the cheat bar and pressing enter. You can do this repeatedly until landing on the season that you desire. No mods are needed for this cheat.

How do you advance days in the Sims 4? 

An easy way to advance days in the sims 4 is to use the mod called UI Cheats. It allows you to click on any part of the UI and instantly change anything from the day, time, or season to your sim’s skill level or hunger need. Here’s the link to all the information about the mod: https://www.patreon.com/posts/ui-cheats-v1-36-26240068 

Conclusion

Now that the calendar has been a base game feature for two years already let me know what you like to use it for in the comments below! 

I hope you’re having a lovely day and keep simming!