The household calendar and holidays were added to the Sims 4 in the Seasons expansion pack. Later on, the calendar was added to the base game (click here to learn how the calendar works). Holidays have remained exclusive to the Sims 4 and they continue to be one of my most used features from that pack! Holidays can add both realism or mania into your game depending on how you customise them. In this post, I will explain how to make, edit, and delete holidays in the Sims 4. Additionally, I include everything you need to know about holiday traditions in the game.
How to Make, Edit, and Delete Holidays in the Sims 4
It’s really easy to add new holidays into your game and edit the premade ones. Here’s how to do it:
Create Custom Holidays
Step #1 – Open The Calendar
Open the calendar, select which day to put the holiday on, and click add a holiday on the left hand side of the calendar display.
Step #2 – Holiday Name
Type in a name for your holiday in the bar at the top of the pop-up.
Step #3 – Personalise the Holiday
Customise each of the following features of your holiday:
- Holiday Icon (Top left)
- There are 27 unique icons to choose from. If you want more options, then some talented simmers out there have created mods that add more into your game.
- Decoration Theme (Top Right)
- Decorations can be put up using The Attic Stack Decoration Box object (can be bought from build/buy mode) and they will hang from the fences and roof trims of your sim’s house.
- Day Off Work/School (Top Right below Decoration Theme)
- This option determines whether your sims go to work or school on the day of the holiday or not. If ticked, then they will not attend.
- Select Traditions (Bottom)
- Up to five traditions can be chosen, but none are required in order to create a holiday. All of the traditions available are explained later on in this post.
Step #4 – Save the Holiday to your game
Select the tick mark in the bottom right hand corner to add the holiday to your sim’s calendar. Holidays save to the calendars of all households in that save file, so if you play with a different household in the same game save, then the holidays that you have created will appear in their calendar’s as well!
Holidays will automatically appear each year (every time the season returns) unless deleted.
Edit or Delete Holidays
Open calendar, select the day with the holiday that you want to edit. On the left hand side of the screen next to the holiday name are two options. One is to edit the holiday, which will open up the same pop-up as when you’re creating a holiday so you can edit everything about it. The other option is to delete the holiday from your sim’s calendar. The holiday will be deleted from all calendars in that save file.
“Edit Holiday” option
“Cancel Holiday” option
Premade Holidays
When you load into a new game save file, the following four holidays with these traditions will already be scheduled in the calendar:
Love Day – Romantic Spirit, Give Flowers, Go on a Date (Spring)
Harvestfest – Decorate, Holiday Gnomes, Grand Meal, Thankful Spirit (Autumn)
Winterfest – Decorate, Festive Spirit, Open Presents, Grand Meal, Father Winter (Winter)
New Year’s Eve – Decorate, Party Spirit, Make Resolutions, Countdown to Midnight (Winter)
Surprise Holidays
There will also be surprise holidays that are not shown in the calendar. They will appear in the calendar randomly and only a few days before they occur. These holidays cannot be altered by the player and some have unique traditions. The surprise holidays are:
Neighbourhood Brawl – Fighting
New Skill Day – Skill Improvement
Night on the Town – Free Food and Drinks
Prank Day – Mischief Spirit
Rebate Day – Shopping Rebate
Talk Like a Pirate Day – Talk Like a Pirate
The Lottery – Play the Lottery
TV Season Premiere – Watch TV Premiere
How Seasons Affect Holidays
Season lengths can be adjusted in the Sims 4 and this affects the days on which holidays occur.
- 7 Days
- 14 Days
- 28 Days
Holidays will remain in the same season that you created them in if you change the season length. This means that if you create a halloween holiday in the middle weekend of the autumn season when your seasons are set to be 14 days long and then you change season length to 7 days, halloween will remain in the autumn season but might move to the middle of the week to reflect being in the middle of the season. It is not exact and is a bit unpredictable where holidays will move to if you change the season length, so I recommend sticking to one season length for the game save that you don’t change.
All Holiday Traditions in the Sims 4 Seasons
Below is a table of all the traditions that are in the game and what each of them entails regarding gameplay if chosen.
| Tradition Name | How To Complete |
|---|---|
| Air Grievances | Select other sims and choose mean social interactions. |
| Appreciate an Object | Select objects and choose the option to Appreciate it. |
| Art & Music Spirit | Make art (such as Painting or Dancing or Knitting) or do something musical (such as Singing or Listening to music or Playing an Instrument like Piano or Guitar). |
| Attend Holiday Ceremony | Click on your sim’s phone, then the travel category, and select the Attend a Holiday Ceremony option. |
| Baking | Bake (Get to Work) or Cook (Base Game) and choose a baked good. |
| Bar-B-Que | Use any outdoor grill to grill food. |
| Cleaning | Clean something by emptying the rubbish, mopping up puddles, cleaning up dishes, … |
| Countdown to Midnight | After 23:00 (11:00PM) sims can select Watch the Countdown to Midnight on TV. |
| Decorate | Put Up Decorations by clicking on The Attic Stack Decoration Box. |
| Drinking | Drink from a bar, drinks tray or drinks stand. |
| Egg Hunt | Choose the Hunt for Egg option on any object. |
| Exercise | Exercise by jogging, doing push-ups, lifting weights, or punching a boxing bag. |
| Fasting | Do NOT eat any food for 6 hours. |
| Father Winter | When Father Winter shows up at your sim’s lot Ask For Present. Place a Fireplace and a Pile of Presents on the lot. |
| Festive Lighting | Select the Light Candle option on a Holiday Tree, Kinara, or Menorah. |
| Festive Spirit | Use festive social interaction such as Ask If Good or Bad or Belly Laugh. |
| Fighting | Click on another sim and select Fight under mean interactions. |
| Fire | Light a campfire, bonfire, fireplace, or burn a leaf pile and interact with it. |
| Fireworks (requires City Living) | Buy fireworks from San Myshuno Humour and Hijinks festival stalls and light them. |
| Flower Bunny | Do friendly social interactions with the Flower Bunny. |
| Games | Play video games on the computer, cards, chess, with toys, or with the arcade. |
| Gardening | Interact with plants in any way such as by harvesting, planting, watering, weeding or spraying them. |
| Give Flowers | Give Gift to another sim after buying a flower via Purchase Gift interaction on the phone or computer. |
| Give Gifts | Give Gifts to other sims and check the mailbox for gifts sent to you. |
| Go On A Date | Use Ask On Date interaction on the phone. |
| Go On A Vacation Or Travel | Visit another lot, which is not a residential one. |
| Grand Meal | Click on the fridge or stove and select Cook a Grand Meal. Then, click on the meal and select Call to Grand Meal. |
| Holiday Gnomes | Gnomes will appear around your lot. Click on them and choose to Appease the Gnome. |
| Invite Guests | Invite to Hangout at Current Lot using the phone. When the invited sims arrive, socialise with at least two of them. |
| Light Kinara | Click on the Kinara and Light Candle. |
| Light Menorah | Click on the Menorah and Light Candle. |
| Make Resolutions | Make Resolution by clicking on your own sim. |
| Mischief Spirit | Use any mischief social interactions on another sim. |
| Open Presents | Purchase a gift pile from build/buy mode or place gifts under a holiday tree and then use the Open a Present interaction. |
| Party Spirit | Drink, Dance, Play an Instrument, Tell Jokes, Flirt, or Sing. |
| Polar Bear Plunge | Swim in an outdoor pool when it’s cold outside. |
| Remembrance | Meet a ghost or interact with either an urn or gravestone. |
| Romantic Spirit | Use romantic social interactions with another sim. |
| Spooky Spirit | Interact with Ghosts, vampires, or aliens. |
| Sports TV | Watch Sports on TV. |
| Streaking | Go Streaking by clicking on your own sim. |
| Tell Stories | Tell a Story, read to a toddler, or tell stories around a campfire. |
| Thankful Spirit | Use the Be Thankful social interaction under friendly and affection. |
| Trick or Treat | Children and teens will knock on your sim’s front door and then select the Trick or Treat interaction. Perfect for Halloween! |
| Watch Romantic TV | Watch Romance on TV. |
| Water Fun | Swim or interact with a kiddie pool, sprinklers, or water balloons. |
| Wear Costumes | Wear a Costume by clicking on your own sim. |
Your sims traits and age can affect whether they ignore a tradition or love a tradition. If ignored, a tradition is treated as though it doesn’t exist for that sim, so it does not need to be completed to have a successful holiday.
Learn more about the pre-made holidays in the sims 4 and find inspiration for holidays to create here!
Conclusion
It’s easy to make your own holiday in the Sims 4 by using the family calendar feature. This post outlined how to do so as well as listed all of the premade holidays, surprise holidays, and holiday traditions.
I hope that you’re having a lovely day wherever you may be simming from in the world!
Let me know in the comments below: what are your favourite custom holidays to add to the game?
4 Comments