Well, it's about that time of year when you get to see a lot of your family. Your virtual family, that is. Despite The Sims 4's many warm and fuzzy qualities, though, the game doesn't come with a ton of stuff to help put you in the mood for the holidays. Modders to the rescue!
First and foremost, prolific Sims modder Zerbu has this great "snowy terrain" mod for the new installment that gives the outdoors a bit more of a wintry vibe. It's not perfect—the tops of trees stay completely green, and the rivers don't freeze over. But as Sims Community notes, it's an impressive start. Also, the trees can be adjusted on their own—more on that in a minute.
Here's a zoomed-out view of one neighborhood with the mod, pulled from this SimsVIP roundup:
You can download the snowy terrain here. As for the trees, The Sims Resource has these special snow-encrusted ones that you can swap with the boring ol' green ones if you have the time and patience.
What am I saying? This is The Sims. Of course you have the time and patience!
Speaking of SimsVIP, the blog also showcased a few other great looking items. Like these Christmas pajamas:
...or these Christmas rugs:
...or these wonderfully tacky Christmas decorations:
...or this insanely adorable Christmas house:
And it's actually a full-blown house with multiple floors and everything. So cool!
I've included links to download all the stuff from the SimsVIP showcase if you like what you see. Many of them come from The Sims Resource, which is a great and insanely comprehensive hub for Sims custom creations of all shapes and sizes. They also have this log cabin:
This very snazzy holiday party-themed dress:
These children's dresses, which don't look anything like the creepy girls from The Shining:
An elf:
Some dorky matching family sweaters:
And if you want to get really granular, there's even Christmas jewelry:
There's much, much, much more over at The Sims Resource—more than I could possibly wrap my head around with playing The Sims 4 for a week or two straight. Just looking under the "Christmas" tag is a good way to get started. "Holidays" works too.
Ok, if I have to write "Christmas" one more time I think I'm gonna be sick. Time for more hot cocoa.
To contact the author of this post, write to yannick.lejacq@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq.