Santa hat

A Santa hat is an item of clothing that was the last tradeable holiday drop, as part of the 2002 Christmas event. They were dropped only on 25 December 2002. All day they appeared randomly on the ground all over RuneScape, in batches about every six minutes. A player could pick up as many as they wanted.

Although Jagex at the time described them as "just a bit of fun", they have since become an expensive and much-coveted item amongst players. Even if a player does not own a Santa hat, they can borrow one from a player who does via the Item Lending feature.

All players can wear a Santa hat on their head. They give no statistic bonuses on the main game, although they give +3 Magic on RuneScape Classic.

Santa Hats are also commonly worn with a Santa suit which was released on 16 December 2008 during the 2008 Christmas event.



Market History
Players were buying and selling Santa hats for only about 30,000 coins on the day they were dropped. Like other tradeable holiday drops, their value has since climbed into millions.

Santa hats were selling for around 500k in December 2003. Since then, the price had risen to about 20 million to 24 million by 2007 (although this increase was not continuous). Then, following the duel arena, wilderness, and trading changes in November and December 2007 and January 2008, the price plummeted down to as low as 11.2 million coins.

During 2008, in general, the price rose to about 15 million by the summer and 18 million by December. There was some speculation due to the known release of the Santa suit (which did not include a hat) in December 2008, but it is unclear how much this actually affected the price. A few days before Christmas 2008 the price of Santas crashed. It reached a low of 12 million to 13 million in February and March 2009.

Since March 2009, the price of Santas has risen greatly, although not continuously. Most of the increases have been large rises in short time periods, each one followed by a crash, a period of instability, and a stabilization at a higher price. By January 2010, the price of Santas was about 34 million coins.

In February 2010, a major rise in the price of Santas began. The price passed the 40 million mark and shortly after, the 50 million mark. A few days later, it reached the 60 million mark. On 28 February 2010, when Santas had reached 65.0 million median price, they crashed. However; they only declined to 51 million before they started rising again. They rose back to 58 million, then slowly decreased to a little under 55 million and has stabilized around that price for the rest of March and first week of April 2010. During the second week of April and onwards, Santas have been increasing in price and by the end of April, reached to the price of 65 million once again. In the 2nd week of March 2010, the santa hat shot up to 81 million. Now, 21 May 2010, the Santa Hat is worth 92 million, which is the highest price it ever was.

Many have theorized about the causes of this fairly sudden rise from a little over 30 million to over 78 million. Possible theories include the buyout of masks at the Grand Exchange, which left Santas as the only discontinued item that was easily tradeable, the mint cake crash and its effects in the economy, or price manipulation clans hoarding the hats, but the exact cause is still unclear. Because of Jagex's advertisements and thousands of new players every year, the discontinued items will keep rising because the number cannot fit the popular demand for such an item. Basically the demand will become greater and the supply will drop (players quitting with santa hats).

Trivia

 * The Santa Hat is the 9th most expensive item for F2P players.
 * As an old practical joke, players would leave a ball of wool or ashes and red bead on the ground waiting for other players to come across and pick it up. When together, the ball of wool or ashes and red bead look very similar to a dropped Santa hat.
 * The Santa hat look can be achieved by changing the players hair cut to a white coloured cut and adopting a red fez. This now looks very similar to a Santa hat.