Festive aura

The Festive aura is a special aura that was received during an event in December of 2012 and was also obtainable for a second time on 1 December 2013, and returned again in December of 2014. The aura features a 50% experience boost and a wintery cosmetic effect. It was released alongside December 2012's Winter Weekends. During December, the "festive bonus" experience effect remains activated for 30 minutes with a usage limit of once per day (resetting at 00:00 UTC every day), after which it became just a cosmetic aura. This item was the first aura available that does not require Loyalty points to purchase.

To reclaim in 2014 a player needs to talk to Xuan or Dilwyn by opening his shop and looking at auras. The festive aura will be the last on the list.

During December 2013, the festive aura can only be reclaimed by talking to a Helpful snow imp.

In December 2012, the aura was deposited into all members' inventories upon their first log-in in that month. If both the bank and inventory were full, players could talk to Xuan to obtain the aura manually. Xuan will still replace the aura, even if lost or destroyed after the event period; however, during December 2013, the replacement will be unuseable until the next reset. He also used to replace the aura if it was lost or destroyed each time the player spoke to him, even if they didn't want it, although this has been corrected. Players who subscribed at any time during December were still eligible to receive the aura.

Experience bonus
The bonus is said to work the same way as any other XP-boosting aura does. It is confirmed to stack with other bonuses such as bonus experience and skill outfits. It does not boost one-time XP rewards, such as those from resource dungeon discoveries or turning in a daily challenge. The daily bonus experience is capped at 50,000. The aura can now be taken into Daemonheim for bonus experience, although this was not possible until 3 December 2012.

The festive aura stacks with bonus experience multiplicatively, tripling experience while it lasts. First the aura adds 50% experience, for a total of 150% experience; which is then doubled to 300% experience by the bonus experience.

2012 (historical)
The items listed here were no longer available (as experience boosting items) when the aura made its return in December 2013, after the bonus experience update.

Release
The aura was revealed first through a lobby message, confirmed in forums, and after the news post, concept artwork from the RuneScape Facebook page was posted. Mention of it was among the login promotion messages on free-to-play servers.

"This will be announced officially tomorrow, but it will indeed work like other Auras, with a 30 minute duration which can be used once per day. It will also have a cool wintery cosmetic special effect too!"

- Mod Pips

Trivia

 * Prior to a hidden update on 3 December 2013, the Festive aura had a cooldown period of 23h 30min.
 * An animation can be triggered in which more snow falls from the wings. Toggling weapon sheath, equipping, and unequipping an item are a few of the display triggers. Depositing memories at an Energy Rift triggers this, causing it to play constantly.
 * There was a glitch where the glowing runes of the aura would appear at your hand even when you have a staff sheathed.
 * The effect of the Inferno adze is less likely to activate with this aura activated.
 * Reclaiming the aura from Xuan used to reset the recharge timer to 24 hours. Currently reclaiming the aura resets the recharge timer to the next new RS day.
 * Harvesting barberries would only grant 25 bonus agility xp, regardless of normal xp gained. Coshing in Thieves' Guild also gives less experience than it should.
 * Destroying it gives the message: "Are you sure you want to destroy this item? You can get a replacement from the Loyalty Shop or a helpful snow imp."
 * For the first two days of the 2013 Christmas Event, it counted as a Blessing of Winter item for obtaining Festive crackers.