2009 Christmas event



The 2009 Christmas event is a holiday event planned by Jagex. It will be released on or before 23 December 2009. It was announced in the update "Christmas Cards and Blog" and in the developer blog "Holiday Event: A Christmas Warble". In conjunction with the announcement and the release of the blog, three Christmas cards were released in the website.

The event was developed mainly in September and October of 2009. It is the first project developed by Mod Edam.

A new particles graphics effect will be added in the form of snow. It is the first place that players will see this in RuneScape.

Mod Ajd has said that the Christmas event will be better than last year's, but Jagex will "leave the players to decide that one."

History
The 2009 Christmas event was first announced in the news item "Christmas Cards and Blog". It linked to a developer blog written by the developer of the event, Mod Edam. In the developer blog, titled "Holiday Event: A Christmas Warble", Mod Edam gave a few details about what the event would be like.

Mod Edam wanted the graphics of the event to have a "Christmassy" atmosphere, and said that he was "really pleased with what was produced." To add to the "Christmassy" atmosphere, Jagex will be releasing a new particle system in RuneScape that will include a more realistic look of snow. Players will see it coming out of a wardrobe, a possible reference to the novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. At least some of the event will take place in the Land of Snow, where a "surprise" will be seen. This year, the entrance to the Land of Snow will be in the wardrobe mentioned above.

New characters will be released with the event, but Jack Frost and snow imps, characters seen in a previous Christmas event, will have small cameos. Santa Claus will presumably appear, based on Christmas cards that represent the event. The event's plot will be based on a traditional Christmas story, but will have some changes.

Mod Edam has confirmed that the rewards of the event will not be the same as the rewards from previous events, and they will not be tradeable. He has also said that the new rewards of the event will not give any player any notable advantage over another, but will still be fun and somewhat useful.

Some players have speculated that the traditional Christmas story that Mod Edam is basing the event on will be Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but this has not been confirmed. The title of the first blog by Edam is "A Christmas Warble", "warble" being a variation of the word carol (i.e. A Christmas Carol). The caption for one of the pictures posted on Edam's blog stated, "Beware of the Humbug", "humbug" being a well-known word that Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol's main character, often says in the book. One of the Christmas cards released at the same time as the "Christmas Cards and Blog" news post is titled "A Christmas Warble" and captioned, "Santa brings a Hint of Christmas Future in this festive card." The picture is of Santa Claus, an old man (speculated to be Scrooge) and a young boy (speculated to be Tiny Tim, hinted by the crutch under his right arm). Furthermore, "Christmas Cards and Blog" makes a reference to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who is one of the four ghosts that visits Scrooge in the novel: "Like the Ghost of Christmas Future we're here to offer a hint of what's to come this Christmas, in the form of a new Christmas card and developer blog." Based on a screenshot from the event, it may also involve Jack Frost freezing living things into what look like ice sculptures like he did last year. This idea is also supported by the fact that if you summon your snow imp after the event, it talks about Jack still creating ice sculptures, but this time, he is making the real ones instead of freezing them.