The Top 5 Ways to Prepare for a Neopian Christmas

User Lookup

This is where it all begins! Your user lookup is the thing every Neopian will see when they want to know about you, so why not give it a jazzy Christmas theme? A good way is to make yourself a layout based around a festive image. Can’t find one? Neopets provides a variety of wintery desktop backgrounds which are perfect for either adapting yourself or using on their own.

If graphics aren’t your thing, then simply use a Christmassy colour scheme in your lookup, such as the traditional red and green or perhaps a more contemporary blue and white look. This can be done by changing the colour of your font, adding coloured borders to your text and so on, and if you need help with the coding, Neopets even provides a handy html guide to help get you started. However, if this still proves too difficult for you, many Neopians offer petpages containing stunning ‘pre-made’ lookups that you’re free to use – as long as you still give them credit, of course!

Extra Tip: If you don’t want to change your lookup, why not just add a small festive image such as a snowflake or a sprig of holly to your textbox to add a little glimmer of festivity?

Avatar

Where would you be this Christmas without a wintery avatar? Luckily, Neopets offers a huge selection to choose from, giving your Neoboard posts a Christmassy dazzle! Not sure which avatars I mean? Well, where do I start? For the easy-to-get avatars, why not try the Seasonal Attack Pea, ‘Snowy Day’, Ice Hissi, Kiosk Wocky, Christmas fir or ‘Not for wreathale’ avatars? These are mostly clickable avatars that are quick and easy to obtain, although you may have to wait until the Advent Calendar re-opens to obtain a couple of them. Alternatively, you could opt for a rarer avatar, such as the Snowbunny ‘Whee’, Snowager, or ‘Let it Snow’ avatars. Either way, there’s sure to be a Christmas avatar for you that will give your posts that festive shine!

Font

Of course, what’s the point of a Christmas avatar without a stunning font to match? Fonts can be very easy to make and, once again, Neopets’ html guide proves a useful tool for altering your font colour (although, remember to use square brackets for fonts). You have two options: make a font to match your avatar, or invent a Christmassy colour scheme of your own! Also, don’t forget that there are also Neopets Christmas-themed smilies that you could incorporate into your design. These can be arranged in all sorts of fun ways and, if you’re clever, you could even arrange them in the shape of something festive, such as a Christmas tree or present! You can really use your imagination with fonts, and you can experiment with using bold, italics, underlines or even subscript and superscript. If you’re unsure as to what the codes are for any of these techniques, simply go to the post-box (where you type in your posts on any neoboard) and click on the font effect you want to use (which can be found on the left-hand side of the box). The code will then appear, and you can copy and paste this into your font code, replacing the ‘TEXT’ with ‘neohtml’ and voila! You’ve made a font!

Try to be creative with your font, and really make it unique. There are thousands of different fonts you could make, and once you’ve made your perfect one, you’re bound to impress!

Extra Tip: Why not be really festive and incorporate a lyric from a Christmas song into your font?

Guild

Oh, where would we be without our guilds? Some of you would be unaffected since you’re guildless, but for the rest of us, our guild is a haven of joy and fun, and Christmas can be a big part of that. Don’t worry if you’re not a member of your guild council or you have no admin powers; I’m sure if you neomail your suggestions to whoever is in charge, they’ll be happy to put them into practice.

The first thing you might want to do is get a Christmas layout for your guild. I’m sure at least one member would be able to produce one – you could even run a competition to see who can make the best Christmas-themed one! Also, many petpages again offer pre-made layouts, so have a look around for one if you’re really struggling. Guild layouts need not be extremely fancy or complicated, so don’t worry if your guild isn’t full of graphics-masters – you are the members, so as long as you like it, that’s all that matters. Also, don’t forget to change your guild colour scheme to match the layout – there are lots of reds, greens, blues, and whites that you could combine to make a stunning array of festive colours.

Another idea is to lay on some Christmas-themed activities in your guild to really get your members fired up about Christmas. There are hundreds of different ideas you could think of, and it really gives you a chance to use your imagination, but here are some ideas for you:

NOTE: It is AGAINST THE RULES to offer prizes in the form of Neopoints or Items in return for winning competitions in guilds, and you cannot do this. Activities are done just for fun, and not for any sort of personal gain.

Christmas Scavenger Hunt:

A scavenger hunt is when you post a list of things your members must find and take ‘screenies’ of (i.e. screenshot the page and upload these images onto a petpage so that the guild members may view them) and then whoever finds the most wins. Sound simple? Well, it is, and at Christmas you could ask your members to find someone using a certain Christmas avatar, a certain wintery item appearing in a shop, a certain species of Christmas Neopet – the list is endless, and it can be so much fun both compiling the list of things to hunt for and taking part.

Christmas Mystery Pic:

Oh yes, the elusive Mystery Pic! A favourite in guild activities, home-made Mystery Pics are easy to make by copying a Neopets image into paint, zooming in and saving a small section of it and uploading it onto a petpage (or the guild homepage) for every member to able to view. This could be any Neopets-themed image, from a part of a Christmas Neopet or Petpet to any wintery item. There are so many possibilities, and this means that your guild could even run several Christmas Mystery Pics between now and Christmas itself!

Christmas Poetry Contest:

A personal favourite of mine, the good old Poetry Contest! The rules are up to you – it could be Neopets-related or not, or a certain length or of a certain format – but this is a contest that everyone could enter and it can be extremely fun. You could even make it a song, rather than a poem, and have lots of laughs at the kind of random nonsense your members come up with.

Of course, there are hundreds of options for activities and these are just a few that I have thought up myself. I’m sure that more imaginative people could think of some really original ideas that I’d love to hear about myself, but basically anything with a Christmas twist is bound to put a smile on all your members faces!

Extra tip: Why not be extra festive and give your hierarchy an edge by making the ranks Christmassy? I’m sure your members would love to be called “Santa’s Elf’!

Neohome

It’s maybe a little obvious, but your Neohome is definitely the place that you can really make the most festive this Christmas. Thanks to the Advent Calendar there are many items of furniture with a Christmas theme you could buy for your own little Neopian home, such as the Decorated Tree, Roaring Log Fire, Holly Wreath, Snowball Bean Bag, Taelia Poster and the Snow Angel Rug. These are inexpensive, plentiful and can be arranged in your rooms to give a real Christmas-time effect that instantly brings a smile to your face. This effect can be emphasised by choosing furniture that matches your colour-scheme, whether red and green or blue and white, and these are a few of my personal suggestions:

Red and Green:

Red Bean Bag Chair, Red Carpetted Stairs, Dark Red Spooky Candle, Red Paper Lantern, Christmas Spardel Painting, Green Bean Bag Chair, Spooky Green Candles and Green Paper Lantern.

Blue and White:

Blue Play Pen, Blue Feepit Poster, Blue Paper Lantern, Blue Snowflake Biscuit Jar, Plain White Sink, White Lulu Wreath and White Kougra Rug.

By arranging these items of furniture effectively, it’s possible to transform your neohome from a swanky, stylish home into a beautiful winter wonderland!

So there we have it! A short, simple guide to getting you in the Christmas spirit! I hope I’ve inspired you with a few of my ideas, and I’d personally love to hear from you about what how you’ve decided to celebrate Christmas on Neopets this year! So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself out there and let the festivity begin! Have fun, and have a merry Christmas!