Let It Snow

This is a mercifully kinder achievement than others of its ilk in What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, because most of the combinations here are fairly common. Statistically speaking, the hardest one to get will probably be the dwarf paladin. You'll still have to hunt some of them down, of course, but none of them approach the absurdity of having to find a dwarf rogue for Pilgrim's Bounty. However, the post-Cataclysm world -- with the Alliance and Horde largely confined to their own cities back on "old Azeroth" -- is going to make this a bit tougher than it was when everyone was holed up in Shattrath or Dalaran. You'll probably have the best luck sitting around a neutral quest hub in the new Cataclysm leveling zones and waiting for the right race/class combination to appear. Failing that, a lot of players will have to go to Dalaran to get A Frosty Shake done, so you can always give the Wrath hub city a try.

Handful of Snowflakes are random rewards from /kissing Winter Revelers in inns. You'll need to keep at this long enough to get the 10 handfuls you'll need and then hunt down the race/class combinations. Target the players in question, right-click your snowflakes, and you're all set.

Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's (Alliance) or Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's (Horde)

You'll need to track down a set of NPCs for this achievement, and while it looks like the Alliance has a lot more legwork to do, in reality, most of their "brothers" are in Stormwind. Track 'em all down, use the Mistletoe you'll get as a random gift from /kissing Winter Revelers, and you're in business.

For the time being, I'm not going to bother with specific coordinates that have probably changed post-Cataclysm, but I'll update this section as soon as the holiday goes live.

For Alliance

1. Brother Nimetz The Rebel Camp in Stranglethorn Vale
2. Brother Anton Nijel's Point in Desolace
3. Brother Karman Theramore
4. Brother Wilhelm Goldshire
5. All of the other brothers can be located in the Stormwind Cathedral or directly outside of it (Brother Kristof, the sole Brother outside, is in Crusader's Square).

For Horde

1. Brother Malach Undercity's War Quarter
2. Durkot Wolfbrother Warsong Hold (near the stables housing the wolves)
3. Brother Keltan Located aboard the Horde gunship, Orgrim's Hammer, that patrols the northeastern portion of Icecrown

The Winter Veil Gourmet

The cooking skills you may have acquired during Pilgrim's Bounty are going to come in handy here, because you'll need to cook up three holiday recipes. The Gingerbread Cookie, Egg Nog, and Hot Apple Cider recipes are all sold by Winter Veil NPCs in major cities, although the Hot Apple Cider recipe is only sold by their Ironforge and Orgrimmar counterparts. I also recall my main getting mailed the cider recipe instead of having to buy it, so you may not necessarily have to drop the money on it. As a shopping list for all three recipes, plan on buying or getting:

• 1 Ice Cold Milk: Sold by innkeepers just about everywhere
• 2 Holiday Spirits: Sold by Winter's Veil NPCs
• 1 Sparkling Apple Cider: Sold by Winter's Veil NPCs
• 3 Holiday Spices: Sold by Winter's Veil NPCs
• 2 Small Egg: Dropped most commonly (and conveniently) by Eversong dragonhawk mobs for Horde and moonkin mobs east of Auberdine for Alliance. You'll also find a ton of these sold at wildly inflated prices on the auction house if you can't be bothered to make the trip.

You'll need at least 325 cooking skill to make all three recipes (1cooking for the Gingerbread Cookie, 35 for the Egg Nog, and 325 for the cider), so if you didn't level yours when you had the chance during Pilgrim's Bounty, you'll have some work to do.

He Knows if You've Been Naughty

Opening one of the presents beneath the Ironforge or Orgrimmar tree is quite simple -- you'll just need to wait on the presents to start spawning, which will start happening on Dec. 25 and will continue until the end of the holiday. When this happens, you'll see a series of quests spawn on top of specific presents, and all you have to do is right-click on one to open it. You used to have to wait for other presents to spawn, but last year you were able to get all your presents at once, which was quite nice.

As an aside, both the Clockwork Rocket Bot from 2007 and the Crashin' Thrashin' Racer from 2008 went on to become feats of strength, so if there's a new toy or noncombat pet offered through the gifts this year, hang onto it just in case. The 2009 gift, the Red Rider Air Rifle, turned out to be associated with a new Winter Veil achievement called BB King (Alliance) / BB King (Horde) that's still around but not required for the Merrymaker meta.

A Frosty Shake

This achievement sounds pretty straightforward, but you'll actually need to line up three things for it:

• the Winter Veil Disguise Kit:
• a Snowball
• another willing Snowman in Dalaran.

Yes, you'll still need to go to Dalaran for this.

The disguise kit is easy to get -- it's an unannounced reward from completing the questline needed for Simply Abominable, so if you've done that achievement, you can expect to receive the disguise kit in the mail within the next 24 hours. Snowballs, as previously stated, can be purchased from holiday NPCs, picked up from snowy areas around the world, or dropped from Hyldnir Spoils. Finding snowmen in Dalaran will be easy during the first few days of the holiday, but the number will start dwindling as time goes on, so you're probably better off doing this achievement sooner rather than later. That said, there were a number of generous souls on my server who simply parked themselves on the bank steps as a snowman and /danced the night away to enable others to get their achievement, and -- as with the people who rolled rogues of underplayed races and got them summoned to Dalaran for Pilgrim's Bounty -- I wish nothing but the happiest of fortunes upon them this holiday season.

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Working on achievements? The Overachiever is here to help! We cover everything from Glory of the Hero and Insane in the Membrane to Master of Alterac Valley and Lil' Game Hunter, and you can count on us to guide you through Azeroth's holidays and special events.

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