The Sims 3 Seasons Guide Essentials Seasons

Fall

There is no surer sign that autumn has arrived than Midas’s touch on the leaves. The brilliant gold of falling leaves may cause messes, but there is beauty to be found in the sweetly mournful change of seasons. Enjoy the brisk fall afternoons while you can, because when the fall festival closes shop and the sunset starts coming early, the unforgiving chill of winter is just around the corner.

Fall Holiday: Spooky Day

Spooky Day is based on Halloween. On this day, most people in town dress up in costumes. Click on your Sim and choose Change into Costume, and then select the costume from the menu, which includes gnomes, hot dogs, divers, and more! Every age group has a different set of available costumes. For example, children cannot be skeletons, but teens and up can.

Sims get to engage in trick-or-treating on any day in fall, including Spooky Day. When you click on occupied houses, a Trick-or-Treat interaction is added to the menu. You may trick-or-treat alone or with another Sim. Choose either, and your Sim will walk up to the house and ring the doorbell. At this point, they hold out a candy bag and hope the occupant answers and gives out a tasty little treat.

If you are at home during Spooky Day, be prepared for trick-or-treaters at your door. Answer the door and give out candy!

Now, there is the matter of that word “trick” in trick-or-treat. If teen Sims have the Evil, Inappropriate, or Mean Spirited traits, there is a chance they will instead opt to throw an egg at your house. (If you have Generations, you’re familiar with this prank.) Otherwise, the teen will just perform a small act of vandalism. If you are an active teen and trick-or-treating, you may opt to trick on houses, too. And if your Sim possesses those previously mentioned traits, there is an increased chance they will egg the house. After egging a house, a teen crosses it off the list of houses they can trick-or-treat at.

Fall Party Suggestion: Costume Party

Costume parties are a great way to get friends and family together for hours of laughter and merriment. When you throw this party, Sims arrive in randomly selected costumes. At this point, the party unfolds like a traditional house party. However, you can add a Halloween flair to the party by using objects such as the Apple Bobbing Tank or installing a Scarecrow on the lot.

There are specific costumes for each age group and gender, but you do not actually choose what costume your Sim dons. There are fun animal costumes, career costumes, and mascots costumes—just to name a few!

Summer: Branches full of bright, lush green leaves.

Fall: Leaves turn gold and brown and start to fall. Leaves gather beneath the tree.

Winter: Stark, empty branches—no leaves.

Spring: Green leaves slowly reappear on naked branches.

When trees start losing their leaves in the fall, not too many appear on the ground. Over time, though, dead leaves build up around tress. You may ignore the leaves on your lot and they eventually will decay (especially with the arrival of winter), but some Sims will be distressed by the messiness on their yards. You can now rake leaves (click on the leaves and choose the Rake interaction) to rake the leaves into piles. Once leaves are in piles, you have a few options:

Dispose: Easy enough. Pick up the leaves in bags and place them in the trash. If you are interrupted before depositing the leaves in the trash and drop the bag, that bag can cause an environmental hit to your lot. If the leaves are left to rot, there is a chance that cockroaches will appear. If you have Pets installed, a rodent may scurry out of decomposing leaves.

Play: You can jump in piles of leaves, which is a lot of fun, but it decreases Hygiene. Two Sims can play in leaves together, too, for both Fun and Social.

WooHoo/Try for Baby: That’s right. Burrow into the big ol’ pile of leaves and make a little magic. Like playing in a leaf pile, a Sim doing this takes a hit to Hygiene.

Burn: FIRE! FIRE!! Set fire to a stack of leaves and watch them burn. Ash piles are left behind.

Burning leaves. So pretty.

Pumpkins

There’s an all-new harvestable in Seasons: pumpkins. Pumpkins are grown like any other harvestable, either from seed or fruit, and they can be purchased at the market. You may also find seeds in the wild while walking around town—keep your eyes down from time to time. Pumpkins are a level 5 harvestable, so you need moderate Gardening skill to enjoy this fruit.

Once grown and harvested, pumpkins can either be used as an ingredient in a new dessert, pumpkin pie, or carved into Jack-o-Lanterns.

Jack-o-Lanterns are, of course, synonymous with autumn and especially Halloween—or, Spooky Day, in Seasons. When you have a pumpkin in your inventory or on the lot, you may click on it and choose Carve Pumpkin.

You can choose a design from a menu, and then your Sim sets about the process of cleaning and carving. After a few moments, they’ve carved a perfectly adorable (or diabolical) Jack-o-Lantern.

Carved pumpkin can be lit, which makes them rather pretty.

Want to really ruin somebody’s day? Stomp their pumpkin. Now, Mean Spirited, Evil, and Grumpy Sims are likely to automatically do this (and have fun doing so), you can also choose the Stomp interaction on any Jack-o-Lantern. Just make sure the pumpkin isn’t lit or you may get hit by the On Fire moodlet! Any children (or Childish) Sims that see you stomping a Jack-o-Lantern will cry. Jerk.

Once carved, a pumpkin has a short shelf life. It begins to decay. Be sure to dispose of unfinished or rotting pumpkins because they stink and are unpleasant to be around.

Fall Festival

The Fall Festival has made its way to town, setting up just in time to get everyone in the mood for Spooky Day! Don your best costume and come celebrate with us, won’t you? Try your luck; the pie eating contest and apple bobbing tank await!

If competition doesn’t strike your fancy, grab a city slicker’s portion and watch from the sidelines. A trip through the haunted house may leave you a changed Sim—literally! Cap it all off with a stroll through the pumpkin patch to pick out a carving pumpkin, fresh from the farm.

Hours of Operation: 8 AM–9 PM

Festival Food

Dish	Price
Hot Chocolate	5
Hot Cider	5
Soda	5
Fruit Punch	5
Coffee	5
Cinnamon Donut	5
Pie	8
Sweet Potato Fries	8
Ice Cream Cone	8
French Fries	8
Tofu Dog	10
Hamburger	10
Hot Dog	10

Festival Ticket Prices

Prize	Tickets
Face Painting Booth	50
Apple Bobbing Tank	50
The Scary Shack	100
Pie Eating Competition Trough	100

Haunted House!

When the crypt doors shake and tombstones quake... towering above the Fall Festival grounds is the Scary Shack, a haunted house Sims love to tour. Just look at the windows of this creepy joint. Ghosts? Mummies? Spiders? What else lurks in there?

Fortunately, the haunted house itself is harmless—nobody gets hurt when they go on a little tour, although some Sims are certainly hesitant to step inside. (Brave Sims march right in and shrug it off on their way back out.) Though no physical harm comes from the tour, some Sims may be in a bit of a panic as they exit. Some Sims will have a bladder failure or even vomit as they step back into the fresh autumn air.

There is a small chance that some Sims will exit the house with a moodlet:

Attacked by the Mummy
Sucked into the Fourth Dimension
Haunted
Brushed with Zombie Fingers

Face Painting

What festival is complete without a face painting booth? Every festival has a small tent where you can get a sweet little design painted on your mug. Designs include not only those found in the Make-Up tab of Create a Sim, but also some seasonal options:

Pumpkin
Turkey

When you choose the Get Face Painted interaction, your Sim slips into the tent for a moment. When they emerge, they have a little splash of color on their face. Getting your face painted satisfies the Fun need. Face painting costs §50.

Now, there is a chance that face painting doesn’t exactly work out. If the activity fails, your Sim emerges with a mess o’ make-up on their face, such as big smudges. This doesn’t ruin your day with a negative moodlet, but you definitely do not gain any Fun.

Face painting naturally fades after a few hours. If you want to remove it manually, you can hop in the shower, remove it via a mirror, or change your outfit.

Pumpkin Patch

Sims love to celebrate this seasons with pumpkins. Pumpkin pie. Jack-o-Lanterns. So much to do with pumpkins. And though you can grow your own year-round, there is a pumpkin patch right in the heart of the Fall Festival grounds with fully grown pumpkins, ready to be harvested. Head on over and pick out a plump one so you can carve up a righteous Jack-o-Lantern back home!

A Scarecrow watches over the pumpkin patch. If you take the time to view the Scarecrow, you might be in for a bit of a surprise. There is a chance you’ll see the Scarecrow come to life (for just a moment) and either do a merry jig or make a freaky face!

Bob for Apples!

Bobbing for apples is an activity traditionally associated with autumn festivals, however it can be used year-round. Up to four Sims can use the Apple Bobbing Tank to have fun and see who can collect the most apples using only their teeth. When you select the Bob for Apples interaction, the game will attempt to route up to three other Sims over to the tank to play along. At least two Sims are required to play, so after a few moments, the game will begin as long as one other Sim joins.

Once the game starts, Sims bend down and start biting at the apples. When a Sim nabs an apple, they rise up and spit it off to the side before dunking their heads back into the tank. The first Sim to grab five apples from the tank wins! That Sim then gets the Winner moodlet. All Sims then receive Festival Tickets, although the winner gets the most.

You can also opt to choose Join or Ask to Join in order to request specific Sims to join your game. If joining, this just pushes your Sim to an open slot around the busy tank.

Pie Eating Contest

During the Fall Festival, you may try your luck (and intestinal fortitude) at the pie eating contest. Compete against up to two other Sims to see exactly who can fill their piehole the fastest. You may either Enter by yourself or Challenge other Sims to the contest.

Like to hot dog eating contest during summer, when the contest begins, everybody puts their head down and starts shoveling. The contest ends when the first player cleans their plate. That Sim banks festival tickets and gets the Winner moodlet! The winner can also use the Brag about Winning Eating Competition social while enjoying the Winner moodlet. Second place and third place get smaller ticket awards.

Five factors help determine who wins the contest:

Low Hunger need prior to the start of the contest.
The fewer slices of pie eaten in the day or two prior to the contest, the better. Any kind of pie counts toward this, such as key lime pie or pumpkin pie.
The Sim hasn’t entered an eating contest for at least three days.
If the Sim’s favorite food is pie, they have a natural advantage.
Ghosts, SimBots, Mummies, Vampires, and Imaginary Friends can naturally eat more and, thus, have a slight edge here.

Every competitor in the contest gets the Stuffed moodlet as well as pie all over their face. This lowers Hygiene. Some competitors may also get the Nauseous moodlet. If that happens, they may retreat to the bushes and evacuate their stomach.