Guild Wars 2 screenshot of the Wintersday snowman

In keeping with tradition, Guild Wars 2 has just launched its annual Wintersday festivities. So from now until January 3rd you can hop on over to Divinity’s Reach in order to participate in an assortment of events, to help some orphans, or to simply stuff yourself with absurd amounts of cake.

What this means in actual gameplay terms is that you can assault the Secret Lair of the Snowmen as a part of a Strike mission, fight against the crazed toymaker Tixx in The Wondrous Workshop mini-dungeon, or simply mess around with smaller events like races, musical games, snowball fights, and the deviously tricky jumping puzzle. Doing all of this will reward you with numerous items, copious amounts of Karma, as well as some nifty festive cosmetics.

Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you a brief trailer showing off some of these events and locations. Have a gander, it's a short but sweet one:

All of this might look a bit overwhelming right now, but it's all fairly easy to wrap your head around once you're actually there. And even if you end up being a bit confused, simply following the Wintersday achievements should lead you on a nice little trip through all of the attractions.

Have fun, and if you would like to learn a little bit more about the Wintersday update you should head on over to the Guild Wars 2 website.