FarmVille Winter Countdown: Everything you need to know

The Winter Countdown has officially launched in FarmVille, allowing users to earn and share 12 unique items in a Holiday / Winter theme, one item per day, in an effort to earn themselves a very special prize at the end of the 12 day Winter Countdown.

This event will take a bit of cooperation between yourself and your FarmVille neighbors, so meet us behind the break to see how you can help your friends (and help yourself) earn these 13 new items! First, you'll only be able to start participating in the event when you see a pop-up like the one at the top of this post, alerting you that the Countdown has officially started in your own game. We're expecting this to be a slow rollout, as most new features are in FarmVille, so if you don't see the countdown the next time you log into the game - don't panic!

Once you accept the pop-up above, you'll be shown the Winter Countdown menu, where each day, a new item will be revealed. This initial item for day 1 is the White Soldier, a returning item from last year's Winter Holiday celebration. If you were playing the game at this time last year, and have a White Soldier already present on your land, this will NOT count as participation for Day 1 in this year's Winter Countdown - you will need to earn another one in order to earn credit for participating. The same will go for any other re-released items that we'll see launched in this event, such as the Gold Ornament (seen in the top image).

To do so, you'll need to click on the Ask/Share button underneath the item's name. This will allow you to post a news post to your feed, sharing a White Soldier with friends, and simultaneously asking your friends to send you a White Soldier as well.

Each day, a new item will be available to send, and if you can manage to log-in to the game and collect all 12 items as they are available (that is, login consistently and collect each day's item for the next 12 days in a row), you'll receive a special bonus prize at the end. The prize is shown at the bottom of the Winter Countdown menu, and looks like a Mystery Animal Crate.

To access the Winter Countdown menu at any time, you'll need to look out for the Blue and Red wrapped present icon that will be found in the top right corner of the FarmVille gameplay area. Don't worry about closing the window when you first see it upon launching the game, as this icon will allow instant access to the event from here on out.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2010 coverage right here.