Animal Crossing: New Horizons/Update history/1.6.0

The Winter Update (version 1.6.0), known in Australia as the Free Update, was an update for released on November 19, 2020. The update brought two returning holidays: Turkey Day and Toy Day, alongside their respective hosts Franklin and Jingle. Additional improvements, including increased storage capacity and new hairstyles were also added. It was announced on November 17, 2020. Players who downloaded this update would receive a as a gift.

Turkey Day
Harvest Festival has been renamed to Turkey Day in its return in 1.6.0, but the event is still hosted by Franklin as with. During this event, Franklin will ask the player to collect various ingredients for four dishes in exchange for a, a , a , and a in order. If the player has difficulties getting a specific ingredient, villagers that are inside their house will exchange ingredients. Each dish also has a secret ingredient that, if given to Franklin, will give a Turkey Day Series furniture that can only be crafted. If the player manages to give Franklin a secret ingredient for every dish, he'll give the player the

For Northern Hemisphere players, Turkey Day is taken as a celebration of the fall harvest, while for Southern Hemisphere players it is taken as a celebration of spring. This is reflected by every furniture outside of Resident Services and the Turkey Day Series being customized for their respective hemispheres, and the change in ingredients that are required for each dish. If the player misses Turkey Day, from after Turkey Day until the end of November, Nook's Cranny will sell the pack and Turkey Day furniture for Bells 19800.

This event is time-locked, and only unlocks on 1.6.xa.

Toy Day
Toy Day, and its host Jingle, return in 1.6.0. In the days preceding Toy Day, Nook's Cranny will sell a random toy and Able Sisters will sell Festive-related clothing. This portion is time-locked, and only occurs on 1.6.xb.

During Toy Day itself, Jingle will give the player a DIY recipe for the, and asks for them to craft three for him. Once completed, the player given a and Jingle gives the player the task to deliver gifts to every villager. If the player has a high friendship with a villager, when the player gives them their gift, the villager will give the player a toy item back. After completing the task, the player will earn the DIY. If the player hangs up their Toy Day Stockings on Toy Day, then from December 31 to January 1, the player can receive. Toy Day itself is time-locked, and only unlocks on 1.6.xc.

In a first in the series, Toy Day has two variants of its composition. A festive, calming rendition for Toy Day in the Northern Hemisphere and a upbeat, vibrant rendition for Toy Day in the Southern Hemisphere.

Nook Shopping seasonal events
New Nook Shopping seasonal events include the following events:
 * To add on to the Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice, the and  were added alongside the  and  respectively. They are available throughout December.
 * Four items related to New Year's Eve were added are are available from December 26 to December 31: for Ōmisoka,  for Silvester,  for Nochevieja, and  for New Year's Eve. They all relate to their respective local holiday traditions for New Year's Eve.
 * The Japanese New Year, or Shōgatsu, features three items available from January 1 to January 15: the, , and.
 * Other items available from January 1 to January 15 to celebrate the New Year include the, , , and . They all relate to their respective local holiday traditions for the New Year.

Island life improvements
Tom Nook can now offer the player to expand their storage for Bells 500000 if they paid off all their home loan. This expansion moves the player up from 1600 storage slots to 2400. The player can also redeem Nook Miles for the to obtain nine new Reactions—Sit Down, Wave Goodbye, Take a Picture, Sniff Sniff, Work Out, Yoga, Here You Go, Excited, and Ta-da. Six new hairstyles have also been added and are obtainable from.

Other features

 * Luna can now send players to random dream islands as she did before in . The option to activate this is "Surprise me".
 * The Save Data Transfer feature, which allows island save data or a single player's save data to be transferred to another Nintendo Switch, has been added.
 * A new promotion item for was added: the.

Changed features

 * The availability of the and  were changed. Previously, the items were available in both hemispheres around June 6 to July 7. In 1.6.0, this was changed in that the items associated with their respective season would only appear on the hemispheres that were experiencing those seasons. In this instance for December, the Midwinter Sweater was only available for Northern Hemisphere players for the Winter Solstice, and the  was only available for Southern Hemisphere players for the Summer Solstice.
 * Leif now sells s year-round instead of limited to just October.
 * The names of the following items were changed:
 * Summer-Solstice Crown →
 * Winter-Solstice Sweater →

In 1.6.0

 * Any tables created to duplicate miscellaneous furniture items on 1.2.0 prior to the 1.2.1 patch will no longer work.

Related updates

 * The NookLink mobile app now allows players to view their catalog. This update was announced alongside the 1.6.0 update and was released on November 29, 2020.