Holiday Tree Smackdown!

    VS         
Holiday Tree 2009                             Holiday Tree 2010

A fairly hot topic these days is "how much this new holiday tree sucks!"  Well I'm not sure I agree.  So here is a quick and dirty little compare.

14 Possible gifts in the 2010 tree:

Ice Cube
Ice Fence
Winter Whimsey (which it, has about 10 different gifts in it)
Tinsel Topiary
Icicle Arch
Elf Gnome
Sneezy Sheep
Tinsel Tree
Frozen Fantasy
Ice House
Kodiak Bear
Arctic Fox
Snow Stallion
Holiday Cow
(And possibly other Bonuses from Zynga)

26 Possible gifts in the 2009 Tree
Alien Cow
Baby Turkey
Black Cat
Black Chicken
Black Sheep
Brown Chicken
Cow of Brown
Calf
Chicken
Clumsy Reindeer
Golden Chicken
Grey Tabby
Lamb
Cocoa Bear
Giant Lollipop II
Gold Nutcracker
Gold Ornament
Gold Soldier
Lighted Gift Box
New Year Ball
Silver Ornament
1 Fuel Refill
5 Fuel Refills
10 Fuel Refills
December 1, 2009 Mystery Box (which had 1 of 6 items inside)
December 15, 2009 Mystery Box (which had 1 of 6 items inside)

So clearly last years was better because it had more items, Right?  Right?  Well not so fast, lets look at this from a more objective standpoint than "boo Zynga is ruining my life"

At this point last year the only *new* stuff in the tree was
Grey Tabby (later adoptable animal)
Cocoa Bear
Giant Lollipop II
Gold Nutcracker
Gold Ornament
Gold Soldier
Lighted Gift Box
New Year Ball (later ended up being able to be picked up by all farmers)
Silver Ornament

The following items of last years tree that at the time were able to be picked up for free from the feed/eggs
Black Cat (adoptable)
Black Chicken (Mystery Egg)
Black Sheep (adoptable)
Brown Chicken (Mystery Egg)
Cow of Brown (adoptable)
Calf (adoptable)
Chicken (Mystery Egg)
Clumsy Reindeer (adoptable)
Golden Chicken (Mystery Egg)
1 Fuel Refill (Mystery Egg)
5 Fuel Refills (Mystery Egg)
10 Fuel Refills (Mystery Egg)

The following were either Current or former Coin/Cash items at the time
Alien Cow
Baby Turkey
Lamb
December 1, 2009 Mystery Box
December 15, 2009 Mystery Box

Now to be fair, the Elf Gnome was a free sendable gift last year.  So lets compare just *new* stuff in the tree…
 

Holiday Tree 2009		Holiday Tree 2010
Silver Ornament		Ice Cube
Cocoa Bear		Ice Fence
Giant Lollipop II		Tinsel Topiary
Gold Nutcracker		Icicle Arch
Gold Ornament	VS	Ice House
Gold Soldier		Kodiak Bear
Lighted Gift Box		Arctic Fox
Grey Tabby		Snow Stallion
New Year Ball (everyone received this)		Holiday Cow (everyone gets this)

Now to be more fair, the items you can get from the Holiday Tree Quests have also been removed from the 2010 list, of the 2010 list would be 3 higher than 2009 on new unique items.

Oh yeah lets toss in another fact..

The *good gifts* last year you could ONLY get in your first 100 presents, so after you opened 100, you didn't have a chance at getting:

Baby Turkey
Lamb
December 1, 2009 Mystery Box
December 15, 2009 Mystery Box

And Even in your first 100 gifts you weren't for sure going to get any of those good ones, Some farmers reported getting ZERO of them.

Now before you go "but Bob, there was gold presents!"  There sure was, and they cost 5 cash, so I'm not even including them, Granted most of those turned out to be Chickens or Fuel.  And there could still be a "gold present" type thing for this years tree.

So in recap There was a total of 8 new things last year, vs 8 new things this year.  "But Bob, its hard to get presents this year!" I've been sent over 1000 gifts, from my 100 farmville friends, and that's not even counting all the ones that are posted to the feed. 

So which is more important?  Quantity or Quality? 

The Ice Cube/Fence/Arch/House/pegasus is one of the neatest subthemes they have made, the assortment of animals are Mystery Game Quality!  Heck I personally thought the possibility of a *free* stallion happening, was *zero*.  That it would always be a Mystery Game/Box item.  (Please bring up the "glitch" when a Black stallion was "in the market for 2 minutes")  PS: There one of the big complaints about this years tree is you can't open the presents people have sent you till December 25th.  Uh That's how it was this year, In fact this year is better since You can REDEEM for the items yourself EARLY to deco for the holiday, PLUS send some extras to your friends!  Wow, just another plus for this years tree.

Some people will still swear they got far better gifts last year, and that is your opinion.  I respectfully disagree. 
The 2010 Tree > 2009 Tree.
But then again, I don't care either way, there was no new Harvestable trees in the Holiday Tree, so it means nothing to me.