well yeah, i think all you need is t make the cookies, leave them out and go to bed..thats the WHOLE family....
i had a trailer park family use the cookies first, and it was funny to see mom and dad as well as the kiddies come runing inot the living area to see santa.
word to the wise, though, make sure there is space around the tree..he dropped off a bloody racecar and for some insane reason (this was with last years version, which it traded in for a few quid of THIS years version heeh) the car made the sound forever, even after i deleated/sold it....hope that dosent happen with this years.....
also, he stayed for a few sim hours, used the loo, ate some of the cookies then left....i think it was between 12 and 1 when he arrived....
if you leave the cookies out for more than one night, he will come again, too (again, this was with last years one...it might be still working, and also i have a food mod that makes sure the food is fress longer)
also..they HAVE to be on a counter, table ect..he dosent show if you have them in the for buisness chiller food selling cabinates (so thats a quick handy trick for keeping him away if you want a santa free night, but like them eating the cookies)
are the packs worth it? hmmmm......to me, yeah, but im a sucker for xmas and themed stuff...i dl halloween, xmas, valentines, St Patricks..i cant get enough of hollidays, since i get so little of a chance to celibrate them *properly* in the real world...*mutter, grumble*
for me, it was worht getting the 06 xmas pack, since not only was there some neat japaneese items for decoration, but a fantastic male kimono style one peice....you know the one, its black on the outer coat, with thos gorgeous wooden block sandals, it has varying shades of grey underneath....kinda like the stuff you see in the anime's where theres old temple grandpas
the maxis kimono is of (womens i mean) but the Rose's sims and the other one i dl are actually better in all but the wooden shoes...its that folded material at the back that lets the maxis one down...their isnt actually folded so you can see the edges of the material, its like its just a bag of cloth thats attached to the waist part....
*is a kimono addict* lol
fun stuff....hmm well the dresses for the little girls are usefull, casue the maxis party dresses are god auful >.> and i do like the castle items and walls eheh.
glam, well once you grab a few recols from sims2day, their not bad....
all i can say is, compared to the 20 you spend on an add on ep, i guess it does seem expensive.....
and there is definately fantastic tallent in the mods and mod makers (who, if you ask me, are the ones that *ahem* inspire *snigger* the Maxis lot to make better items, i mean, the weather....*cough* i remember someone did a weather obelisk ages ago at mts2 i think....
still....if you have no cd-rw drive and no access to the net, or even a friend to dl for you.....its all good, i guess....
(just remembered that maxis got the boot and EA has all the rights now....i expect that means they will be getting *cough* Inspired *cough* by the modding comunity a heluva lot more now.....)