FrontierVille Gingerbread Man Goals: Everything you need to know

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

If you thought you were done with the scrumptious-looking Gingerbread House in FrontierVille, think again. As it turns out, the Gingerbread Man's stay on the homestead is part of a series of three Goals starting with "Building the Gingerbread Man a Home." And if you followed our guide on how to build it, you've already got the hardest part of this Goal out of the way.

As for the other two requirements, you've been asked to plant five Fruit Trees. This means that you can plant five fruit-bearing trees of any kind to fulfill this portion of the Goal. So, if you're living on the cheap, just go with five Cherry Trees. That will only cost you a total of 3,100 coins and will be ready harvest in the least amount of time, which leads us to the final requirement. All you need to do is harvest or water 20 fruit trees on your homestead. If you don't have 20 trees already, this will take some extra cash and time, but for those with bigger homesteads this should be easy pickings. Enjoy the 150 XP, 250 coins and Light Snack as a reward for your hard work.

Find out how to best complete Part II and III of the Gingerbread Man Goals after the break.

Eaten Gingerbread HousePart II of the Gingerbread Man Goals requires the unthinkable (and, if the forums are any indication, annoying): you must eat the Gingerbread House. I guess your pioneer, after witnessing its sweet, cavity-inducing glory, decided that they just could not resist. Well, that's my suspension of disbelief, anyway. And to go with that delicious Gingerbread House, you'll need two Milk from the Cow Collection and 15 Cloth (napkins... get it?). As always, Cloth comes from visiting friends, but if you don't have any Milk saved you'll have to try your luck at finding it at random from tending Cows. Once this is completed, 200 XP, 500 coins and 75 Food await you.

Brace yourselves, Part III is somewhat of a doozie. You're going to have to rebuild that Gingerbread House you just gorged. Let that sink in a little bit before we move on. You're good? Great. Now, this means that you'll need to do the same three cross-game Goals again and ask for the same three items from friends, according to several forum members whose posts have since been removed. But that's not all. In addition to rebuilding the little guy's crib, you will also have to harvest any crop 150 times and harvest 50 of your friends' fruit trees. While you don't have to harvest the same 150 crops, you're probably better off just picking one crop and sticking to it like the Clovers or Tomatoes, the cheapest, fastest crops in the game. Either way, this Goal is going to be time consuming for most, to say the least. You're reward for getting there and back again will be 450 XP, 2,500 coins and a Mini Gingerbread House. Now that you know what to do, go on and make that Gingerbread Man one happy cookie.

CityVille: Winter comes early with new Cookie Condos, Gingerbread House and more

Another set of Christmas and Winter themed items has launched in CityVille's store this week, proving that there's no better way to deck your city's virtual halls than with buildings covered in snow and lights (and a little bit of snow on the ground never hurt either). We've already brought you a look at the first wave of items in this "Winter" theme, but now there's a Mystery Crate, along with new homes and businesses to help flesh out the theme.

First things first, you can now purchase a blanket of snow to cover your city's grassy areas. This costs just 500 coins to do, and while it only applies to the ground, you'll see every square (including trees that you've yet to chop down) covered in snow, regardless of whether you've expanded into them. To be clear, last year we were given an option to turn on snow and lights on our buildings as well, but that hasn't been launched as of this writing. Also, your beach will stay sandy, and isn't affected by the snow cover.

Here's a look at the rest of the newly released items:

Cookie Condos

    Costs: 60 City Cash
    Population: 1850 - 3650
    Rent: 326 coins every day


Gingerbread House

    Costs: 40 City Cash
    Population: 600 - 1200
    Rent: 197 coins every four hours


Sugar Plum Palace

    Costs: 30 City Cash
    Population: 300 - 600
    Rent: 19 coins every five minutes


Frozen Water Mill (Community Building)

    Costs: 65 City Cash
    Allows: Raises max population cap by 3,750 citizens


Holiday Tree Lot

    Costs: 40 City Cash
    Requires: 305 Goods
    Earnings: 1648 coins


In addition to these items, you can also pick up a Winter Mystery Crate for 40 City Cash. For each crate you purchase, you'll have a chance of winning the Holiday Tree Lot, Gingerbread House, Frozen Water Mill or another new building: Ginger Tower. This tower made of gingerbread serves as a home, offering your town 2,500 - 4,500 citizens, and is the rarest prize in the box. If history tells us anything, this will likely be released as a standalone item for purchase in the store at a later date, but at a higher price. So, if you want to get it for cheap, feel free to gamble and purchase one of these crates, hoping to get lucky.

Also, if you happen to be a veteran player that still has last year's Holiday Tree Lot, keep in mind that this new business is just that - a business. It's a different item than last year's decoration, although it does look incredibly similar.

All of these items have been given a "limited time" marking in the store, but I'd be willing to wager that we won't see them actually leave the store for quite some time. As this theme is given more items and the holidays truly start to kick off in CityVille, we'll make sure to let you know.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

Will you change your town's land to snow, or are you still celebrating fall in your game? What do you think of these new Winter / Christmas themed items?