The Sims Social Winter Garden Mystery Box: Everything you need to know

For the twelve days of Christmas, The Sims Social has unleashed a dozen Winter Garden Mystery Boxes with a random item hiding in each one.

Mystery Boxes are always a pain when you don't know what you're going to get. They're an even greater pain when you have to shell out real money for them. Playfish is charging 15 Sim Cash for one box, 75 for five boxes, and 150 for ten boxes. Obviously, the best deal is to grab the ten boxes for 150 Sim Cash, but that would cost you $20.00 USD overall, and you're still left short of a dozen.

This is obviously deliberate, but Playfish aren't being complete jerks here, because they're giving away 2 FREE Winter Garden Mystery Boxes to everyone. You can find the first box here, and the second box here. This ensures you get a dozen, but it doesn't guarantee you'll get the item you want. Your chances at each item are divided as follows:

Six are Common, and these are Winter Lights Holiday Tree, Pine Cone with Holly, Winter Lights Bare Tree, Simple Winter Tree, Snowy Winter Berry Bush, and Blue Winter Bush.
Sims Social Winter Garden Mystery Box Common
Three are Uncommon -- Mr Robin's Mailbox Home, SparkleBear, and SparkleDeer.
Sim Social Winter Garden Mystery Box Uncommon
And the final three are Super Rare -- SparkleTree, Winter Lights Luxury Gazebo Bed, and Winter Lights Garden Bench.
Sims Social Winter Garden Mystery Box Super Rare
Each item can be sold for Simoleons, and the amount of Simoleons you get seems to correspond to its listed Sim Cash price. For example, the SparkleDeer costs 35 Sim Cash, so if you sell it, you'll earn 350 Simoleons. It's not a great exchange rate, but with the two free boxes offered by Playfish, you're actually getting free Simoleons.
Sims Social Winter Garden Mystery Box wall post
Also, each time you open a box, you get the chance to announce it on your Facebook wall, and your friends can claim a reward. And for my final heads-up, I know it says "Head in now and claim FREE simoleons, too!", but I clicked on four wall posts and I've only been able to grab 15 Social Points each time. Let us know if you manage to get something different.

[Items Screenshots Credit: The Sims Social Fansite]

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

Do you think ten boxes are worth the twenty bucks? Are you happy with Playfish's compromise of 2 free Winter Garden Mystery Boxes