Ahh, the wintry season...
The gatherings of family and friends, the giving and receiving of gifts, the making and/or breaking of New Year's resolutions - however you and yours celebrate, the end of a calendar year heralds many traditions. Here at Stack Exchange, we wanted to get each of you an awesome, personal gift, and mail it to you as our way of saying "thanks." But our accountant pointed out that there are 4.5 million of you, which promptly reminded us that the holidays aren't about _gifts. _The real spirit of the holidays can only be captured with...
Hats!
That's right: Winter Bash is back for another three weeks of millinery-related holiday fun.
What's new, you ask?
New hats: There are over 30 new hats to earn this year (with many thanks to contract designer Elias Stein). And by "hats," we of course mean, "things you can stick on your avatar's face."
And it's possible that there just might be a couple of secret ones, too. (By "it's possible," we mean "there definitely are, because we made them, like with computer code and everything, so there's not really much doubt whatsoever.") Hats are transferrable: What? No, you can't sell them to each other. Hats are transferrable across sites! You read that correctly: this year, if you earn a hat on any site, you can wear it on any participating Stack Exchange site. This was one of our most asked-for feature requests after last year's event, and it's a great way for everyone to highlight their achievements on their favorite site across the network. Hat position is adjustable on your face: You remember how crushed you were after finally earning a mustache "hat," only to discover that on your avatar, it was basically an extremely dapper unibrow? NEVER AGAIN.
You can finally reposition hats in the box until Don Draper's suit fits as well it fits him. (I know, I know... "it's not a suit; it's a carousel." Give it a rest, Don. Not everything is a carousel.) Winter Bash 2013 will run from Monday 16 December 2013 through Friday 3 January 2014. During that time, participate on any Stack Exchange site to earn awesome hats (and other accessories!) Each hat has a different activity to trigger it. You can see all the hats and their triggers on the Winter Bash 2013 homepage. Still have questions? Of the kind that get asked... frequently? Check out the Winter Bash FAQ All the hats will go back into storage at the end of Winter Bash, so get out there, earn some hats, and show them off while you can! Just be careful. We paid a deposit on them.