My favorite holiday every year is New Year’s Eve. I believe it is a time to start new trends, and it is the one time of the year that everyone, everywhere, is looking forward to the future all at once. One thing I wanted to try to do this new year in 2025 is to keep a New Year’s Resolution. After tossing around a lot of different ideas, I finally settled on one: I will play Animal Crossing New Horizons every day of 2025. And what’s more: I will take one picture from my day’s adventures that I will then share in a weekly column.
This is going to be a challenge for me because I am always off doing something, somewhere, all of the time somewhere in the world. I hope that by me having to slow down and make time for this slice-of-life title every day, I can have a common thread that will run through my entire 2025 year…and when it is over, I can look back to see how my little island has grown and changed during that time.
To start this series off, I actually rang in 2025 while watching both Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2025 with Ryan Seacrest while simultaneously counting down in my town plaza:
January 1
For the very first evening of the new year, I picked a bunch of crops, bought a speed bag, and dug up a lot of fossils. And surprisingly, I finished the Ankylosaurus! I even visited the Able Sisters and chatted with them about their family’s drama.
For today’s photo, I picked it because I did not even know the Nook Shopping App was a thing. I was frantically ordering a bunch of seasonal items to be delivered to my home when I was notified I had ordered enough that I could get this app on my phone! This was a welcome surprise, and it was a great way to start off 2025 in Animal Crossing New Horizons.
January 2
By the time I got home to play today, I really wasn’t up for doing much. I planted some carrots for the first time ever after buying starters from Leif and then selling off some weeds. I planted them next to the water, and I assembled my first Snowboy for the year! Unfortunately, the proportions were off. It turns out not playing for months and months and months makes it harder to judge it just riiiiight.
I also found a new fossil, cleared a long-forgotten money tree that I then chopped down, built a new shovel and watering can, and bought a toaster!
January 3
I was out late in real life tonight, and so I logged into Animal Crossing New Horizons at 11:15 PM to get it going. Unsurprisingly, it turns out everything was closed for the night. Which I mean…fair.
I did finally get to meet Lael though, and I pulled off her theatrical look she was looking for! Tomorrow, I plan on spending more time on Renassia.
January 4
My plans to beautify my island in Animal Crossing New Horizons were sidelined when Isabelle informed me there was a new resident at the campground! I’ve turned away a lot of campers (I am picky, actually), but I fell in love with the Foghorn Leghorn-esque character known as Goose as soon as we met. And he then repeatedly refused to move into my community.
It turns out I didn’t have an open plot for him, and so I had to go to Tom Nook, buy a plot kit for 10,000 bells, find an open spot, and buy it. And Goose still didn’t want to move into my community. I had to keep badgering him until he FINALLY played a small “guess the color of the card” game with me. Which I won! Thankfully.
He is supposed to be moving in soon, and I am excited to see him. I then bought some miso soup from the store to celebrate. I also got stung by some wasps and now I have an injury on my face, so that’s cool.
January 5
Not a whole lot happened today, other than I learned the Shyness emote and Goose moved in! I stopped by to say hi, and he was still unpacking. He also stared at me as I showed off Shyness to him.
January 6
Sometimes, the unexpected can happen to you in Animal Crossing New Horizons.
I found an old project that I started…a year…plus…ago for a natural ramp, and I paid off the last 10,000 bells for it. Super exciting to have a new way up to the upper areas of my map that doesn’t require a ladder! I went shopping and bought a milkshake that I gave to Tybalt before harvesting my crops.
Right before I logged out today, I stopped by the Plaza…and I discovered Tybalt and Hazel singing while Hugo is exercising. It was a spontaneous, unplanned moment that made my little island feel like it was coming completely alive. Naturally, I had to take a picture with all of them.
January 7
Until I logged into Renassia to play for a bit and figure out what I wanted to share from my island today, I wasn’t completely sure that this column would be happening. It’s hard dedicating some portion of my time every day to something – especially when it requires me to also write a little bit afterwards.
But I did it. Step by step, day by day.
Today, this celebration for completing the natural ramp was, yes, for a new addition to Renassia. But it was also for me to be able to give this Animal Crossing New Horizons column a real, genuine effort. I have a lot of plans ahead for me in 2025, and I will do my best to keep up with this column too.
One week down, 51 more weeks to go.
What have you accomplished this week? Have you been playing Animal Crossing New Horizons?
Let us know in the comments below!
