So here's one thing that I noticed while I was monkeying around with my first Simmy menorah: You can choose between a gold menorah and a white menorah. I chose the white one. But when I put it down, it looked golden. So I bought an actual gold menorah and plunked it down next to the "white" one, and they were a perfect match.

Also, ever since I reinstalled the game, most of my Holiday Stuff has had the CC asterisks: The menorah, the cornucopia, most of the Christmas trees and Christmas gifts, the inflatable black cat and most of the other Halloween goodies, and so on. (The Kwanzaa candle rack is one of the few Holiday Stuff items in my catalog which doesn't have the asterisk, but Kwanzaa has always felt more like a political agenda than a bona fide holiday to me, so I don't bother with Kwanzaa much. But I digress.) I'm thinking that this is because, way back before there was a Holiday Stuff CD at Walmart, the holiday items were just a bunch of Sims2Pack files downloaded directly from the official Sims 2 website, back when there was an official Sims 2 website. And I, being the completionist, just-to-be-sure person that I am, installed all of the EPs, then all of the SPs, and then all of the Sims2Packs from the old TS2 website. So I'm thinking that the asterisks are there because I overwrote the original Holiday Stuff goodies when I ran those Sims2Packs, so the game says "That's CC" because it doesn't recognize the original, official Maxis downloads as being official Maxis downloads. And maybe some colors and meshes got overwritten too.

So do you suppose that I can reinstall the content from Holiday Stuff somehow, and perhaps overwrite the pseudo-CC goodies with the original goodies? I definitely wouldn't mind having my white menorah back.


(And why is it that Holiday Stuff is the only disk that doesn't ask for a CD Key when you install it? Kind of fishy, right?)

Perhaps you can replace the objects.package in Holiday Stuff with the disk equivalent?

I'll try loading the CD and seeing if I can poke around on the disk (after shoving Windows 8's customary nagging aside). Maybe I can find objects.package on the disk and Copy-Paste-Overwrite the one in my Holiday Stuff directory. Or might that cause any ugly problems?

Yeah I noticed that. My CD barely uploads. I have a hell of a time getting it to work. Half the time it just won't take the disc. But I can't let go of my holiday stuffs!

I think it's because it isn't really a stuff pack...not a true one anyway. It's a bunch of items burned onto a disc. No different than if you burned a CD with items you downloaded here. That's why it's wonky. EAxis just likes to mess with us all the time, huh?

Oh, wait a minute. There is no Holiday Stuff subdirectory!



Curiouser and curiouser....


Neither can I. As a bonus, when you do get Holiday Stuff to install, you get treated to that charming picture of a cute Simmy family getting together for Christmas/Yule/Candlemas/the Winter Solstice. Adorable, right? :lovestruc


Kind of like they did with Mansion & Garden Stuff. "Hey, Simmers! Here's the ultimate Stuff Pack. In fact, it's so ultimate that the game's going to treat it like it's a full Expansion! Have fun with that."

No, there is no folder. It FUSES to the game *creepy music plays and lightening flashes*



Oh, my yes....and it loads very quickly. I quite enjoy it..when I can get my disc to load.



Mine is a European disc. Couldn't find a single one anywhere. It was all three packs with crap I already had. I have to constantly switch my clock from military time to 12 hr mode every time I load a lot. Plus it's a DVD instead of a CD so it loads a little slower. And yes forever and ever I get to look at that loading screen.

I didn't even know there was a white menorah!

Yes, it was MaxoidMonkey who created those original, pre-Happy-Holiday-Stuff goodies. Thanks for reminding me.

I installed and ran Delphy's Download Organizer, and I believe that I found and removed MaxoidMonkey's menorah. I took care of MaxoidMonkey's cornucopia while I was at it. Both file names were gobbledygook, which made the Download Organizer necessary just to find them.

And apparently the game file calls the white menorah a "silver" one. I dunno; it looks pretty white to me.

I'll go Simming in a little while and let you know if it works!

If an object shows up with a strange color, it's probably the TXMT settings that's screwed up. Several doors and dorways seem to have the same problem, never showing up proper white but instead sort of greyish.

The holiday files show up as H05.bundle and H06.bundle in the "...The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Bins" folder (or the basegame folder, depending on your version)

Installing the CC versions probably gave the objects the asterisk. I don't think I did install the CC versions, so I can't say for sure - but there's probably a package file for each of them in your downloads. Have you tried locating those and deleting them? I think that should remove the asterisk.