Cafe World Holiday Tree: Everything you need to know

If you thought this week's release of the Holiday Dinner catering order would be the end of the Holiday celebration in Cafe World, then Zynga has released a new feature today that is sure to surprise you. The new item is the Holiday Tree, which, like every other buildable in Cafe World, starts out as a simple tree, sans decorations, and must be "constructed" by adding various ingredients to the tree, like lights, bells, and of course, ornaments.

You'll need the help of friends to put this tree together, but it will be worth it, as users that finish building the tree will have a chance at earning free bundles of coins or even free Cafe Cash every single day from December 24 to January 5 just for doing so.

Want to know how you can potentially get your hands on some much-needed Cafe Cash? Meet us behind the break for full details on this new feature.

This is one case where money really will grow on trees, but only if you can help the tree itself grow first. The next time you login to the game, you'll see a pop-up like the one at the top of this post, introducing you to the event, and allowing you to place your entirely plain, generic evergreen tree in your cafe. Of course, a plain evergreen tree simply won't due for a true holiday celebration, so you'll need to finish building and decorating it by collecting four ingredients: Fairy Lights, Chimes, Baubles (ornaments), and Exotic Ornaments.

Since the ultimate goal of this feature is for all users to have the tree completed before December 24, Zynga has mercifully lowered the required number of ingredients from previous building events. This time around, you'll still need to collect 10 of the Fairy Lights, but only five Chimes and Baubles. All three of these are earned by clicking on the "Ask for More" button associated with that item, and then sending out individual gift requests to friends that you think would answer your call for help.

As for the Exotic Ornaments, this actually brings in an entirely different feature for the buildable, as you'll need to click on the "Collect" button in the tree's menu (as seen above), and then follow the menu that appears to head over to Treasure Isle, where you can find the exotic ornament you need for your tree.

By clicking on the "Play Treasure Isle" button, Treasure Isle will load in a new window, where you'll be given the specifics. You'll need to level up to at least level 5, and find any five treasures while playing the game to be "granted a Basket of Ornaments."

Depending on whether or not you've played Treasure Isle in the past, and on what level you are in the game overall, you may be able to finish this task in one sitting, but most players, especially newer players, will have to come back to the game more than once to finish the task. Still, since the other three Holiday Tree ingredients require you to wait for your friends to send you items, the cross-promotion with Treasure Isle at least gives you a way to occupy your time while you wait.

If at any time you'd like to stop waiting for your friends' help, you can purchase your remaining ingredients for 2 Cafe Cash each. You can even skip the Treasure Isle promotion entirely if you'd like to pay 8 Cafe Cash to do so. Additionally, if you really hate building things and want to purchase a completed tree outright, you can do that too, as a finished Holiday Tree is available under the Special Items section of the game's Functional Store (click on the gears, and then the blue gem) for 45 Farm Cash.

Once the tree has been completed, and once December 24 arrives, you'll be awarded a free prize from the tree once per day just for playing the game. Zynga has confirmed that these prizes will either be coins, or even free Cafe Cash, although they didn't announce in what quantities either would be given away (that is, whether you could win up to 1 Cafe Cash per day, 10, 100, or so on).

Either way, if you're done with the Holiday catering orders in Cafe World, this seems like more than a decent replacement for how to spend your time in the game.

Cafe World Farmers Insurance promotion comes with Professor Burke Statue

If anything, the folks at Zynga definitely know how to setup a good cross-promotion. After Capital One recently set up shop in a slew of Zynga's games (and practically took over FarmVille), we now see a new promotion launching in Cafe World with another company: Farmers Insurance (remember, we were told that Farmers would be making an appearance in the game back in June). If you watch a lot of TV, you might recognize this promotion's mascot of sorts - Professor Burke - from recent Farmers Insurance commercials.

Now, Professor Burke has come to your cafe as a character and as a statue, plated in gold. This "Professor Burke Statue" has a limited time of effectiveness, but will "insure" your cafe, granting you spoil protection on all of the dishes you cook from now until October 2. Luckily, the statue is free, and it doesn't require any "building" to gain its effect. You can either simply place the statue from the in-game pop-up that appears, or you can head into the game's build menu manually to drag your free statue out and into your cafe.

If there's one thing to remember about this, it isn't that the statue itself comes with a time limit that can be turned on and off depending on when you place it in your cafe; rather, it's a case where you'll want to place it in your cafe as soon as possible as the overall countdown timer ticks down until October 2. If the Farmers Insurance promotion grows in Cafe World, we'll make sure to let you know.

Would you have liked the Professor Burke Statue to have another effect, rather than wither protection? Or, will you take advantage of this opportunity to cook some quickly cooking dishes while you're busy doing other things since they won't spoil? Sound off in the comments.