From the main city in Sacred 2, you can now find a kobold with a big ship's wheel icon over his head. He'll send you to Christmas Island, an unmappable area sequestered in the upper right hand corner of the map where there's not supposed to be anything. Here's the explanation in the changelog:

Hint: The Christmas Island is shrouded in mystery so you can't see it on the world map.

Uh-huh. My guess is the developers forgot to leave blank areas for holiday-themed add-ons and it was too much of a pain to draw it into the map art. But maybe "shrouded in mystery" is just another way of saying that, so no harm, no foul.

On Christmas Island, you can help the kobolds save Christmas by finding a magical tree branch needed to repair the snow machine that ensures the Christmas Ogre will show up. I am not making this up:

So begins a goofy but welcome new snowy area in Sacred 2 that comes with the latest patch. I'm still fresh off the boat, but the only new creatures I've seen so far are reskins of familiar creatures: a white leopard pattern for the snow cats and a translucent efect to make "Ghosts of Christmas Past". But it's cute stuff that gets points for making Sacred 2 feel even more like an MMO. There's nothing like a little self-aware seasonal content to make a world feel alive (i.e. still occupying the developers' attention).

Also new is a reason to play Sacred 2 characters on the secure online servers. The newly implemented Sacred2.net beta includes leaderboards, medals, and online profiles for admiring your character through a browser. At least, it's supposed to. As of the first day of the beta, Americans can't log in. I'm sure the Germans over there are loving it, though!