Animal Crossing: New Horizons players are celebrating birthdays and weddings in-game

(Image credit: Nintendo via Reddit u/ashmush)

Animal Crossing: New Horizons players are holding celebrations and recreating weddings in-game to make up for canceled plans as a result of the coronavirus. 

Since the game launched on March 20, players have been flooding Twitter and Reddit with posts of their in-game celebrations, with players throwing surprise birthday parties for friends and even creating whole wedding ceremonies that they can't attend or throw at the moment. 

On Reddit, u/ashmush posted a picture of the wedding ceremony their fiancé surprised them with after they had to cancel their plans. "My fiancé planned it out with our best friends," ashmush writes in the comment below, "I'm graduating from med school and not getting a graduation and our wedding was cancelled. I was feeling pretty down about missing out on my milestones. This made me so happy, I don't even have the words to describe how much it meant to me." 

My fiance and I had to cancel our upcoming wedding due to Covid-19, so our best friends gave us a surprise animal crossing wedding instead from r/AnimalCrossing
See more

For many who are missing on milestone moments, the delightful virtual island makes for the perfect set-up to throw all kinds of shindigs. On Twitter, Jackie Lee posted a video of a surprise birthday party complete with an adorable table decorated with presents and happy birthday written across the ground. The celebrations once again demonstrate just how creative the Animal Crossing community is, and it just goes to show the many ways you can use New Horizons' tools to throw a truly amazing party. 

See more

For many who had trips and holidays booked have also had to cancel their plans, which has also led to some players trying to recreate the holiday they weren't able to have. In a Reddit post by u/jjjjjoseph, they sent their Animal Crossing villager on their canceled trip to Tokyo by trying to recreate it in-game. 

My trip to Tokyo got cancelled, but my villager made it somehow from r/AnimalCrossing

Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn't the only game that's been enabling people to hold celebrations. Just recently Japanese students held their own graduation ceremony in Minecraft. Tom Nook's deserted island getaway released at a time when people around the world needed it most, and it's heartening to see the many creative ways it's bringing people together to celebrate special occasions when they can't do so in reality. 

If you're just about to arrive on your very little island, here are all the Animal Crossing: New Horizons tips you need to get started. 

Heather Wald
Senior staff writer

I started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at GamesRadar+. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I'm not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good.