Poll - Holiday Events

Christmas at League of Legends

So starting from this poll post, I'm going to have all poll results and topics be its own post for simplicity, and to have less posts with multiple topics in them.

How do you feel about holiday events online?
They're okay, but feels too lengthy. - 4 votes
I like them, wish they'd do more. - 0 votes
They're nice. Hope they keep it up. - 0 votes
They're not fun. - 0 votes
Sometimes they're impossible - 0 votes

So this question was spurred from all the Easter events that I saw going on this year, particularly on Gaia Online, but the question itself is directed towards events of all kind, whether it be Easter, Halloween, Christmas, or forum events, MMO events, etc. The overall consensus seems to be that they are too long, considering that all 4 voters voted for that. Does that say anything about how people view holiday events? It's something that I always saw to be a delicate balance for the most part, especially in MMORPGs.

1. First, is it rewarding enough for players to participate in this event?
1. The reward has to be good enough for how much time you put into it. Of course, with plenty of other games and such doing events of their own, making a long one will mean you either monopolize their time on that day by having them participate until they get their reward, or they'll completely ignore it, deeming it not worth the time. 
2. The item should be something absolutely optional and doesn't affect the game in any meaningful way. Aesthetic items that changes your character's appearances or an item that gives a minor benefit is more appropriate for a limited time, holiday event based item, IMO. 
   
3. If the reward is a special, permanent item, how will it affect the economy? Is it tradeable? If not, would it be something people would sell their whole accounts for, regardless of whether if it's illegal to do so or not. 
2. Next, is the event fun? You don't want people to participate in the event just so that they get the reward; a good event will be fun to participate in. 
1. In fact, the main reward can be given for just showing up in the game, while players can participate in an optional quest, hopefully a fun activity, that will get them to play it more irregardless of rewards. 
2. Guild Wars' Wintersday Snowball Fight event comes to mind for a fun event activity. I don't remember the details of it, but it's an example of how a holiday event should play out, IMO. Participation could possibly give additional rewards too, as an extra incentive.
   
3. Finally, how long will the event be open for? Given the above two points, I think people will appreciate the event lasting longer for the fun activity. Also, being that everyone else is running a holiday event of their own around the same time period, so it would be nice to give people the opportunity to catch up to your event, as well as others. 

Well, ... after having written all this, I just recalled I wrote some tips on running events like this in a previous post, but that may have been geared more towards online forums like Gaia Online. 

I talk quite a bit about stuff like this, but unfortunately, I can't apply this to anything that I do currently, since I lack the knowledge to make a game or anything. At least, not a big MMO that would have holiday events like that anyway. It'd be nice if I can make something simple, and yet fun to play, once I learn more about programming. I really should practice writing code in Java or C++... I'll need to find a good compiler for that.