RCT Discussion / RCT Advent Calendar 2025

Door 8

Toy Train Town

Toy trains always had a strong connection to Christmas. I don't know if that is based on reality or if Hollywood set designers just loved to have a bit of movement under the Christmas tree. However it was, for many of us the two concepts are strongly intervoewn...especially for Jappy one would imagine. Today, we take a look at a quaint take on this connection.

 Toy Train Town.park (243.2KB)
downloads: 19

Polar Express - Wow, this is such a great use of lighting for the scene, particularly for the reflection in the water! Awesome work.

Magnetosphere - A bit wild but some great use of glass pieces and invisible colour to create an effect in the void. Very different vibe than the others, cool stuff!

Century of Progress Winter - Cool overlay Jag! The snow effects and additional christmas-themed objects to the mix are fun to notice.

Toy Train Town - It's not Christmas without a toy train is it? Nice work, with some cute theming elements.

I'm absolutely loving all of these so far! I'm glad this came back and am excited to see the rest of december!

Door 9

Winter over the Garden Wall

Over the years, Christmas is often connected with other holidays. While this trend maybe doesn't hold true for Europe, it certainly does fit the US with its barrage of holidays to end the year. So, it is with no great surprise that this year's calendar doesn't just feature christmas themed entired but also this spectacular map that is reminiscent of Halloween.

 Winter Over the Garden Wall.park (12.17MB)
downloads: 19

PS: Again, sorry for the shoddy overview and a reminder that we are currently still stuck at 13 entires (with a few more promised), so if anyone is feeling it, there is still more than enough room for some quick entires!

How do I sign up? I got something - these all look great!

How do I sign up? I got something - these all look great!

V1 has a sign-up topic on the site and accepts submissions through NE or Discord DMs. We only have enough entries to last until Saturday so get crackin!

Toy Train Town: An ideal little advent calendar entry. Simple, Christmassy, and plenty of charm. There's some great attention to detail here like the hybrid + alpine coaster track and the wires. I'm a little iffy on the Mayan border though; it's hard for me to really imagine that as wood on a train table. Gonna hazard a the_bru guess here for the DKSO usage. It's a very Lurker theme but missing his trademark style.

Winter Over The Garden Wall: Have not seen this show but I'm liking what I'm seeing here! It's really spacious and breaks the grid really well. Foliage is really nice, but I think the trees could be blended with some more underbrush. I also think the palette is making the grass land texture a little overbearing and hiding some of those fallen leaves. I mad love Mad Love's show building and the way it pops out on either side. Sculptures are super clean across the board and that vignette at the top is honestly seamless.

Ride design is hit or miss for me; overall solid but with little flaws here and there. Adelaide of the Pasture clips into the ground and would look cleaner if shoestrung. The waterfall objects on the log flume's big drop make the logs tough to follow, although I think the diagonal drop looks amazing. The Beast is a nice woodie with some snappy lateral Gs, but it could be a little "tighter" if that makes sense. For all the nitpicking I've done though, this is one of the better entries of the calendar so far.

Let's face it; I just described a Babar Tapie park. Even if he's not in the sign-up sheet, this is so obviously him. If you're not convinced, look at the "scenario" description. Glad to see you avenge yourself after you couldn't finish for last year's Advent Calendar!

Door 10

The Dancing Plague

Dancing is fun. At least for a large amount of the population of the earth all throughout history. Thankfully, this map is more fun than the event it was named after. Have fun exploring this charming NCSO entry with a very unusual coaster type and a medieval theme.

 The Dancing Plague .park (153.21KB)
downloads: 27

PS: I realized I forgot that the creator of yesterday's entry supplied me with the following text that I totally forgot about. Sorry about that:

Winter over the Garden Wall:

"Discover the whimsical and dark mysteries that lie beyond the garden wall, and revisit the creatures that Wirt and Greg meet on their journey home, including Adelaide of the Pasture, the Pottsfield inhabitants, cursed Lorna, the frogs of the Riverboat, Quincy Endicott & Margueritte Grey, the Woodsman, Miss Langtree, and of course, the Beast..."

Great stuff the last few days!

Toy Train Town - simple but effective - the track layering is very convincing to get that model train look. Nice use of some of the more obscure NSCO pieces which work well at this scale. Not sure what the orange waterfalls are meant to represent but it gives some nice movement!

Winter over the Garden Wall - very cool and a nice change of atmosphere from the more traditionally festive entries. Love the palette and the autumn trees and there's some great texture work on the ground. Some really well done set pieces & sculptures like the witch's hat, the wolf, the creepy pumpkin guy etc. The backstory is lost on me so I don't get why all the peeps need the toilet haha. Love how the log flume drops both go under the bridge in opposite directions. And the woodie looks very threatening with the contrast against the snow. Good stuff!

The Dancing Plague - such a fun idea and the various flat rides bring it to life with a lot of humour. This style of RCT never gets old - so nostalgic and charming. Also lovely to see an underused coaster type - was a lot of fun following it around the map. Big fan!

Door 11

Christmas Market at Abernathy Castle

After two non-winter submissions it's time we got back to white trees and frozen lakes. And what is better suited to get into wintery Christmas feel than an old school Christmas market at an old Englisch manor? Come and soak in the atmosphere in this lovely pieace that combines landscaping, architecture and detailing to bring us a great vision of what winter could be like.

 Christmas Market at Abernethy Castle.park (2.64MB)
downloads: 15

Door 12

St. Nick's Wild Ride

We have reached the halfway point on our little journey towards Christmas Eve. Today it's time to take a ride with Saint Nick himself as he rides across the skies in his wooden sled...on some wooden coaster rails. Don't eat too many cookies and don't drink too much milk or you might not fit!

 St. Nick's Wild Ride.park (1.09MB)
downloads: 8

The Dancing Plague: I love this. I just love good clean simple RCT. Love the choice of a reverser coaster, something we really don't see a lot of. The layout has a nice flow with some neat merged steep drops and I love how the reverser sections are decorated. The transparent flat rides for the dancing peeps is a hilariously genius gimmick. Landscaping is flawless for NCSO. I'm one of those boomers who stands by vanilla having the best trees you can ask for. I almost wonder if the archi could have benefitted from one more strong accent color to break up the white and brown, something like violet in the awnings. This would have been an easy SSSammy guess for me if Faas didn't confirm it was him early on. So glad to see more RCT from you!

Christmas Market at Abernathy Castle: There's a level of precision and intent to this one that gives shades of Alex. It lets itself stay open and spacious when needed while keeping the dense foliage and market scenes busy. Everything just feels right. The castle is built really well but it does kinda blend into the snow. Maybe that's just part of the vibe, IDK. The market itself hits a perfect blend of feeling lively but not too overcrowded. The foliage is blended into the landscape unbelievably well, almost like big wide brush strokes. Hell, this whole thing feels like a paintnig. All the frozen peep scenes are a really great finishing touch. This one smacks of Xophe and I am so excited to finally be able to dissect what I assume is his foliage!

St. Nick's Wild Ride: This is a shockingly well done GCI for its size. Everything is nestled together beautifully and flows super well. I love the archi too, simple and realistic yet gets the wintry vibe across. Landscaping is nice, although the white-colored trees don't work as well as snow-covered tree objects IMO. The snow could have been blended a little better too. If we had blended snow/dirt land surfaces those would have worked fantastically here, but alas. Unfortunately the default paths stick out like a sore thumb. Custom paths would have made this one perfect. The queue also feels a little angular which the tall fences and contrast with the snow don't help with. While the park itself is nice, the real gift is in the objects. Yes, look closely and Mrs. Claus herself ACEfanatic02 has delivered. I can see those pallets and tables appearing in so many parks in the future!

Door 13

Christmas Tree Lot

One of the most important traditions of Christmas is the purchase of Christmas Trees. Although plastic trees have risen in quality and popularity over the years, for many, buying a tree and agonizing over which one is a degree straighter than the others is still an important part in the Christmas preparations. So if you haven't bought your tree yet, maybe this will give you a bit of motivation?

 Christmas Tree Lot.park (160.39KB)
downloads: 2

I really like this one! Some neat DKSO tricks with the custom lamps and the path used as cracks in the sidewalk. Otherwise it's pretty straightforward. I feel like this could be Bru or Ballpitwarrior but I already guessed Bru so I'm locking in BallpitWarrior.

Door 14

Winterfest

We already had a winter version of an already released park and a small christmas coaster, so let's keep it rolling with a small area of a park that has received special christmas theming! This area does not only offert he coasters the guests can ride all year long but also special-wintery attractions like an open air ice rink. Check this and many more wintery attractions out at this year's Winterfest!

 winterfest.park (3.06MB)
downloads: 5

Genuinely some of the best realism of the year, and that is wilding out considering we had Steve running rampant. Love the choice to set it at night, although my vibey ass would have liked to see some more ambient yellow glows. Illuminated windows, lights shining on the path, things of that nature. Trebuchet is a really interesting choice for a centerpiece with some amazing support work. Also love the choice to go for an ice skating rink in lieu of a more conventional flat ride. Really sells the idea of a holiday-themed area, although I wonder what they do in the warmer seasons! The sledding hill is another really fun idea and decorated super well. Architecture is a fantastic blend of a consistent appearance and cool distinctions between each building that gives them their own identity. Trebuchet's queue and station and everything around the ice skating rink are highlights. I also like the little bits of backstage that really remind you this is realism at its finest.

I'm gonna break paragraphs to yap about the landscaping and crunch because oh my god. World class. Love how well the bits of snow are blended into the path and how they pile up into drifts. We start to reach FK levels of crunchy goodness on the ground and roofs and especially under the coaster. Love the traces of sand under the snow. I adore how the cliff faces don't have snow on them. Snowy cliffs can often blend into the land and remove the sense of depth, but there's still a really good visual distinction between each level of land here. Peep and staff scenes got a good laugh out of me which is always nice.

I gushed way more than I thought I would but this is just so good. Best door so far. I have a good feeling this is #1 Christmas fan AmusementParker at work, especially considering there are a few of his objects I don't think I've seen before. If I'm right then PLEASE build more Parker. You're incredible at this game.