The Rust Christmas event, better known as Rustmas, is the one time of year when the island rains presents. Gift boxes pop up next to every player, Santa’s sleigh replaces the cargo plane, gingerbread houses lead into candy cane mines full of hostile gingerbread men, and your base fills with stockings, trees and an advent calendar that hands out a present every real day. It goes live with a mid December patch and runs until the January Rust force wipe.
This guide covers when Rustmas 2026 should start (and every past date since 2022), how presents and gift boxes work, Santa’s sleigh, the gingerbread mines, stockings, every event item you can craft and what it costs (from the current game files), the Snowball Gun, the store items and drops, the console event, the server commands and the tips that get you the most loot before the wipe.
- Dates
- Presents
- Santa’s Sleigh
- Gingerbread Mines
- Stockings
- Craftable Items
- Snowball Gun
- Store & Drops
- Console
- Commands
- Tips
- FAQ
When Is the Rust Christmas Event 2026?
Facepunch has not announced the 2026 dates yet. The December 2026 update is the force wipe on Thursday, December 3, 2026, and Rustmas has never shipped with the December wipe. It always comes two weeks later as a separate, no-wipe patch. Every year since 2022 it has started between December 15 and 18 and ended with the January force wipe at 19:00 UTC. That puts Rustmas 2026 at about Thursday, December 17, 2026 to Thursday, January 7, 2027. We will update this page the day the patch notes land; for the exact end time, the force wipe countdown on our home page shows the January wipe to the minute.
| Year | Start (PC) | End | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Expected about Thu, Dec 17 | Expected Thu, Jan 7, 2027 | Not announced yet |
| 2025 | Thu, Dec 18, 19:00 UTC | Thu, Jan 1, 2026, 19:00 UTC | Assorted Giftwrap wallpapers, Kick Rustmas drops |
| 2024 | Mon, Dec 16, 19:00 UTC | Thu, Jan 2, 2025, 19:00 UTC | Ice Block for ice sculptures, double door garland in the store pack |
| 2023 | Mid December (advent from Dec 16) | Thu, Jan 4, 2024, 19:00 UTC | TwitchMas drops, first base decorating contest |
| 2022 | Thu, Dec 15 | Thu, Jan 5, 2023 | Gingerbread houses and cake mines added |
The event does not wipe your server. It switches on for every official and vanilla server the moment they take the patch, whatever their own wipe schedule is, and it switches off with the January force wipe, which does wipe every map. Anything you have not opened by then is gone.
Christmas Presents and Gift Boxes
Presents are the heart of Rustmas. Every in-game day a jingle plays and 2 gift boxes spawn within about 40 metres of every active player (the server setting is xmas.giftsperplayer). A gift box has 30 HP: hit it with anything and it breaks into a Small or Medium Present. Boxes despawn after a while, so log in, walk your area and smash every one you hear.
You can open a present right away or upgrade it: a full stack of 10 Small Presents turns into 1 Medium, and 5 Medium Presents turn into 1 Large. Presents are not craftable. The short version of what drops:
| Present | Stack | Best loot |
|---|---|---|
| Small Present | 10 | Wood, stones, 25 to 49 metal fragments, chocolate, candy cane club, 8 to 11 scrap, Eoka Pistol |
| Medium Present | 5 | 1,000 stones, Pookie Bear, Waterpipe Shotgun + 10 shells, Small Stocking, sled, Snowball Gun, short ice walls |
| Large Present | 1 | 60 HQM, 250 crude oil, Flame Turret, Revolver, Pump Shotgun, SUPER Stocking, Custom SMG, Supply Signal |
Every roll and percentage is in our Rust presents loot table guide, including the wrapping paper you get back and the odds for each item.
Santa’s Sleigh
During Rustmas the normal cargo plane airdrop is swapped for Santa’s sleigh. You hear sleigh bells instead of propellers, then Santa and his reindeer fly across the map and drop a huge gift-wrapped airdrop that trails sparkles as it falls. It works like a regular airdrop: the whole server can see and hear it, it lands on a parachute and the first team there takes it. The difference is the loot: on top of the usual supply drop loot it carries 4 to 6 Medium Presents.
Because the sleigh drop beats a normal airdrop, it pulls fights. Go geared, and expect roofcampers on any base close to where it lands. Drops from a Supply Signal you throw yourself are still normal airdrops, not sleigh drops.
Gingerbread Houses and Mines
Gingerbread houses appear around the map during the event, roughly a dozen on a normal size map (RustHelp’s spawn data lists more on the biggest maps). Go through the front door, then the inner door, and you drop into a short cake mine: a candy cane tunnel dungeon with 2 to 6 gingerbread NPCs. They fight with candy cane clubs and sometimes an MP5, and they drop scientist style loot plus small presents, snowballs and Snowball Guns. Dungeon crates at the end hold more presents and decorations. Leave through the door you came in.
The mines are Rust’s Christmas version of the Halloween rifts: short, close range and worth it early in a wipe. A pump shotgun or a waterpipe with handmade shells clears them, and a syringe or two covers the MP5 gingerbread men. Server owners set how many houses spawn with xmasdungeon.xmaspopulation.
Stockings
Stockings are deployables you hang in your base. When the jingle bells ring they fill themselves with loot, and a sparkle on top tells you there is something to take. Each stocking lasts about 5 to 10 refills before it is used up. There are two:
- Small Stocking (stacks to 5): wood, stones, metal fragments, coal, chocolate, an Eoka with shells, a candy cane club or a Santa hat. Drops from Medium Presents.
- SUPER Stocking (the large one): more fragments, a Waterpipe Shotgun, a Medical Syringe, a Snowball Gun with snowballs and better odds overall. Drops from Large Presents.
Put stockings down the day you get them. Every refill you miss is loot you never see, and they disappear with the January wipe.
Christmas Items You Can Craft (and What They Cost)
These recipes unlock for everyone while the event is on. Costs below come straight from the current Rust game files (item data updated October 2026). Some older guides list a 500 wood Christmas Tree, a 1,500 stone High Ice Wall and a 150 wood sled: the live recipes are below.
| Item | Recipe | Workbench | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christmas Tree | 100 wood, 20 cloth | None | Deployable tree you open like a box and fill with decorations |
| Advent Calendar | 100 wood, 20 cloth | Workbench 1 | One free present per real-life day from December 16 to 25 |
| High Ice Wall | 3,000 stones | Workbench 2 | Event version of a high external wall, also from presents |
| Ice Wall (short) | 300 stones | Workbench 1 | Low wall that places more freely, also in Medium Presents |
| Ice Block (ice sculpture) | 500 wood, 100 metal fragments | None | Carve it with melee tools into a sculpture |
| Sled | 500 wood | Workbench 1 | Ride downhill in the snow biome; pick it up with a hammer |
The tree decorations are not crafted. Star Tree Topper, Decorative Baubels, Pinecones, Gingerbread Men, Plastic Candy Canes, Tinsel and Tree Lights drop from presents, stockings and gingerbread men; you place them in the tree’s slots. The free Gingerbread building skin for wood tier walls and floors is also unlocked for everyone during the event. It is cosmetic only and changes nothing about HP or hitboxes.
The Snowball Gun
The Snowball Gun (the Blizzard Blaster) is a fast-firing toy grenade launcher. Feed it one snowball and you get 50 rounds of snow. It cannot be crafted or bought during the event: it only drops from Medium Presents, SUPER Stockings and gingerbread men. Snowballs can also be thrown by hand. It does next to no damage, so it is for fun at Outpost and for annoying your neighbours, not for fights.
Rustmas Store Items, Wallpapers and Drops
Every Christmas Facepunch brings back its limited holiday items in the Rust item store. In 2024 and 2025 the Rustmas set was the same eight items, and they are likely to return:
- Deluxe Christmas Lights (electric fairy lights, 50 metal fragments to craft once owned)
- Snow Machine and Snowman
- Festive Garlands Pack (door, double door and window garlands) and the Christmas Door Wreath
- Santa Beard, the Snowman Hat (see our Snowman Helmet guide) and the Neon Sign Pack
2025 also added the Season’s Beatings Assorted Giftwrap wallpapers (giftwrap walls, red festive floor tiles and a moulded plaster ceiling). Watching streams pays too: Rustmas 2025 ran four category-wide drops on both Twitch and Kick from December 18 to January 1. See our Rust Twitch drops and Kick Rustmas drops guides for what dropped last year. Facepunch has also run a base decorating contest on X every year since 2023 (#Rustmas2025, skins worth £120 for the winner).
Rust Console Christmas Event
Rust Console Edition gets its own Christmas event on its own schedule. In 2025 the console winter update landed on November 27 and the Christmas event started on December 12, 2025, almost a week before PC. Console content and timing can differ from PC, so check our console wipe schedule and Rust Console Edition guide for the next console dates.
Christmas Server Commands
If you run your own server, these are the Christmas convars (type them in the server console or RCON, see our admin commands list for the rest):
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
xmas.enabled true | Turns Christmas present spawns on outside the official event |
xmas.giftsperplayer 2 | How many gift boxes spawn around each player every round |
xmas.refill | Spawns a round of gifts and refills stockings right now |
xmasdungeon.xmaspopulation | How many gingerbread houses (mines) spawn on the map |
santasleigh.drop | Calls in Santa’s sleigh drop |
find xmas | Lists every Christmas convar on your server version |
To hand items out directly, use the shortnames: inventory.give xmas.present.large 1. Every Christmas shortname and item ID is in our Rust item IDs list.
Tips for Rustmas
- Log in every day. Gift boxes only spawn around active players, and the advent calendar gives one present per real day. Missed days are gone.
- Upgrade, do not open. Ten Small Presents are mostly wood and stone. One Medium can be a Waterpipe or a Pookie Bear; one Large can be a Flame Turret, HQM or a Custom SMG.
- Hang stockings right away. Each one only has 5 to 10 refills before the wipe.
- Run gingerbread mines early in the wipe. A shotgun and a few syringes clear them, and they drop presents and decorations.
- Treat Santa’s sleigh like a contested airdrop. It carries 4 to 6 Medium Presents, so expect a fight.
- Open everything before the January wipe. Presents, stockings and trees all vanish when the map wipes on January 7, 2027 (expected).
Want the same breakdown for the spooky season? Our Rust Halloween event guide covers the Candy Hunt, loot bags and Frankenstein pets.
Rust Christmas Event FAQ
When does the Rust Christmas event start in 2026?
Facepunch has not announced it yet. Every year since 2022 Rustmas has started between December 15 and 18 with a separate no-wipe patch, so expect it around Thursday, December 17, 2026, two weeks after the December 3 force wipe.
When does Rustmas end?
It ends with the January force wipe at 19:00 UTC. For 2026 that should be Thursday, January 7, 2027. Rustmas 2025 ended on January 1, 2026.
When was the Rust Christmas event in 2025?
It ran on PC from Thursday, December 18, 2025 to Thursday, January 1, 2026 at 19:00 UTC. Console started earlier, on December 12, 2025.
How do you get presents in Rust?
During the Christmas event 2 gift boxes spawn within about 40 m of every active player each in-game day. Break a box to get a Small or Medium Present. Presents also drop from Santa’s sleigh, gingerbread men, stockings and the advent calendar.
How do you upgrade presents in Rust?
Upgrade a full stack: 10 Small Presents become 1 Medium Present, and 5 Medium Presents become 1 Large Present. Presents cannot be crafted.
What does Santa’s sleigh drop in Rust?
It replaces the cargo plane during Rustmas and drops a gift-wrapped airdrop with normal supply drop loot plus 4 to 6 Medium Presents.
How do you craft a Christmas tree in Rust?
During the event the Christmas Tree costs 100 wood and 20 cloth with no workbench needed. Decorations such as the Star Tree Topper, baubels and tree lights come from presents, stockings and gingerbread men.
How does the Advent Calendar work in Rust?
Craft it for 100 wood and 20 cloth at a Workbench 1 and place it in your base. You can claim one present from it per real-life day from December 16 to December 25.
Can you craft the Snowball Gun in Rust?
No. It only drops from Medium Presents, SUPER Stockings and gingerbread men. One snowball loads 50 rounds.
Does the Christmas event wipe the server?
No. Rustmas switches on with its own patch and wipes nothing. It ends with the January force wipe, which does wipe every map.
Sources and Further Reading
- 2025 dates, presents, stockings, advent calendar, store items and drops: Facepunch, Merry Rustmas 2025
- 2024 dates and store items: Facepunch, Christmas 2024; 2023 end date and gingerbread convar: Facepunch, Merry Rustmas 2023
- Sleigh, mines, stockings and present upgrades: Rustafied, Xmas is coming (2025)
- Event items and loot sources: Facepunch Wiki, Christmas Event
- Recipes: Rust game item data (items.craft.json, October 2026)