With all the hustle and busty fustle of Australian Christmas, you probably thought we forgot the most important part of it: The gift-giving. Well, we didn't forget. We were hoping you would. But you didn't--you guys are sharp! So get your Gift-Gettin' Pants on, because you are about to get gifts, and we'd prefer you were wearing pants for it.

GIFTED! All the community items previously only available in the Nice Crates are now craftable, droppable, and available in all the ways you're used to getting them!

ALSO THIS GIFT! A free Secret Saxton for every premium account!

DUCK! GIFT COMIN' ATCHA! To acknowledge all you generous souls who've been handing out Secret Saxtons and piles of gifts since the formation of the TF economy, everybody is receiving a Spirit of Giving badge. It's a plate-sized x-ray illustrating to your peers exactly how big your heart is, and consequently, what a good person you are. You—and more importantly, everybody else—will actually be able to see your heart grow over time depending how many gifts you're giving. We strapped an actual decommissioned Soviet-era x-ray machine to several team members' chests, and trust us, the science checks out: The people in our experiment with the biggest hearts were in fact the nicest guys on staff. How do we know? You should have seen how many people showed up at their funerals.

STOCKING STUFFER! In an effort to get the gift-giving juices flowing, we've made every map as Smissmassy as possible by wrapping lights around every rope!
BUT THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL... was inside you all along. It's blood! Turns out you can sell it! See you at the plasma center! Merry Smissmas, everybody!

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Added community-created winter items to the drop lists, the craft tables, and the store
  
• Added the Spirit of Giving
  
• Gifts from Secret Saxtons and Piles o' Gifts now have a chance to grant a gift in addition to whatever item they would have granted normally
  
• Fixed hearing the deny sound while rotating a sentry during placement
  
• Manmelter balance tweaks:
  • Added particle effect on muzzle that appears when ready to fire
    
  • Increased projectile speed while maintaining the same travel arc
    
  • Increased extinguish range
• Added festive lights to all ropes and cables
  
• Fixed a problem that would sometimes allow the detonator projectiles to crit on burning targets
  
• Updated the localization files
  
• Updated the gamehaptics file:
  • Added draw/melee swing/melee hit/crit forces for the The Sharp Dresser and the Spy-cicle
    
  • Added draw/recoil/reload/crit forces for the Pomson 6000
    
  • Added draw/recoil/crit forces for the Manmelter
    
  • Added draw/recoil force for the Wrap Assassin
    
  • Added melee hit/world hit force for the Third Degree
    
  • Added crit forces for the Holiday Punch
    
  • Fixed missing forces for Demoman swords
    
  • Refined recoil force for the Sandman

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

• Fixed the Stocking Stuffer candy cane using the incorrect material
  
• Updated the Brown Bomber so it can be painted
  
• Updated the festive weapons so they can be gift-wrapped
  
• Updated the localization files
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

• Fixed the Frontier Justice getting infinite crits
  
• Fixed a problem that would allow Pyro Mmmph to activate in the air without taunting
  
• Fixed Manmelter getting crits from Mmmph
  
• Fixed an exploit with The Eureka Effect and The Phlogistinator where the effects could activate without taunting in high-lag situations
  
• Fixed the Brown Bomber not showing up on the Demoman
  
• Fixed client HUD crash
  
• Fixed colors on Christmas lights for the Blue team Scout weapons
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause minicrits when switching weapons rapidly
  
• Steam Workshop zip file size limit has been increased from 4 MB to 10 MB
  

<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/australianchristmas2011/part2.html"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/merry_smissmas_x.jpg" width="420" height="275" border="0"></a>

Board up your chimneys! Bury your milk and cookies in the yard! Load your shotguns and stuff all of your turkeys! <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/australianchristmas2011/part2.html">This year's holiday update</a> is here!

"Wait, which holiday?" you may be wondering. "Australian Christmas? Or Smissmas?" Both! <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/asmissmasstory/">Read this comic</a> to find out what happens when holidays collide! Two special days enter the squared circle! ONLY ONE LEAVES!

In the spirit of Australian Christmas/Smissmas/Your Holiday Here, we'd like to give a few shout-outs to all the hardworking boys and girls who made this update possible. First, a big thanks to all our community holiday item creators. Thanks also to the Dr. Grordbort guys for their cool retro-futuristic Engie and Pyro weapons. If you think they look nice in-game, wait'll you see their real-life equivalents, on sale right now at <a href="http://www.drgrordborts.com">drgrordborts.com</a>!

Board up your chimneys! Bury your milk and cookies in the yard! Load your shotguns and stuff all of your turkeys! This year's holiday update is here!

"Wait, which holiday?" you may be wondering. "Australian Christmas? Or Smissmas?" Both! Read this comic to find out what happens when holidays collide! Two special days enter the squared circle! ONLY ONE LEAVES!

In the spirit of Australian Christmas/Smissmas/Your Holiday Here, we'd like to give a few shout-outs to all the hardworking boys and girls who made this update possible. First, a big thanks to all our community holiday item creators. Thanks also to the Dr. Grordbort guys for their cool retro-futuristic Engie and Pyro weapons. If you think they look nice in-game, wait'll you see their real-life equivalents, on sale right now at drgrordborts.com!

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Fixed a bug which caused Windows Aero Extensions video option to always be enabled, regardless of setting. Disabling this can improve compatibility with third-party programs and overlays, but may also affect performance.
  
• Fixed SourceTV showing player counts for the game server instead of the number of clients connected to the SourceTV server
  

Team Fortress 2

• Australian Christmas has begun!
  
  • Added community-contributed winter event items
    
  • Added new Grordbort Pyro and Engineer item sets
    
  • Added the "Valve Gift Grab 2011 – TF2" achievement
    
  • Added Naughty and Nice winter keys to the Mann Co. store
    
• Added a new Valve-authored control point map: Foundry
  
  • added 12 achievements for Foundry
    
  • added achievement reward milestone reward for Foundry achievement
    
• Added UGC Highlander medals
  
• Relaxed some restrictions on what misc items can be equipped simultaneously
  
• Additional improvements for client stability
  
• Updated the localization files
  

Day of Defeat: Source

• Added the "Valve Gift Grab 2011 – DoD:S" achievement
  
• Updated the localization files
  

Counter-Strike: Source

• Added the "Valve Gift Grab 2011 – CS:S" achievement
  
• Added rate limiting for connections and added the following ConVars to support that:
  
  • sv_max_connects_sec
    
  • sv_max_connects_window
    
  • sv_max_connects_sec_global
    
• Dramatically improved the dynamic model loading system's memory usage, performance, and stability
  
• Reduced memory usage on systems running Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7
  
• Improved alt-tab handling under Windows Vista and Windows 7
  
• Fixed a client crash during demo playback
  
• Updated the localization files
  

<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/australianchristmas2011/"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/aus_xmas_2.jpg" width="420" height="275" border="0"></a>

As strongly implied in yesterday's <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/truemeaning/">educational Australian Christmas comic</a>, <a href="http://www.drgrordborts.com/">Dr. Grordbort</a> has <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/grordborts/">once again</a> landed a steam-powered rocket directly into the gravelly fields of the TF2niverse. Only this time the rocket's a little roomier, and has arrived bearing gifts for two classes, the Engineer and the Pyro.

Click <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/australianchristmas2011/">here</a> for Part One of our Australian Christmas Update Announcement, and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for Announcement Part Two and, more importantly, the update itself.

Just because the update’s coming tomorrow doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be playing RIGHT NOW, because guess what: Double drop rates start tonight! They’re only around until next Wednesday, so get in there and take advantage of all the double dropping!

As strongly implied in yesterday's educational Australian Christmas comic, Dr. Grordbort has once again landed a steam-powered rocket directly into the gravelly fields of the TF2niverse. Only this time the rocket's a little roomier, and has arrived bearing gifts for two classes, the Engineer and the Pyro.

Click here for Part One of our Australian Christmas Update Announcement, and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for Announcement Part Two and, more importantly, the update itself.

Just because the update’s coming tomorrow doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be playing RIGHT NOW, because guess what: Double drop rates start tonight! They’re only around until next Wednesday, so get in there and take advantage of all the double dropping!

<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/truemeaning"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/truemeaning.jpg" width="420" height="159" border="0"></a>

What <b><i>is</i></b> the true meaning of <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/australianchristmas/">Australian Christmas</a>? Some say it is a hamfisted attempt by the Australian government to turn a notorious felon into a beloved folk hero. Others say it's a calculated ploy by the novelty munitions industry to sell guns that shoot mistletoe.

And then there are those who look <i>past</i> all that, and maintain that it is a time to reconnect with friends and loved ones, and to be thankful for the blessings in our lives.

And <i>then</i> there are those who are still licking their emotional wounds from all the reconnecting with friends and loved ones they did at Thanksgiving, and realize that the <b>true</b> true meaning of Australian Christmas is zero human contact, eating candy, and getting as many presents as possible.

And those people are correct—<b>that</b> is the true meaning of Australian Christmas. We looked it up.

But don't take our word for it. <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/truemeaning">Ask the Engineer</a>.