If your Valley has been missing a glass slipper and a little ballroom sparkle, the Winter Ball update for Disney Dreamlight Valley answers that call. Gameloft’s free seasonal drop—released December 10, 2025—does what holiday updates should: it adds a marquee character (Cinderella), sneaks in deeper social mechanics (DreamTeams), and dresses the valley up with a new Star Path and DreamSnap theme that’s all frosted fairytales.
Cinderella’s return: not just a cutscene
Cinderella’s recruitment is delightfully tactile. You don’t unlock her by buying a realm or ticking off a single questline—this one feels like a scavenger hunt with a costume change.
- Pre-reqs: access to the Forgotten Lands and having met the Fairy Godmother.
- Start by checking your mailbox for the Fairy Godmother’s letter about a missing glass slipper. The slipper spawns in the Plaza (mine was at the top of the stairs to the Peaceful Meadow) and must be handed to the Fairy Godmother inside her house to begin the quest.
- She’ll task you with crafting a Wish Enchantment for your watering can. Ingredients come from the Forgotten Lands: 5 Ginger, 1 Orange Nasturtium, 5 Gooseberry and 1 Diamond.
- Use the elixir on the Small Spell Pumpkin given by Fairy Godmother, plant it like a seed anywhere in the valley and water it (it takes ~15 minutes to sprout). When the pumpkin vanishes, visit Remy’s restaurant—the pumpkin tends to turn up there—and return it to the Fairy Godmother.
- You’ll then buy plans for Cinderella’s house (Scrooge charges 15,000 Star Coins), place the plans, and decorate the Plaza with eight pieces of “elegant” furniture plus the Spell Pumpkin around the wishing well. Interact with the pumpkin and the “Welcome, Cinderella” trigger appears.
- Team management lives in its own menu tab where owners can set name, icon and motto (ownership is transferable).
- A Detailed Profile Card shares progress with teammates.
- Item sharing uses a Request Box mechanic—two item requests per player per day and up to four active requests at once. Teammates can fulfill requests by dropping items into the request slots.
- The Team Feed lets players share DreamSnaps and photos (two photos per player active at once), helping teams coordinate aesthetics as well as resources.
It’s a hands-on, storybook loop that ends with Cinderella’s friendship quests: dancing, critters, and planning the Friendship Ball—plus a few premium cosmetics and a mega bundle in the Premium Shop if you want an icy palace and themed companions.
DreamTeams: trading and teamwork without the fuss
The update’s social headline is DreamTeams, a multiplayer feature that finally threads cooperative sharing into the Valley. Once you complete the “Friendship is Everything” quest you can join or form a DreamTeam of up to seven players.
Highlights:
It feels like a gentle, structured co-op—less about competitive leaderboards and more about helping friends finish that last hard-to-find recipe or furniture piece.
Star Path and DreamSnap: wintery incentives and community contests
The Winter Warmth Star Path arrives with the update and brings a tidy refresh to tracking and rewards: you can now track duties more easily, Premium Star Path owners get an optional auto-claim toggle for rewards, and there’s a 24-hour grace period for duties.
For players chasing tasks, the Star Path includes everything from fishing in specific biomes to serving customers at Remy’s or Tiana’s Palace, and of course several tasks tied to Cinderella herself—gifts, hangouts, and photos.
DreamSnap also gets a seasonal tilt: the rotating community theme this week asks creators to recreate Cinderella’s iconic midnight transformation. Voting remains important—the site awards Moonstones for participation, and the GameSnap rotation keeps giving players reasons to build and show off tiny winter wonderlands.
Other welcome changes and quality-of-life fixes
The patch packed a lot under the hood: Scrooge now accepts returns at 75% value, Dynamic Realm Unlocks smooth out door costs, and companion abilities were expanded so critters and pets feel more useful in everyday tasks. Wishblossom Ranch received several XP and harvesting boosts to reduce grind, and a long list of bug fixes addresses many annoying edge cases.
If you play on portable hardware or are thinking about hopping between devices while you decorate for the ball, recent platform news shows handheld play is staying relevant—Valve’s efforts to streamline downloads and low-power modes mean carrying a full Valley save on the go is more practical than ever (see how the Steam Deck’s download optimizations are shaping handheld convenience) [(/news/steam-deck-display-off-downloads)]. Likewise, the broader hardware market’s momentum (the Switch 2’s surprising sales surge) is keeping consoles in the conversation for seasonal updates like this [(/news/nintendo-switch-2-sales-surge)].
How this update lands
Cinderella’s quest is the kind of bite-sized, charming content that suits Dreamlight Valley’s cozy loop: an approachable puzzle, a bit of crafting, some decorating—and a social finale. DreamTeams stitches the community closer together without forcing complicated multiplayer sessions, and the Star Path / DreamSnap wrinkles make seasonal participation feel both visual and rewarding.
If you’re late to the party, log in between Dec. 25–31 for an in-game surprise tied to the holiday window; otherwise, plant that enchanted pumpkin, polish your best “elegant” furniture, and get ready to waltz your way through winter in the Valley.