Before December 22, 2003, some items will be dropped randomly across RuneScape on some holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween. On Christmas 2001, Christmas Crackers were dropped during that time. Christmas Crackers were dropped during a certain day in December. When a player walked in the game during that time, they may find items on the ground nearby.
It was just for fun originally. And certain items would be dropped on every holidays. But players began to notice that these times could not be obtained any more after the holiday. So it could be valuable after a certain time. Some players would be clever enough to take this opportunity to collect the holiday drops with a low price then sell them with high to make a lot RuneScape gold. This started the rise in the prices for holiday items. Players were also angry that they missed the drops. Players would complain to Jagex demanding that they redo the drop. Jagex decided to make the next few drops untradeable. However, this only enraged players even more.
Some players felt unconfortable about this. Jagex decided to stop holiday drops, but the players became ungry even more. On 22 December 2003, Jagex put an announcement on RuneScape's main page, saying that they were ceasing holiday drops. From then on, tradeable items were no longer dropped on holidays.
After December 22, 2003, a year passed and no holiday drop was made. However, on 21 December 2004, Jagex changed that. Santa Claus was placed in the game and gave a Yo-yo to players who talked to him (They were untradeable) . After the Yo-yo, Jagex introduced tasks players had to complete to obtain the holiday item, starting with the Rubber chicken.