EA has today started shipping The Sims 2 Holiday Party Pack (Christmas Party Pack) and the limited Holiday Edition to the shops worldwide, so the game will be available next thursday. As usual you can buy the game in shops on a CD, but you can also buy the extra content for a price of $14,99 (the same as the retail price) at EA Downloader. Currently that service is only available in North America when it comes to the Holiday Party Pack. This service was recently officially announced in a press release from EA. The downloader will keep track of updates and more, and install them when necessary. You can pre-download a game from there, and then activate it at the day of release. In another press release EA announces the release of the Sims 2 Holiday Edition. From EA Australia come three new screenshots of the pack, which you can see below.