You need to decorate 15 trees to get access to the divine forest before the 25th. Since we don't know how many decorations we will be getting, this may be easy or it may be hard to do without spending passes.

If you do wait - you give up the possibility of the lower prizes from the other trees. Of course, you also save your decorations and therefore you might be able to decorate the divine tree without spending passes, if you are lucky.

There is also a middle road, which I am leaning towards - decorate other trees but save the decorations you will need for the divine tree of your choice. Since we know exactly which decorations we will need (hoping they don't change between preprod and live game) we can save those up before the 25th and use any extras to decorate other trees to get the smaller prizes. Depending on the number and rarity of decorations we get we might need to still need to spend passes to get the divine tree fully decorated.

Finally - even when the divine forest becomes available, you still need to send horses to get the tree. Since the estimated end date is the 28th and the enchanted forest (just below divine) takes 24-48hrs to get a tree back, it is possible that the divine tree will take too long to get back without spending passes/diamonds to speed it up.

The thing to remember is the amount of decorations needed for the divine tree. Use them for the other trees means you will need more for the divine tree. There is also a time factor. It takes approx 1/3 days to get the trees no matter whether you are for the regular BMi or the divine ( unless you use passes to speed things up.

You should note that you have the options of using passes to shorten the time getting to the forest then MORE passes to get the tree BACK immediately. So depending on what you are going for ( look at the list each forest offers) you must weigh if it is doable or not.

If you did the 15 trees to get to the divine forest before the 25 multiply what I said 15 times..

Also all trees must be decorated ( you can get all 15 then decorate or do them one at a time) before the divine forest opens before the 25th.

Or you can wait until the 25th and just do that one tree.

First with the Advent Calendar just collect all the decorations I can. I will also collect them anyway I can that does not involve passes.

Second from the 10/11 onward go for 3 trees and let the time go as the system allows ( so no passes to speed anything up). I will not decorate any of them though.

Note that when you get to the forest the item the elf is holding is not the only BM item available and there are <-> arrows to show whatever you want that is available in that forest. So I will pick something I want. I will not decorate them but simply leave them for later.

I will wait for the 25th when the divine forest opens up and go for this forest ( divine one and get a Balios) and bring it back. use the decorations I have saved up as I have not used any so far. This will tell me what is missing for this tree( if any). This is where HOPs in my inventory will come in handy and or I can buy them (this would be the first time I will have used passes or diamonds). So assuming I get all I need then Balios is mine.

Only then will I decorate any trees I have brought back ( during the Dec 11th to 24th period).

So passes/diamonds will probably have to be spent but should be only when really needed.

Do we know how long the divine tree takes to get back? Will we be able to get it back before the promo ends without spending passes on speeding it up?