Discontinued items and holiday drops are items that cannot be obtained through the game and, therefore, their numbers are not increasing. However, some of these items may still be obtained through trading with other players. Because the number of these items does not increase, players often refer to these items as rares.
These items are now very few in number and are very expensive. They were taken out of the game because players gained money by not putting in hard work into the game, and some players complained that they did not get one. 
Holiday drops are items that were dropped on certain holidays, such as Christmas or Easter. These items are also few in number and are very expensive. Holiday drops that are wieldable are often worn by players to either show their wealth, for fashion or to show how long they've played.
These rares are also a very important part of Runescape's economy, many players work hard with skills to achieve a long-term goal of owning a rare and discontinued holiday item. For the most part Rares either hold their value or grow, like that of a stock. In some special occasions, such as the "Unbalanced Trade Removal" update the price of rares will drop, but players can be certain that if they hold a rare long enough it will eventually be worth it because no more rares will ever enter the economy. Items such as dragon chainbodies have high prices compared to other non-discontinued items, but will eventually fall because it is possible to get more of them, and in the case of tradable holiday items, this is not a possible reason for the price to lower. A big concern that some players have about buying a holiday item is that in the future they might release an update to make them untradable or even remove them, though it is unlikely that Jagex would ever do that.
Before December 22 2003[]
When RuneScape Classic was still known as RuneScape, Jagex decided that they would drop items randomly across RuneScape on certain holidays.
On Easter, Halloween, and Christmas, Jagex would drop a certain item. For example, in December 2001 during Christmas, Jagex dropped 'Christmas Crackers'. These christmas crackers could only be obtained during a certain day during December. When a player walked around RuneScape, they may have seen a christmas cracker pop up out of nowhere on the ground nearby. This was how the items were dropped.
Originally dropped for fun, Jagex kept this going on for a few more years. An item would be dropped every Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. Unfortunately, players began to notice that these items could not be obtained any more unless they were bought from other players. Seeing this, players began to buy the holiday items low, and then sell them at an incredibly high price. 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 nontradable. However, this only enraged players even more.
Jagex, realizing what was happening, decided to stop holiday drops, as players were becoming too greedy. On December 22, 2003, Jagex put an announcement on RuneScape's main page, saying that they were ceasing holiday drops.From then on, items were not dropped on holidays.
After December 22 2003[]
A year passed and no holiday drop was made. However, on December 21, 2004, Jagex changed that. Santa was placed in the game and gave a holiday item to players who talked to him. After this, holiday items were no longer tradable. Instead of the items being dropped, Jagex introduced tasks players had to complete to obtain the holiday item.
Replacing Holiday Items[]
Items Ask Thessalia in the Varrock clothing store that is south-west of the main fountain for your bunny ears or scythe back and she will happily oblige. Diango is found in Draynor Marketplace. He will return your holiday items if you lose them, including the scythe, chocatrice cape, chicken suit, reindeer hat, snowglobe and bunny ears.
Trivia[]
- You can't sell rare items in general stores due to Real World Trading.