I thought Santa was taken out of the game.

Santa is still in the game, just have to defeat the Frost Legion first. You need to use a Snow Globe to summon that, which only drops from presents while in a Hardmode world.

i think just for building; you make blocks and walls and then from blocks granite furniture. I don't think there is anything special to be made.
I now have everything but mrs claus outfit, toolbox and the damn dog whiste.

Damn. I came across a ton of it while mining underground.... was hoping that it was something exciting... -.-

I did find diamonds and rubies though! I expect that would be good for something

Gems are good for some pre-Hardmode magic items, various quality Hooks and Phaseblades (think Lightsabers) which you can upgrade into Phasesabers once you get a bit into Hardmode.

i saw some chests and stuff made out of it though, and they are pretty. plus you can make some great kitchen counter tops ;)

Got a Red Ryder! But I probably won't use it for fear I might shoot my eye out (and because the damage is not much better than some of the first guns I ever got...which I also never used). Also got an ugly sweater, a pair of antlers, and assorted other less amusing and mostly useless stuff. But I dutifully packed it all away in my various chests, because that's just what we pack-rats do.

Dammit, lost my primary pre-hard melee weapon to a glitch. Was cloud fishing and some zombies wandered along. Pulled up my line and went over to deal with them. The game freaked out a little (was acting jumpy / glitchy) and my Godly Enchanted Sword got replaced with a mushroom.

Dunno if you've tried, but you can't fight enemies with a mushroom. Well, you CAN, but it's a decidedly one-sided battle in which you are not coming out victorious.

Thought maybe I hit the key to drop the sword but A) it wasn't there to be picked up again, and B) I didn't have a mushroom in my inventory nor did I run over a loose mushroom for it to be placed automatically in Slot 1. After all, mushrooms don't grow on cloud bricks.

Guess I need to mark a bunch of this stuff as Favorites, though I don't know if that would prevent this glitch.

Gah - these fishing quests are driving me nuts. The Angler gives three quest rewards that are needed to craft the Fish Finder, which itself is an ingredient for the PDA (and further, the Cell Phone). While I have the rest of the ingredients necessary to make the Cell Phone, the fishing quest items have become my White Whale. This time around, it's the Sextant. I have multiple radios and Pocket Guides but he hasn't yet coughed-up that darn mariner's tool.

Gonna change tactics - since I'm stuck fishing over and over again, might as well make use of Fishing and Crate Potions to get the best out of those efforts. Been mining as much silt and slush as I can find, to get the Amber to craft the Crate potion.

This time around, I'm holding off on going Hardmode until I can finish at least one Cell Phone - I want to free-up space in my inventory. Got my long Underworld 'battle road' built for that running fight, and I think I'm good with the weapons. Put banners up at various points along the road, to help with the random mobs that will spawn during the fight.

Just now realized I'm also missing the Metal Detector, in my craft hunt for the Cell Phone.

To find the thing I've been lurking in the shadows, hoping to spot a Lost Girl so I can attack her and get my hands on her goodies.

That doesn't sound creepy at all...

I've read that the fishing quests have a higher chance of yielding the special items after doing more of them, so keeping at it is definitely the way to go. I was pretty relieved when I finally got the last piece after 70 or so quests.

The Lost Girl is also pretty annoying to find. She's also much more likely to spawn in pre-hardmode worlds apparently. A good way is to set up some kind of farm like this:
http://imgur.com/a/tmvId

Here's a discussion about the farm:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Terraria/comments/1ra2y1/fully_afk_nymph_farm/

That wouldn't surprise me. Seems like I'm getting a Tackle Box, Fishing Radio, Earring, etc. about every third or fourth quest reward. Seems I've misplaced the Angler Hat since reward came ages ago.
Haven't tried much farming yet (only a glowing mushroom, uh, room) but this might be one to try. Supposed to be a 50/50 chance to get the metal detector from her, and I've already beaten her six times. She's being tight with that drop. : )

Edit: the Angler just coughed up the Sextant so that leaves the Metal Detector. Could bring one in from the other world, but nah. Gotta earn that sucker fair and square.

FINALLY got the Cell Phone. Randomly screwing around in a Marble Cave mini-biome (not-so-random: that seems to be the place that I most often encounter the Lost Girl) and noticed a Nymph attacking me. Got the lucky drop on the 8th try.

Already have 2x Molten Armor sets, 2x Night's Edge, 3 or 4 upgraded Cascade yoyos, and a bajillion healing potions. Made a long road upon which to fight the Wall of Flesh and I've placed a bunch of banners along the path to help deal with the other spawns that are sure to come along during the fight. Can't think of anything else I really need at this point, so maybe I'll do the deed and switch to Hardmode tonight or tomorrow.

Er, I should probably make sure I've defeated each early mode boss at least once. Got a couple more things to do, then.


Edit for wrong monster activating Hardmode

Anyone know how to open a terraria server?