>>>Just thought you may have a funny setting there... all the fake snow just when the summer begins :)
>
>Especially in Auckland, where it has never snowed in recorded history!
>
>At least the Christmas trees are realistic- pine grows extremely quickly in our climate, so we've planted huge forests of the stuff.

Virginia has a lot of pine as well. And I grew in a street (back in Yugoslavia) where they planted pines in 1961, and now they're really big... well, relatively big, the ones here are at least twice as tall.

I see you've changed the tagline... nice try, just somehow doesn't apply. I'm all for merriment... on common grounds.