Southerners Pay Big Money for Fake Snow

Weird trend story of the holidays: ABC News says people in the South are apparently very happy to shell out big money to have their yards covered in fake snow. One company says it has "booked" more than 230 tons of the stuff this month, up from 140 tons last December. "It's just absolutely exploded this year," says the president of the Ice Man. "We don't know why."

It's even harder to fathom when you consider that the cost of the service runs from $1,700 to $20,000, the latter presumably for those with massive yards. Blogger Cassie Murdoch at Jezebel is a wee bit skeptical that this is such a great idea. "If you have that kind of money to shred into shaved ice, you know what else you could spend it on? A vacation to a place that is already filled with snow." At least then, kids will see it come out of the sky instead of a truck, she adds. (More snow stories.)