The notion of a Winter Wonderland brings to mind images of a snow-covered utopia full of reindeer, cozy log cabins and pleasantly industrious elves. The interpretation presented at Dorset, England's Lapland New Forest is more along the lines of a bleak forest clearing with a few sheds, tractor tires and some depressed-looking huskies. Even worse, none of the inhabitants are even moderately tiny.
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Crapland

    A wealthy woman in her 80s from Windsor reported 20 huskies missing last week... coincidence?

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    There is no way out.

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    You might think that bear looks a bit wooden. Actually he's just hoping his buddies in space are going to be okay.

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    It might just be us, but there is something about this woman's facial expression that just doesn't express holiday cheer.

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    Give it 50 years and, thanks to global warming, this might be what Lapland actually looks like.

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    The "tunnel of light" featured a few electric bulbs and a lot of fake snow. The "tunnel of darkness" is what the visitors found themselves staring into when they realised they'd wasted all their money on this hellhole.

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    Yep. That's just about as much wine as we'd need to make this place fun.

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    That's a vision of the nativity that only an atheist could enjoy.

    The two extremes of dignity and dignity lost, in one painful photograph.

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    That's one depressed looking reindeer. Maybe he just heard that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer just fell off the wagon. (His nose is red for a reason.)

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Since it opened last Friday, more than 250 ticket-paying visitors of Lapland have complained. They say delights such as the "nativity scene" (a painted wall at the end of a muddy field) and "tunnel of light" (some Christmas lights strung from tree branches) haven't lived up to expectations. Nor did a "bustling Christmas market" that reportedly consists of four stalls inside a tent, or the "real reindeer and animals" that had many people rushing to contact the SPCA. Most concerned of all may be Sheilagh-Anne Davidson, who shelled out the equivalent of almost $4,500 for tickets for 132 members of her social club.

For his part, park owner Henry Mears has labeled the disgruntled customers "professional troublemakers" who "like to get into queues and just generate a bit of aggravation." And they say the holiday spirit is dead.