Category: Reviews

Occupying a quarter Full private region leveraging the Lab’s Land Capacity bonus, lies the realm of the Naughty Panda, created by Alice Embervale (Alice Sakura) and her SL partner, Krow Embervale (Poetic Doll). From now through until January 4th, 2026, the setting is home to Return to the Light, a Japanese-inspired celebration of the Winter Solstice.

Called Toji (冬至) in Japanese, the solstice is one of Nijushi-sekki – the 24 divisions of the solar year. Occurring around December 22nd at ecliptic longitude 270^o, it refers to a period between the day and the beginning of the following sekki called shokan (the lesser cold season). It is the shortest day and longest night of the year, with the lowest culmination altitude of the sun, in the northern hemisphere.

Within Return to the Light, visitors are invited to take a lantern and follow a winter mountain walk. Along the path, guardians mark the way, offering information on the season, together with a riddle that leads to the next of their kind.

Thus, those travelling the route learn about the legend of Toji, solve a challenge and receive a special gift. Afterwards, there is the chance to relax in warm yuzu-infused hot springs and enjoy a shared feast in a peaceful courtyard setting. Yuzu is a citrus fruit, and it is said in Japan that taking yuzu-yu (a yuzu citron bath) is part of the traditions of the day, as is eating Toji-gayu (winter solstice rice gruel).

Whilst referred to as a quest, Return to the Light is not intended to be a race or in any way competitive. Rather, it is a personal journey, a reflection of the passage of life as we move through the depths of winter and towards the return of the light and warmth of the Sun. As such, it should be approached gently, with consideration and an openness to discovery and learning.

The Landing Point for the setting doubles as the starting point for the quest. It is here that visitors can collect their lantern and read instructions on starting the quest along the path to reach the kitsune temple.

But before starting, I would recommend – as per the introductory notes provided with the lantern – the setting should be experienced using the local environment settings and the custom audio stream. The latter’s music will not only soothe, but encourage you to take your time and appreciate the quest and the setting all the more.

Five stone Jizo – little carvings of a bodhisattva – form the aforementioned guardians along the route. Jizo is (in the simplest terms) the protector of all souls on their journey through life and reincarnation. Here, the little statues serve as the means to impart the story of Toji and its significance in Japanese tradition, before passing on a short riddle in which lies the clue to finding the next Jizo.

On reaching the shrine, visitors should hand over their lantern to hear the words of the wise kitsune – but do note, there are no shortcuts; wisdom only comes by following the path from point to point. After Kitsune has spoken, visitors are asked a five question challenge before a gift is given, and the journey can be taken back to the landing point.

Returning to the lowlands will bring visitors to a series of building built around a large onsen pool.  Here is where the feast mentioned in the setting’s notes might be found, and – on December 18th, it will host a solstice music event commencing at 13:00 SLT and continuing through until 18:00.

Small, engaging and with a wealth of easy learning to be had, Naughty Panda’s Return of the Light is a genuinely unique take on the time of year, and well worth a visit.

SLurl Details

• The Naughty Panda Return of the Light (Mattawan, rated Moderate)

Occupying a Homestead region, Eira is a cosy wintertime island offering a mix of quiet retreat and opportunities for activities and fun. The work of Yoon (Toyono), apparently supported by estate holder AMExperience, it is a delightful location well-suited to its role, and sitting under very appropriate environment settings.

Ruggedly steep, the island is crowned by snow-frosted pine and birch trees which in turn surround a modern cement-and-wood cabin (open to the public) and a large wooden gazebo forming a covered ice skating rink. The main Landing Point (not enforced) sits close by the cabin, making it and the gazebo an obvious first point of exploration.

A path winds away from the cabin and past the gazebo, heading west. As it does so, it passes a close-range snowball fight area to reach wooden decks and steps as they dogleg down to a frozen-over cove on the west side of the island to offer more ice skating (together with the opportunity to pick up some seasonal goodies as a gift from Yoon and – across the bay – to have a little posing fun with a snowman!).

The skating here looks a little more risky as the ice is clearly cracked and there is a warning of thin ice as it hugs the coast around a headland to the south, where a further shallow bay sits.  This is backed by a ski / sledding slope running down from the cabin and gazebo (rezzers at the top), with the chance to go skiddling out onto the ice if not careful!

For those preferring a more traditional way of enjoying the ice, a further skating rezzer can be found at the foot of the slope, whilst off to one side on a shelf of snow-coated rock there’s a little place to sit and warm hands before a fire.

Just beyond the trees marking the rezzer for the southern ski slope lays another snowy path winding between the trees. Travelling east to start, it turns more to the south-east to descend down wooden stairs to a deck build out over the water and another chance to go skating.

More skiing / sledding can be had from the top of the east-side slope of the island, where rezzers sit just behind the Landing Point, and angled snow slope dropping away from them, this time with a fence at the bottom to prevent any zooming out into icy waters (unless one steers for the gap in it! Also at the bottom of this slope, people can opt to shovel snow or (again) take to skates out on the ice.

Also reached via a path leading away from the west side of the cabin is a further path. After descending a set of steps, it branches, one arm running on down to where a little dock sits, offering both a skating rezzer and a little rowing boat for sitting and cuddling. The second arm of the path runs around the shoulder of the hill, offering places to sit and spend time.

Skaters setting out from the dock can easily make their way over to the smaller island sitting off to the north-east, which offers a couple of little attractions of its own, reached via steps running up from its north coast. I should also perhaps here note that the other little island sitting to the north-west can also be skated to and explored, but is given over entirely to nature (and so might be a good backdrop for photography).

Those not wishing to explore entirely on foot should also keep an eye out for the tall directional signs. These are actually teleport boards and allow for quick hops around the setting’s major features (or a quick hop back to the Landing Point if you get lost!).

Throughout all of this, Yoon has added plenty of little details to enjoy, together with a subtle soundscape of birdsong and the bubbling, rushing of the local stream and it tumbles over rocks and falls to the sea. For those who would like a Christmas-y soundtrack to go with their explorations, Yoon provides a curated selection of song on the region’s audio stream via Listen.fm.

In all, and as noted, Eira is a delightful, photogenic and enjoyable location!

 Slurl Details

• Eira (Karma Isles, rated Moderate)

December brings with it a last visit for 2025 to Alpha Auer’s Alphatribe Island. I did so to spend a little time wandering through Quollidays, Alpha’s end-of-year setting which continues a theme seen with Ginger Bread and the Woodies, Quirklewick Hollow, and Critterflop Hallowpop, and which here is inspired by quolls.

For those who didn’t know – like me, so I’m relying totally on the likes of Wikipedia here – quolls are carnivorous marsupials found in  Australia (4 species) and New Guinea (2 species). Furry and tailed, adult quolls tend to be between 25 and 75 cm long in the body and between 20 and 35 cm in the tail. They vary in size by species, with the northern quoll being the smallest, an adult male averaging 900 grams; and the spotted-tailed quoll being the largest, with males averaging around 7 kg. All six species are denoted by long snouts, pink noses and spots across their black, brown or sandy fur.

Once numerous across Australia, numbers have declined since European settlers arrived, with all six species suffering predations from feral cats and from foxes, with urban development destroying many habitats and many quolls falling victim to pest control poisons. In the wild, things have been made hard for them by the introduction of the toxic cane toad to Australia in the 1980s. As a result, quolls are now considered endangered species and subject to conservation protections and programs, including attempts to reintroduce them to areas where they have previously been thought extinct.

By nature, Quolls are apparently solitary creatures, generally only coming together in winter months – which makes Alpha’s Quollidays high suitable in nature, as it brings together quolls in a celebratory mood and within a wintry village setting. Here visitors can wander along the little winding streets between snowy cottages and houses there green roofs often decorated for the season, stands of bare, frosted trees gathered around them as snow drifts down from above.

Along the streets and among the trees the local inhabitants can be found, individually or in pairs or groups, often wrapped up warm against the cold and / or sporting colours of the season and touches of fancy dress. Some have clearly been having fun building snowmen whist others are content to stand and chat, noses truly pink in the crisp air.

Travel far enough along the paths and you’ll likely arrive at the Christmas carousel guests can ride upon. The carousel sits alongside a little skating rink, complete with a sign offering skates for those wishing to join some of the locals on the ice.

Easy to explore and offering opportunities for photography, Quollidays is a charming, easy-going location to visit; one bound to bring a smile to the face and lift the heart. For those interested in Alpha’s workflow in making these settings, do make sure you grab the information notecard from the snowman at the Landing Point. Should you wish to go home with one one of Alpha’s quolls as your own, make sure you visit the Alpha Tribe store in the north-east corner of the region.

SLurl Details

• Quollidays (Alphatribe Island, rated Moderate)

The last week has been a little rough on me with things health-wise throwing a bit of a wobbly – probably not for the last time, things being what they are, but c’est la vie as they say. So to try to get back into things within Second Life, I decided to hop over to see the 2025 winter setting at Lam Erin’s Cherishville.

This is a location I’ve been visiting pretty much annually (at least) since 2017. As a landscape photographer himself, Lam has the eye for putting together settings that are always pleasing to the eye and well-balanced, and this attracts me to his designs. There’s also the fact that whilst each iteration of Cherishville is unique to itself, can oft carry motifs and themes forward one to the next, and I’m a fan of such themes and motifs.

Some of these motifs clear to see for regular visitors to Cherishville, such as the little town theme running through several of his 2024 Cherishville designs, other of which are more subtle in nature

For 2025, Lam offers a genuinely delightful winter setting which offers a new landscape perfectly blending with the region surround to create a very real sense of depth to the design, but which again presents little familiar nods to past designs, even if they might not be recognised as such by the casual eye. There’s also – to me at least – a little quasi-literary touch to be found by lovers of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The first of those potentially familiar motifs seen with Lam’s designs comes at the Landing Point. This takes the form a railways platform, which here is indirectly linked to a small station house and with a single line of track also close to hand. The latter runs straight eastwards to an engine shed, whilst to the west it doglegs around what looks to be a permanent fairground sitting with its back to the frozen waters of a ribbon lake.

The lake in turn snakes between the high mountains surrounding the setting as snow falls from a leaden sky to blanket almost everything it touches. These mountains in turn help to give the impression this is a place far inland among a snow-capped mountain range, thus given Cherishville that sense of depth. The depth is furthered by the way in which the frozen water cuts through the region, neatly splitting it.

Again, for those familiar with past iterations of the region, this use of water to split the land in twain is a motif frequently found within Cherishville designs. Here, the land is divided between north and south, with a single bridge linking them located at the western extent of the setting.

Splitting the landscape like this further enhances the feeling of depth within it, giving as it does a real sense that human habitation here has been forced to crowd itself into the narrow lowlands sitting between the passage of the lake and the sharply rising slopes of the mountains.

It is here that the visual allusion to F. Scott Fitzgerald – whether intentional or purely an invention of my imagination – might be found. Cross the tracks from the Landing Point and walk towards the two steam locomotives and you’ll find, just off to the right, a little wooden pier jutting out over the frozen waters of the lake.

The pier sits almost directly opposite the grand house on the far side of the lake. When standing on it, it’s hard not to have thoughts of Jay Gatsby standing at the end of his dock staring out over the waters towards East Egg and the bulk of the Buchanan mansion, the Christmas lights outside of the grand house here standing in for the green light at the end of the Buchanan’s dock.

Another attraction – for me, at least – with this version of Cherishville is the fact that while Christmas-y touches are to be found throughout, they are not overwhelming. Thus when they are seen, they tend to feel more like a seasonal addition to a place that has long been in existence, rather than the entire setting built in celebration of the holiday season.

As always with Lam’s Cherishville, this iteration has a lot of detail tucked away within it, indoors and out, with the entire setting highly photogenic. So, do be sure to go and visit – and do be sure to use the local environment settings to see the region at its best.

SLurl Details

• Cherishville (Tuscan Hills, rated Moderate)

My first and – at least until a few days before writing this piece – only visit to Pususaari, the Homestead region setting designed by Lu and Leelou Von Perkle (Lu Carrillo and LeeLou Graves respectively) for 2025 was made back in April, just as spring was about to burst forth. It was a location that immediately struck a chord in me, and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring it back then, as I noted in Pususaari: romance and kisses in Second Life.

Well, the year has clearly rolled on by since then, and 2026 is not that far off. As a result, much of Second Life turning to winter settings and wintery things to do, in keeping with the northern hemisphere – including Pususaari. Given this, I felt it was time for me to make a return visit and take in how the region has been transformed into an entirely natural wintertime setting.

Enjoy winter on Pususaari.

Glide on the frozen lake, drift over white hills, or ride through snow. Warm up at the café, slip under the northern lights with your date, and let the night soften around you

Maybe you’ll be the one to find the butterflies?

– Pususaari’s winter 2025 About Land description

The first thing that struck me on my arrival – alongside the sheer beauty of the setting – was the manner the landscape, whilst different in form and content, echoed in part the rugged handsomeness that had marked Pususaari when I first visited in April, albeit it this iteration of the setting only having a single rocky highland over which Nature has thrown a blanket of snow.

The Landing Point faces this highland area from across the region. It sits on a large deck reaching out over the icy waters from a snow-covered beach. The home of a little café, the deck offers a striking view to the north across the island and west towards the revolving eye of light as it is cast around by the lamp of a tall lighthouse.

Sitting between the beach and the highlands is a broad meadow, again somewhat mindful of the April 2025 iteration of the setting. Within it, horses and donkeys roam through tall grass. Across it, and sheltered in part by the lee of a large table of rock extending southwards from the setting’s higher slopes, sits a barn in which the local chickens and turkeys are wisely avoiding the snow.

The well alongside this barn offers a rapid ascent up to the snowy peaks, being an Experience-driven teleport. Clicking on it and accepting the local Experience will play the teleport animation and deliver you to the local Office up on the hills. The sign is one of a number scattered across the setting offering opportunities to do things – teleport, dance, obtain skates for use on the local frozen pond, rez a sled, and so on.

The sled (and skis) can be obtained from the little office on the hill, the western slope of which is ideal for getting back down to the lowlands when using them (or indeed, for walking up to the office). Whilst there is a slope to the east of the office, using it for sledding or skiing might be inadvisable, given both the gorge barring a part of the way down and the fact that were the slope does descend to the lowlands, it does so steeply and ends abruptly in the waters of a cold stream dropping down from the lower plateau.

For romantics, there is a little hideaway sitting on this plateau as it reaches south towards the meadow, and which can be reached easily enough by walking part-way down the eastern slope of the peak – or by turning off as you climb up the western slope. This little cabin is one of several places waiting to be found around Pususaari which offer nice little retreats. Some are easily spotted when wandering, others might need a little more work to find, such as the little greenhouse converted into a cosy cliff-top nook.

It is these little locations, each one neatly furnished and offering its own particular attractiveness to visitors, which make wandering the setting on foot more than worthwhile. As is reading the various signs scattered about the landscape, not just because they might offer opportunities for activities, but because one in particular will help guide you to the butterflies mentioned in the setting’s About Land description. I’m not going to tell you where this is; suffice it to say that the butterflies reside in a little suggestion of warmer, snow-free months, thus reminding us that even in the depths of winter, summer is not that far away.

With skating available on the large frozen lake, a mix of wildlife that suggests this is very definitely a northern hemisphere sub-Arctic / Arctic location, all caught under the snow / star spangled sky with a rippling aurora, Pususaari – Where winter comes to rest is an engaging and peaceful wintertime setting.

SLurl Details

• Pususaari (Bisous Island, rated Moderate)