Wintersday in July

Hey guys, I've recently gotten back in to Guild Wars, and have been having a lot of fun with the snowball fight minigame. As I've been playing this, I've noticed that I've been accumulating a lot of Candy Cane Shards and Balthazar faction points. So far I've been spending the Balthazar points on Zaishen keys, and selling them in order to make some money. Should I be saving them up for something else?

Also, are the Candy Cane Shards important? If not, should I sell them or salvage them?

there are collectors for the shards. Depending on what you want, you can pick up sweet, alcohol or party points.

or salvage them for dust. (if you need it)

Party points? What are those? Also, can I save up my Candy Cane Shards and use them during Wintersday in December?

Don't think there is any problem keeping shards till December or even longer.

Pretty sure I have done this with no problem.

yeah, you can keep them for as long as you wish--they are the same ones that drop for reg. wintersday.

Party points = Party Animal title track
Sweet points = Sweet Tooth title track
Alcohol = Drunkard title track (it's now point based instead of minutes)

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Title

Thanks to everyone for answering my questions, I appreciate it

There are collectors for the shards that give out items directly? I thought the only shard collectors are either the candysmiths or the wintersday gift givers during the regular Wintersday. The ones that give out the party/sweet/drunk goodies are in exchange for regular items (like Stone Summit Badges, Hardened Humps, Charr Carvings, etc), right? I haven't been able to get ingame lately, so I might be missing something obvious. Are there any collectors during Wintersday in July?

The candy cane shard collectors during WIJ are in the Dwayna vs Grenth snowball fight outpost. Its too late now, though.