I have no clue what is with the maroon topbar but red and green are traditional Christmas colors in the US.

I wonder how colour-blind folks feel about it...

I'm slightly color-blind (not red-green, something not well known and milder and somewhat treatable with the right supplements, so less so than I once was) and I have a crappy monitor in that regard on my netbook (I know because I have seen the green newbie names on a better monitor and it is much more visible there than here). Plus my topbar is only maroon when I hit "reply". So I had not noticed it until people began commenting. If I look closely, I can tell the numbers alternate color.