CHRISTMAS DECORATION UPDATE

The hot item in our neighborhood is the giant inflatable snow globe, which is edging out the giant inflatable Santa. Speaking of which: Our neighbors have an inflatable Santa, and he's not anchored right, so he keeps falling over. Much of the time he's lying on his back, as though he's been hitting the eggnog a little too hard. But he keeps right on smiling and waving at the sky. Because that is the Spirit of Christmas.

Comments

[Sarcasmo]

The snowglobe is such a hot item around here, people have been STEALING it from other peoples' front yards.

Now THAT's the true spirit of Christmas.

[Cheesewiz]

Alert the neighborhood watch group to be on the lookout for Santa lynch mobs.

[mudstuffin]

I thought the giant inflated lawn ornament phenomenon was an Ohio thing. I see now that people of questionable taste populate the south as well. I have always enjoyed the plywood cut out figures, such as the "old man smoking a pipe" or the "fat lady bending over from the rear" and the concrete geese. But what I really want to see is a giant Santa with an inflatable lunchbox.

[Bumble in northern Indiana]

The giant inflatable snowmen are the most popular here. They get bigger every year. Yesterday I saw a family one; two huge snowpersons each holding a small snowperson. Cute, but the thing took up their whole front yard.

[Makeroomfor muzyad]

I learned Danny Thomas' real name is Muzyad Yakhoob.

[Mr. Completely]

Mud - Aren't ALL guys' lunchboxes inflatable?

[Kilmeny in NH]

Here the favorite lawn ornament is the lighted reindeer, which looks a bit silly after two feet of snow. Although the house down the street has an inflatable Santa on his porch. He looks like he's holding a beer.

[Mr. Completely]

And besides, everyone knows the REAL spirit of Christmas is rum.

[pogo]

The giant snow globe is just beginning to make inroads in Atlanta.

A couple of days ago I saw a blow-up Joseph, Mary, Jesus and manger scene. This may be the peak of tacky.

[insomniac]

perhaps someone had nogged Santa over?

[PirateBoy]

A few weeks ago, we had 30 mph winds (Light for fall Santa Ana wind in SoCal). It nuked all the neighborhood yard decorations so badly that Mrs. PirateBoy and I drove around laughing at Santa and all the "drunken elves" now face up in the shrubbery. "Kids, Santa is on a bender again..."

[Bucket]

Pogo - you put that inflatable manger scene on the porch swing and it'll win the '05 trashy christmas decoration contest!! Better yet, set the manger in the tractor tire planter!

[mudstuffin]

pogo - I think you're right. That's right up there with the "gilded fruit". 'Round these parts you can find plastic fruit that has been spray painted gold or silver. You're supposed to use these pieces of fruit as some sort of decoration.

[southerngirl]

Giant snow globes were seen here for the first time this year. My backyard neighbors have a giant snowglobe, an inflatable Santa coming up out of a chimney, and an inflatable Santa on a Harley.

My next door neighbors, otoh, who are big time parrotheads, have lighted palm trees, which actually aren't as tacky as they sound. They add a nice touch to our margarita drinking, Buffet jamming, patio parties. We can do that, cause it's only 60 degrees. :)

[crossgirl]

what ever happened to tasteful holiday lawn ornaments?

[crossgirl]

of course, it could always be worse.

[Eleanor]

crossgirl - $189.00 for the kneeling Santa - are they crazy????
And here in su.so.ca. the giant inflatable snow globe is THE hot item of the season!

I'm just looking for an 80 foot menorah to put on my front lawn *snork*!!! :)

[Susan]

I've seen the big inflated things for years around here. I noticed one house this year...very small yard...with not one but two different bears...not one but TWO different Santas (they couldn't decide which one they liked?), a snowman and a Christmas tree.

Of course the house has lots of the icicle lights too...but that kind of went without saying.

[southerngirl]

"Of course the house has lots of the icicle lights too...but that kind of went without saying."

hee, hee, hee

[kibby F5™]

What's with Santa being 4 foot tall and the globe being 8 foot tall? Suppose someone's going to shake an 8 foot tall globe?

Maybe some ingenous person will put a globe on Santa's shoulders?

[crossgirl]

THIS is what i'll be displaying on my front lawn this holiday season. with icicle lights.

[kibby F5™]

Inflatable Santa in a chimney? Hum....

*gets an idea for a Prague roof top for Christmas Eve*

...gotta go out and get one of those now.

[monkeyshines]

El-If you can dream it someone will sell it to you for twice the price.

[Candy Tutt]

'Santa's inflatable lunchbox' = flashback to cockpit scene in 'Airplane' with Julie blowing up inflatable co-pilot...

*SNORK* ~spew~

[LadyBug]

I would've thought it pretty tasteless for folks to put their inflatable dolls in the yard.

[Candy Tutt]

One year we drove past a house with inflated Santa on the roof by the chimney. He was bending over his bag of presents -- but from the back it looked like he was taking a wiz in the chimney...

[No name band]

Elanor, what about 80' Menorahs?
That would be extremely COOL!!
This year my Dad made 3-4' Chanukia(sp?).
It was fun making one from scratch.
Dad unfortunatly got paint on his toenail.
That was Funny!
Well Shalom and Happy Chanukah.

[Christobol]

Why not put this in your yard?

[Eleanor]

El-If you can dream it someone will sell it to you for twice the price.

Monkeyshines - isn't that the truth!! LOL!

crossgirl - I like your idea, only this is the bottle I'd display!

[kibby F5™]

Ok, IF someone was to put a Santa in a chimney on someones apartment building, would it be better to have the feet or head sticking out?

... say it showed up Christmas morning?

[Teri]

Has anyone ever heard the saying..."Less is more." Evidently not, since the giant snow globe is sold out until after Christmas. Oh well, to each his own this "XMAS Vacation."

TGF

www.herestohappywomen.blogspot.com

[southerngirl]

Party at Eleanors!!!

psst... Kibby....I'd go with the feet sticking out.

This is for informational purposes only, of course, right? Wait, don't tell me. I don't want to know.

[kibby F5™]

*wonders how he can make the feet kick*

[Annie Where-but-here]

um....Hi...my name is Annie, and...and I own Christmas inflatables.

This is the bear pair that's on my front lawn. If the winds are right (or wrong), it looks like they're doin' the nasty - nasty bears

Please don't judge me....my whole neighborhood is nutso. The globes were big until just EVERYONE got one in November, so they're not cool anymore. Plus the motor doesn't keep the 'snow' blowing very well. Happy Hurry-daze, everyone!

[Annie Where-but-here]

if anyone needs me, I'll be at my html tutorial....

[mudstuffin]

Annie: It's okay. One of my best friends has a yard full of inflatables and a concrete goose on the front porch.

[monkeyshines]

Hurray, for AnnieWBH and her HTML progress!

[Tim]

Many years ago, before the inflatable Santas began invading neighborhoods, a restaurant close to where I worked at the time had one very large inflated Santa on its roof. The corners of the building had these spires with rounded caps. One windy afternoon, one of the Santa's mooring cables broke, which made the inflatable thing bob back and forth. Some co-workers of mine and I were driving to lunch and, from our angle of approach to the restaurant, it looked like Santa was. . .well, pleasuring the building.

[slyeyes]

Then there's this display

[slyeyes]

There's a house in our area with an inflatable Santa, several inflatable snowmen and inflatable elves.

For some reason, the people let the air out of them every night, so when you drive by in the morning and see limp figures lying about the lawn, it appears that some sort of anti-yule massacre has occurred.

[Sarah J]

There's a house near where I live that has a santa, two snowmen, a reindeer, the Grinch, a ScoobyDoo dressed up for the holidays, WAY too many lights, and those funny light balls that hang on the trees. They have no snow on their lawn because there is no lawn showing. Probably one of the tackiest things I've ever seen.

[Noob]

Eleanor, I wanna go to your place for the holidays. Ya know, to help you with that big ole bottle. ;)

[Mr. Completely]

Slyeyes - The pic you posted painfully reminds me of what happened to me 2 years ago this Christmas season: I was hanging lights on a relative's house - doing them a favor! - and fell off the ladder, shattering my left heel bone, messing up my ankle, and rendering me 1/4-inch shorter on my left leg than on my right. (It took 9 screws and a Y-bracket to rebuild my heel bone.) If someone had taken a picture at the time, it would have looked something like this.

As for the inflatables, there's an electric fan inside them keeping them blown up. When they turn the lights off at night and unplug everything, the figures collapse. The aforementioned relatives had some of those, too.

[Annie Where-but-here]

Inflatables need to have their fans running to keep them inflated, so they don't run them 24/7. That's why they're deflated when they're off, or 'massacred.' My santa landed in mud, so when he came back to life, it looked like he had spent the night face down in a ditch, which, actually, he had.

When they're running, they're noisy, so it kinda ruins the 'Silent Night.' Ah, the holidays.

[Teri]

Annie...I like your bears! Have a very "beary" XMAS!

TGF

www.herestohappywomen.blogspot.com

[Christobol]

Do you think Santa minds if you spend the evening drinking beer and shooting inflatable yard art with your pellet gun?

I mean, I already KNOW how the neighbors feel about it.

[Annie Where-but-here]

Thanks, Teri! And for anyone who enjoys truly hideous holiday decor, check out this site:
ugly christmas lights
I sent it to Dave, but I think he's tied up on the roof with Rudolph...NTTAWWT

[wolfie]

El ~ I couldn't find you a giant menorah. Would you settle for one of these?

[Mr. Completely]

Then there's always THIS lovely and tasteful item....

[OkieDokie]

here in Oklahoma, the inflatable of choice is the OU Sooner football player (even during the holidays!)

[scat]

Nobody's linked this yet?

[Eleanor]

Annie - don't be embarassed about your lawn decorations! I've always wanted a one of these for my front lawn!

wolfie - I love the dreidel! If my kids were still little I'd buy it in a New York Minute!

Mr. Completely, that's a terrible story - permanent damage for helping others - ugh! Also another good reason for being Jewish - no lights to put up!

[slyeyes]

*hangs head in shame at inadvertently making fun of Mr. C hanging upside down by his ankles from the roof*

[Mr. Completely]

Slyeyes - No, no, no!! You weren't making fun! I was merely embellishing the photo with a personal anecdote!

Eleanor - Funny thing is, I'd rather not "do" Christmas, either. I'm not a Christian (in standard senses of the word) so I'm not into the religious aspect, and the whole tactless commercialization of it offends me, and tasteless and crass decorations like this are a blight. The irony of my story is that me, the original Scrooge McGrinch, had my big ass up there putting up lights as a favor - and I get smited!! Smited, I say!

The relative for whom I was performing this task is as guilty, if not more so, of the kind of decorating being discussed on this thread, too. Ornaments hanging from the ceiling... inflatable Santa, animated deer.... No theme - just looks like a Christmas store blew up - or maybe vomited is a more correct word.

[scat]

Oh, Mr. C., thanks for the kind words the other day. Finally, a day that I didn't have to check my eBay feedback to bolster my self esteem!

[Mr. Completely]

Scat - LOL! You sound like my wife!!

[Mrs. Thepoint]

Hey, now Mr. C. Well, I'm right here and I can see what you said about me!

[Eleanor]

You tell him, Mrs. Thepoint!!

Let's hear it for the women!!!!

[Mr. Completely]

Oops. Um... Hi, honey!!

[Mr. Completely]

(Mrs. Thepoint my a$$. She doesn't miss ANYTHING.)

[Eleanor]

Mr. C - better have something fun and nice planned for this evening -
just sayin'....

[Annie Where-but-here]

Yeah, Mr. C - leave the wombats under the bed for once.

[Mrs. Thepoint]

Did he bring out those silly wombats again? Mr. C! Haven't I TOLD you about that?

[Mr. Completely]

Uh... It's not a wombat, it's a... CAT! Yeah, that's it.

[Mrs. Thepoint]

Uh huh

[Sarcasmo]

(Mrs. Thepoint my a$$. She doesn't miss ANYTHING.)

Clearly, Mr. C, clearly.

[southerngirl]

It's so much fun when Mrs. ThePoint joins the conversation!

[southerngirl]

Oh, Eleanor, did you mean to say fun and nice, or did you really want to say "nice and fun". ;)

[PirateBoy]

I know that Annie-WBH couldn't bear a song about inflatable Christmas bears:

Earwig Alert: Nasty by Janet Jackson

Hey! Who’s been leakin' out hot air? Nasty bears!

Who’s that in that nasty yard? Nasty bears!

Who’s that posting in Dave's blog? Nasty bears!

Who took Karen Carpenter's Christmas log? Nasty bears!

Ladies? Nasty bears don’t mean a thing

Oh you nasty bears

What you hidin' in your banana sling?

Oh! You naughty bears!

[magic8ball]

My neighbors are also afflicted with the "more is better" variety of Holiday Cheer. Photos here.

[scat]

Mr. C. and Mrs. ThePoint, may I compliment you on sounding like Mr. Scat and I? :-)

[Annie Where-but-here]

PB - oh YOU nasty boy! That was great, thanks. It also replicates the rhythm of the pair as they rock the nasty in the Santa Ana winds. There's a music video in there somewhere.

[U.O]

Mr. C -- "expandable" ... not necessarily "inflatable" ... just sayin' ...

crossgirl -- tasteful holiday lawn ornament ... isn't that an oxymoron?

El -- I'd pay money to see an 80-foot menorah ...

[kibby F5™]

U.O., I'd like to see the CANDLES that go in it!

[U.O]

kib' ---

Yeah, well, that too ...

and, how about the candle lighter?

(What's Jewish for "altar boy" ??? Sorry, El, for my ignorance on that subject ...)

[Aunt Nancy]

OK, people, work with me here, use your imaginations. I don't have a picture of this item (yet) and I'm not going outside to get one now because it's 7:15 AM here and snowing like crazy.

I have (IMHO) the world's most unique and original Christmas yard ornament. It's a square sheet of plywood painted white with white lights around the outer perimeter. In the center of the plywood is a green "L" highlighted with green lights, and the "L" has a red circle around it, and a red slash runs through the circle. The circle/slash is also highlighted with lights (red, obviously). So here's your quiz: what do you think the sign says? I've had the sign for several years (BTW, it's homemade) and it took two years of neighbor's questions before everyone in town (pop. 1100) got the joke. Tacky? Maybe. One of a kind? Definitely! I will get pictures eventually.

[U.O]

A.N. -

Do not Litter?

[U.O]

No Liberals?

[U.O]

No smug laughter?

I give up ... I'll be anticipating the answer all day, until I return from work and can check in here ...

[golfwidow]

No L, No L, No L, No L.

I firmly believe that the inflatable holiday decorations are just a ploy to make sure the pool toys have winter jobs.

[Aunt Nancy]

golfwidow - you are the winner! You have correctly guessed the meaning of my homemade sign. If I had a prize, I'd send it to you. Merry Christmas!!

[U.O]

Oh, for ... !!!

I'm still half asleep ... shoulda got it ...

Neat-O, A.N.

[scat]

Aunt Nan - No Grinnell?

[U.O]

... and, gw ... great work ... you're obviously more alert than I am, this early ...

[Aunt Nancy]

scat - actually, I don't mind Grinnell so much. The folks at the Hy-Vee are pretty nice, especially to lost visitors.

BTW - hee hee hee!

[scat]

Noel! Duh! Makes a lot more sense than no Grinnell. (BTW - no green "l" = no Grinnell)

(Hangs head, promises to never attempt to solve mental puzzles while still in jammies, goes back to bed.)

[ceeg22]

waaaah, I wanna see a picture of the "No L"!

[crossgirl]

U.O. of course tasteful holiday lawn ornaments is an oxymoron. did you look at that picture?! santa with baby Jesus?! must be so you can cover all your bases. send santa your wish list then pray for forgiveness for the indulgence! or maybe....they're implying that santa brought the babe in his sack of goods. or that santa is praying for forgiveness for stealing the holiday from the church. whatever it means, i find it disturbing. probably, i'd like it better if it had icicle lights.

[U.O]

Santa and Baby Jesus with Icicle Lights wbagnfarb ...

[Jim Winslow]

The fan in my inflatable quit. It is manufacuted by
Sagitta Ind. Corp. but I cannot find them listed any
place. Would like to order a new fan motor if possible and replace the bad one.

[Wayne Milota]

Looking for fan motor by Sgitta Model SJD-B2

Leave in Cleveland, Ohio area

[LARRYMATY]

looking for arepl fan too. where can i get one cheap?

[DRC]

ok..can the condensation problem be resolved with the outdoor inflatable globes?. the snow is sticking to the inside of the glode. any ideas to resolve this
thanks

[Looking for a fan motor SJD-114]

Try spraying the inside of your snow globe with some anti-static fabric spray...

[george faria]

would like to know were to buy new motor for blow ups

[barbara hulse]

IS there any where I can find a therm protected,capacitor 9.omfd mpdle sjd-114e226911