On a recent stroll with my dog Georgia, I took in the sights of my
neighborhood. Houses were draped in
myriad levels of festivity for the holidays, some more extreme than
others. As I was admiring the majority
of them, a few decorations struck me as odd or unnecessary. I’m sure there are reasons for these choices. Either the homeowners liked them or thought they looked classy, but to me they
just appeared, well, wrong.
For instance…
The Projected Light Display
I can almost understand the practicality of using these things. They are more
economical, both in the time it would take to actually string as many lights on
your house, as well as keeping the electric bill low since you’re lighting one
bulb as opposed to hundreds. But doesn’t
it sort of seem like cheating? I mean,
who doesn’t have a fond memory of their father or family member nearly killing
themselves either by shock or falling off a ladder trying to hang the strings
of lights along the edge of your roof?
Isn’t that part of what the holidays are all about?
Super-Inflated Lawn Characters
Sure, Snoopy is cute. He’s even cuter with his goggles and Santa
hat on as he smiles behind the wheel of his airplane with the real rotating
propeller. But making him fourteen feet
tall? Does that necessarily increase the
cuteness? What about a giant Santa
leaning out of a big train? Again, it
strikes me as kind of lazy, like your commitment to the holiday season is
directly proportional to how much of your lawn you cover up with nonsensical
inflatables. So put a big-ass Mickey Mouse on a fire truck and get it done in
one shot.
Dripping Icicles Lights (when you live in the South)
Now, these are really beautiful. I used to see them all the time up
north. I remember they used to be very
simple; just two-dimensional icicle-shaped lights that would hang from the roofs
and eaves of nearly every house in the neighborhood. Then they got more elaborate and
three-dimensional. They began animating the action of dripping water with lights that blinked around cone-shaped “icicles”. Gorgeous. They really resembled the peaceful sparkle of
slowly melting ice. However, the effect
is lost when your string them up in palm trees and Spanish moss.
We don’t get snow, let alone such impressive elegant icicles, down here
in Florida so instead of giving your trees a classy effect it just looks like your lush tropical vegetation grew sharp bloodthirsty teeth.
How about you? Any holiday
decoration fads you think are odd?
