Friday, December 18, 2009

Deflatables

I like driving around town looking at people's displays of outdoor Christmas decorations. There are lots of pretty lights, fresh green wreaths with red bows, vintage sleds, stars and more. There are reindeer on the lawn, or the occasional wooden cutout Nativity scene.

Of course, some houses have all of the above.

And then there are the inflatable decorations. There's a house that I pass on the way to Big Brother's school that has no fewer than eight inflatables: Frosty, Santa, a huge snow globe, and others that I can't remember just now. Problem is, most people don't inflate their decorations until it gets dark, so all day long people drive by and see Frosty doing a face-plant on someone's lawn.

That's not a pretty sight.

The only inflatable I was ever tempted to consider displaying was a Snoopy-as-World-War-I-Flying-Ace, complete with doghouse. Now that was cool.

The saddest thing, though, was what I saw today. The house had an inflatable Nativity scene--but it wasn't turned on. So the Holy Family lay flat and crumpled on the dead winter grass.

8 comments:

Ellen said...

We have two, but they aren't up this year - Rudolph and Santa from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Burl Ives snowman from Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Aimee said...

My children ADORE those inflatables, and my apologies to those who have them, but I really can't get into them. Especially the houses that have multiple inflatables in their yards. Like the house on the way to school which has Santa on a Harley in addition to many others.

Of course, that doesn't stop my kids from begging me to buy one for our yard. It's not gonna happen ;).

Mouse, future SFO said...

How sad.

If it makes you feel better, I drove around looking at Christmas lights yesterday. One man had a cross on his roof covered in red Christmas lights. Apparently he puts the Star of Bethlehem up too, but not this year. A few houses down from that was a HUGE Nativity scene. Plastic-type statues, gently glowing for all the world to see.

Sarah - Kala said...

Personally, I can't stand those things. But, I can stand them a bit more when they are actually inflated!

We are going to do the boat tour of lights in Pearl Harbor on Wednesday with the USN Chief Petty Officers. I can't wait! I've never seen Navy ships all decked out (pardon the pun).

Steve said...

Yeah, I'd have a problem with the inflatable Nativity scene too Barb! Something just not right about that, but they should probably get an A for good intentions I suppose.

Brenda said...

We saw a lawn FULL of Christmas inflatables yesterday. As dh said, "Looks like they never saw an inflatable that they didn't have to buy!"

Jeanne said...

Our neighbor's cat sleeps on the crumpled inflatables on the lawn during the day. I bet he's in for quite the surprise at night when the air pumps kick on automatically...

Elizabeth Kathryn Gerold-Miller said...

How horrible! I grew up with large plastic nativity people on our front porch that Dad attached to the porch light so they would light up. I keep intending to get them for myself. But I think wood would be more natural looking. Happy New Year! I hope you recover quickly.