Ransom Riggs
Bizarre Holiday Decorations
by Ransom Riggs - December 21, 2009 - 3:00 PM

While most people who celebrate the holidays with outdoor displays keep it tasteful, limiting themselves to a few strings of colored lights or some tinsel, there’s always that one house in the neighborhood that goes overboard, decorating their roof with a flock of blinking reindeer or their yard with a parade of inflatable Santas. We don’t have anything quite that over the top in my neighborhood this year, thank goodness, but there’s one person — an innovator, let’s call them — who seems to have started a bizarre tradition: the interactive holiday shrub. Here’s a picture of the interactive holiday shrub:

IMG_5428

In Florida, surely the world capitol of weird and overdone lawn decorations, my friend Justin Arnold found this, which appears to be George Washington riding a camel. I can only assume it’s some misguided attempt to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Or George Washington’s famous march through the desert. Or something.

camel

What’s weird in your neighborhood this holiday season?

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Comments (9)

  1. Today on my lunch hour I saw an inflatable Santa at the helm of a ship with a stuffed cardinal on the wheel, three reindeer (one with an eye patch and one with binoculars that popped out of the top), and an inflatable cannon. When did Santa become a sailor? The same place also had an inflatable airplane with Santa as the pilot.

    posted by Wendy on 12-21-2009 at 3:18 pm

  2. Your friend isn’t too far off by depicting George Washington riding a camel. In fact records indicate that Washington actually had a camel brought in one Christmas in as amusement for his guests. Last year and this year in an effort to recreate the event, Mount Vernon has brought in Aladdin the camel for people to see and interact with. But be warned, Aladdin is in his teenage phase for Camels and has been quite ornery this year, spitting on several guests and museum staff.

    posted by Jonathon on 12-21-2009 at 4:04 pm

  3. i took this http://www.flickr.com/photos/vampiress144/3157538171/in/set-72157612031919262/ picture last year of norwood young’s house in the hancock park area of los angeles. i haven’t gone this year yet, saving that for christmas day, but this year’s theme is “norryland”

    posted by vampiress on 12-21-2009 at 6:09 pm

  4. Happy Holidays to all I am a first time poster but long time reader and I just needed to say. That is the reason I miss FL. Right now I am in IA but been a FL resident for almost a decade. I miss the strangeness.

    posted by Jake on 12-21-2009 at 7:22 pm

  5. I lived in Florida for many years and the thing I remember most was our first winter holiday down there I saw a huge palm tree dressed up as a holiday tree. That was the best thing i saw that year probably the best thing I ever saw. Jake I feel your pain buddy I too miss the strangeness.

    posted by Jon on 12-21-2009 at 8:57 pm

  6. I have a neighbor who has a pig statue as a permanent fixture in the center of his front lawn. Every holiday it is dressed up.

    Fourth of July – Uncle Sam Pig
    Halloween – Witch Pig
    Thanksgiving – Pilgrim Turkey Pig
    and finally Christmas – Reindeer Pig pulling an inflatable sleigh

    posted by Martin on 12-22-2009 at 8:53 am

  7. Martin – we have a similar “mascot” in our neighborhood. Our neighbors have a huge (life-size?) concrete gorilla statue that is dressed up appropriately for every holiday. They even dress it up for the local high school’s home football games.
    Why would someone in Texas have a gorilla statue? Don’t really get the relevance, but it sure is good for a laugh.

    posted by GT on 12-22-2009 at 12:33 pm

  8. I thought my neighborhood was the only one with a dressed-up pig statue. They’ve got him wearing a wreath around his snout for Christmas.

    posted by Sally on 12-22-2009 at 2:33 pm

  9. We had a neighbour who thought that santa getting pantsed would be funny. It’s an iflatable santa and they’ve pained reindeer boxers on him annd put a pair of trousers on him hooked up to some mototr or something and every few minutes santa’s trousers fal, and are then slowly pulled back up, only to fall again. I thought it was pretty funny.

    posted by Nividita Kapoor on 1-6-2010 at 7:03 pm

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