Decorating the Yard

When we first moved here to AZ from Massachusetts a decade ago, we were 1) NOT really feeling all the Christmas spirit due to the fact it was NOT COLD enough to be Christmas! And 2) we were further put off by the daffy decorations in front yards. We had moved from a lovely street where virtually every house decorated in white lights and icicles, which reflected angelically in the snow. We were missing the snow and icicles.

The first lawn decoration we saw down the street was a plastic blow-up cactus with these fake red and green lights strewn on it. We were NOT impressed. Next we saw a few houses down a big Winnie the Pooh - obviously an integral character to the Christmas story. (The following year, Tigger joined his friend Pooh bear.) Snoopy and the Peanuts gang seem to be another popular group, but we still haven't figured out just how they fit into the Nativity.



Year after year we've seen all the different plastic blow-up toys, you've all seen them too. And some yards are tastefully decorated with lights, while others are CRAMMED with displays in Disney-like proportions. (Yes, that IS the USS Enterprise.)



Just the other day I drove past this one, Santa sitting in an outhouse. A full-sized, inflated OUTHOUSE, and Santa is in there hoping for a little privacy, and the door swings open and shut. This TOTALLY brings out such warm, Yuletide feelings now, doesn't it?
Perhaps this is how some people feel when it all gets really crazy












This last one needs no explanation.... for actually, I have no words. My neighbor saw it in Phoenix and just had to snap a pic. It's apparently a decorated palm tree gone wrong.

Very wrong.