By Deon Roberts, Online Editor
Christmas is around the corner, a fact made very clear by the decorations that have taken over my neighborhood.
I don’t know when it happened, but at some point Christmas decorations overdosed on Miracle-Gro.
All the rage these days are large, lighted, inflated decorations that look like they belong in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Some stand as tall as the houses themselves. Collecting the whole set might require a farm.
The decorations come in the form of Santa, Frosty and all the other characters typically associated with Christmas. But that’s not all. I’ve seen an inflated Homer Simpson dressed as Santa. Many other cartoon characters abound; driving around neighborhoods bedecked with them can be a surreal experience, a bit like entering Roger Rabbit’s Toontown.
Some of these characters are animated. In one example, Charlie Brown pops in and out of a chimney. In another, a carousel turns in a giant snow globe completed with swirling fake snow.
Some people aren’t content to buy just one or two of these mammoth props. Instead, they cram their yards with them. Some yards are lit like mid-afternoon by the light from all these decorations.
They aren’t cheap, either. Some cost around $100. Half a dozen could run you half a grand.
What do you think of these decorations? Do they make it feel more like Christmas, or are they just ho ho horrible?
