When I was a child there was an ubiquitous appliance store called Polk Brothers. Every year they gave large plastic Santas to autumn shoppers. People actually shopped at Polk Brothers simply because they'd get one of these wonderful decorations! It seemed like a Polk Bros. Santa spent the winter on just about every lawn in town. Man, they were ugly! And they didn't die! Every year, Polk Bros. Santas were dragged out of storage and put back on lawns. This recent photo shows a Polk Bros. Santa that is still alive some thirty years after Polk Bros. went out of business. It appears to need to lean again the stair railing for support, but it lives on.
More modern decorations are not so fortunate. Today, while driving to and from a friend's home, I saw deflated Christmas decoration after deflated Christmas decoration. There were dead snowmen lying on lawns. There were expired Santas. Occasional deflated grinches, football players, or Homer Simpsons joined the dead decoration brigade. Not a single inflated blow-up decoration was to be seen....just as in the above picture.
Tell me, what is festive about deflated pieces of colorful plastic lying on lawns? Am I missing something?
I did see one scene that I thought was thought-provoking, however. On one lawn there was a pile of deflated snowmen. Next door was a large wooden manger scene. Did the real meaning of Christmas finally kill off the Snowmen? Or is the ex-Sunday School teacher just too eager to read meaning into an accidental occurrence?
Meanwhile, if a snarky plastic inflated Grinch is your favorite image of Christmas, please BLOW IT UP!
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