… a front-end loader outlined in little twinkling lights.
Seen any good decorations this year?
Well, I don’t know about good but… on my way to work every morning I see one of those inflatable snowmen who has lost half his air and is badly slumped over. I keep wanting to sneak out at night and tape a fake bloody knife to his side.
I haven’t seen it yet this year, but on years past I’ve seen nice big wreaths on the fronts of SUVs around town. A twinkling front-end loader would also be good.
Back in July, we had a violent 5-minute storm (straight-line winds, not a tornado) that produced an astonishing amount of damage. Trees were downed everywhere. Our power was out for three days, and we were among the more fortunate in that regard.
A few weeks later, I saw in a yard in a very nice neighborhood (i.e., they probably paid a landscaping firm to do the clean-up) the remains of a large pin oak. Instead of taking the broken tree out completely, they left a cleanly trimmed 15-foot stump.
I couldn’t figure that one out at all.
I drove by tonight, and anchored to the top of the mega-stump was the Grinch. These inflatables have become ubiquitous, but I’d never seen one displayed like this.
There’s a cement company in town who decorates one of their mixers with a crazy amount of liggts every Christmas. The interesting part is that the mixing chamber (I’m sure it has an official name I don’t know,) is also coverd in lights, and still spins as the truck drives down the street.
It wasn’t a Christmas light but a very cute Christmas decoration where an inflatable rabbit pulls a Santa out of a chimney. And the Santa deflates and goes back down the chimney. My description can’t do it justice. . .it’s cool.
As for Christmas lights, I have enjoyed some samples on uglychristmaslights.com. The linked sample is not too bad. I’ve seen some really bad ones in the past. When someone first linked me to this site, I wondered how Christmas lights could ever look bad. I was shocked to find out how.
I will pay you a kajillion dollars if you do that and then post pictures!
Around here, it’s lots of the inflatable snowmen and stuff, and the deer frame things outlined in lights, and the giant tree-like frame covered in lights (green for the branches, with some red for decorations, and a big yellow light up top). Then this weekend we drove past the giant pink house with a massive cardboard cut-out creche (looked like about seven wise men, along with lots of townsfolk along to gawk at the baby Jesus). And then there’s the Christmas decoration I covet: giant inflatable snow globes!
Unfortunately, I think I’ve done all my Christmas decorating for the year, so no giant inflatable snow globe for me. That’s alright, though. I got something nearly as good: I got a poinsetta. 
The people across the street from us have a specific area that they designate to decorate for every holiday. So of course, yanno, around Easter there are bunnies and Valentines has Cupid and then we have Christmas… Which looks great during the day. And it’s so that everyone can view the life-like / size Mrs. Claus feeding the numerous (structural, covered-in-lights type mentioned by Campion) reindeer. However, when gazed upon at night, all one sees is large twinklie things being accosted by the ghostly masked visage of Michael Myers. She’s even got her hand raised in such a way that you could just imagine Khadaji’s bloody knife suggestion.
I soooooo gotta take a picture to put on future cards. No matter what though, that’s definitely my kind of Silent Night. 
The decorations by my house are good this year. A few lights evergreen garlands and a lit tree. The three 10 foot inflatable obsinities of the different nieghbors that sat deflacted in mud most of the time last year, didn’t go out this year. Only one even functioned by the end of December last year. They laid deflated in mud until Aprill for one neighbor. It looked like an invasion of paratroopers last year, that droped into the bushes.
An illuminated plastic snowman, in front of a dive bar, in the rain, in 50 degree weather, on a stretch of Tennessee highway, between two towns.
At night.
In the apartment complex I lived in last year, somebody decided to put one of those inflatable Santas on a balcony that was way too small for it. In addition, Santa started losing his air pretty quickly, and achieved a kind of stasis at about 75% inflation. Unfortunately, this left Santa leaning over the balcony in a rather amusing fashion. I spent that holiday season giving directions to my house as “We’re the first driveway after the vomiting Santa.” People would write it down while giving me a strange look, then show up at my house and say “It totally looks like Santa’s hurling off the balcony!!!”
I moved to a quaint little town earlier this year, and they put big, lighted snowflakes on all the telephone poles for Christmas. But they also … wait for it … play Christmas music from speakers attached to each pole. That’s cute, right? It’s cute the first day (which was the Friday after Thanksgiving). It’s mildly cute the second day. I found it amusing when they were doing it with plain old muzak in the summer, but if the house is quiet, I can hear it outside. It’s more than a little creepy, in fact. Like I might suddenly find myself in the next sequel for Silent Night, Deadly Night. Thank Og and Baby Oglet that they shut it off around nine, else I’d be lying in bed, fearing for my life, waiting for Zombie Santa to come through my window and tell me I’ve been naughty.
I think I need to stop drinking before bed.
A few years back, one house in my neighborhood didn’t bother to hang their Christmas lights; instead, they just threw then up onto the roof in a big tangled pile. It was very… er … festive.
There is this one infamous yard in town that we call Christmas Threw Up. If it’s to do with Christmas those folks will put it in their yard. I think I have a pic. I’ll try and remember to look for it when I get home this evening. If not, I’ll do my best to remember to take the camera Thursday night when we go do our annual drive all over looking at lights night.
There’s several like that around here, too. Including one house that has a wreath that takes up the entire face of the house. Just a big, giant pine circle all lit up and fancified, with Santa and his sleigh on the lawn in front of it. I call it Santa’s Stargate.
I remember seeing a Jeep Wrangler in SF that had a four-foot, fully decorated and lighted Christmas tree on a platform plugged into his trailer hitch.
That has possibilities.
I’ll use the mutation of that for a new thread.
The fire station near the Y where I work out has a display out in front that has Santa driving a little fire engine which is being pulled by tiny dalmatians. It’s very cute, but I keep forgetting to take my camera along to get a picture.
Some of the richer neighborhoods (coughOrioleParkwaycough) will deck out entire trees, branch by branch, with lights instead of just putting a few strings up. It’s really magical to see by night.
…Sorry, nothing too cheesy yet to report. 
One of my neighbors has a giant Scooby Doo. We also have tons of blow ups. In my estimation, though, the champ is a 70 foot tree swirled with lights all the way to the top and over, so it looks like a giant candy cane. We still don’t know how he does it.
Someone near us has a blow-up Santa in a blow-up nascar. The car is apparently in a pit stop with elf attendants, who are closely attached to the blow-up car. In fact, they’re so closely attached that they look like they have been run over by the car, and Santa is waving cheerfully out the window looking proud that he has trapped several devoted elves under his vehicle.