It depends. I used to drive past a house that would put up a giant inflatable dragon at Halloween and that was kind of cool.
My parents had neighbors that would cover every square inch of their yard in inflatables at Christmas. It made giving directions to the house easy… “Just drive down XYZ Street until you see all the blow-up snowmen, we’re the next house on the left!” It was kind of noisy when all the blowers were going at once and I wondered how much their electric bill went up in December. It was quite tacky but whatever floats your boat I guess.
Any Star Wars stuff related to Christmas is ridiculous. Now, if it were limited to a Wookie celebrating Life Day…
I’ve put out a lighted, inflatable reindeer on the balcony in the past. Not one of those self-inflating things, either, and I made sure to keep it somewhat full. It hasn’t been out for the past few years due to the balcony being a designated smoking area for our friends and one of them is rather clumsy.
Oh man. So the inflatable scenario is: A snowman in a santa hat. Who turns and waves, to his inflated compadres on either side. One side, a penguin, also in a santa hat. On the other side, Snoopy, ditto Santa hat. All three of them are kind of inside what looks like it might represent…an igloo?
My dog went crazy. (Not the same neighbor who did Darth Vader.) We are pretty much going to have to walk past this house with this contraption for the next month. Yikes.
“Do what you want on your own property” is what I believe in general, but it doesn’t seem like a useful answer to the poll. It’s asking what I think about them, not whether I mind if my neighbor has them.
And I don’t particularly like them. They’re noisy. They require constant air pressure to stay up. And there are just so many other ways to handle holiday decorations that don’t have these downsides. And I prefer to look at Christmas decorations either indoors or designed to look good at night–so light-based ones.
Still, the fact that I don’t like them is not a reason to care about what my neighbors do on their own properties.
Apparently the relatively-few inflatables I see around in Spain are built differently from American ones - here, those intended for home use don’t need a constant pump. They’re like beach inflatables: you pump ‘em full, remove the hose, put in the plug. A lot of the “industrial” ones, same: you see a kids’ temporary park made of inflatables, those which will have kids bouncing inside have permanent pumps (which even then don’t usually run all the time) but the figures don’t. Not that those parks are any less noisy, but it’s something that tries to resemble music rather than the noise of the pumps.
Yeah, my reindeer is at least a decade old at this point. By the time I bought it via eBay, it had been off K-Mart shelves for about five years. There’s a slow leak that I can’t seem to stop so I’ve been looking for a replacement. I’m sure it will be back on the balcony someday and not be in danger of being burned.
Even though I wouldn’t choose to decorate my house this way, I kind of enjoy seeing this house in my neighborhood. Each year they add something different while keeping the old inflatables and other decorations. They’ve got a nativity scene, Hello Kitty, Sponge Bob, Captain America, and Santa all mixed together. It’s kind of fun and amusing and tacky and festive and spiritual all at the same time.
