# Inflatable Christmas decorations
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [December 17, 2006, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489 "2006-12-17T08:36:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/1 "2006-12-17T08:36:16Z")
The big snowmen, Santa Clauses, grinches and snowglobes in front yards. Hate those things. My daughter suggested we get a b.b. gun.
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### Author:  [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/2 "2006-12-17T09:30:53Z")
B.b. guns are, by experience, seldom powerful enough to, er, _terminate_ such resilient creatures as inflatable christmas gunk. May I suggest a coarser callibre air gun, or maybe a .20?
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### Author:  [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/3 "2006-12-17T09:32:49Z")
I think they’re kinda neat. And fun. Why would you want to ruin someone’s fun with a bb gun? Who made you and your fucking daughter judge and jury?
I hate your empty front yard. I think someone should take a bb gun to it. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/4 "2006-12-17T09:33:22Z")
[QUOTE=Gukumatz]
B.b. guns are, by experience, seldom powerful enough to, er, _terminate_ such resilient creatures as inflatable christmas gunk. May I suggest a coarser callibre air gun, or maybe a .20?
[/QUOTE]
A shotgun would be the most satisfying. And my daughter is a juvenile, so she wouldn’t go to prison at least.
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### Author:  [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/5 "2006-12-17T09:37:05Z")
[QUOTE=JillGat]
A shotgun would be the most satisfying. And my daughter is a juvenile, so she wouldn’t go to prison at least.
[/QUOTE]
Seems her mother is pretty juvenile too.
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### Author:  [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/6 "2006-12-17T09:37:37Z")
[QUOTE=JillGat]
A shotgun would be the most satisfying. And my daughter is a juvenile, so she wouldn’t go to prison at least.
[/QUOTE]
I loved all the Google ads about “Criminal Records” that appeared below my posting.
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### Author:  [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/7 "2006-12-17T09:39:02Z")
[QUOTE=if6was9]
Seems her mother is pretty juvenile too.
[/QUOTE]
Well, duh! I don’t want to go to prison. That’s why I’m talkin my daughter into doing it.
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### Author:  [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/8 "2006-12-17T09:41:16Z")
[QUOTE=JillGat]
Well, duh! I don’t want to go to prison. That’s why I’m talkin my daughter into doing it.
[/QUOTE]
Hee hee! _throws up hands_ They’re just decorarations. And rather cool ones at that, IMHO. Engineering at it’s finest.
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### Author:  [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/9 "2006-12-17T09:46:49Z")
[QUOTE=if6was9]
I think they’re kinda neat. And fun. Why would you want to ruin someone’s fun with a bb gun? Who made you and your fucking daughter judge and jury?
I hate your empty front yard. I think someone should take a bb gun to it. :dubious:
[/QUOTE]
Empty? You got the wrong front yard, dude. I got lights along the porch, a wreath with orange lights on the door, the mesh lights thing that goes over the shrubs and AND a lit up Virgen de Guadalupe. Don’t need no Walmart inflatables.
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### Author:  [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/10 "2006-12-17T11:02:49Z")
[QUOTE=JillGat]
Empty? You got the wrong front yard, dude. I got lights along the porch, a wreath with orange lights on the door, the mesh lights thing that goes over the shrubs and AND a lit up Virgen de Guadalupe. Don’t need no Walmart inflatables.
[/QUOTE]
Jeez, I hate orange lights, mesh lights and lit up Virgin de Guadalupes.
Someone should toss a grenade in your yard
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/11 "2006-12-17T12:03:17Z")
[QUOTE=chowder]
Jeez, I hate orange lights, mesh lights and lit up Virgin de Guadalupes.
Someone should toss a grenade in your yard
[/QUOTE]
Shouldn’t it be Virgins de Guadalupe?
I hate grenades. Someone should take a flamethrower to your yard.
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### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/12 "2006-12-17T12:26:39Z")
[QUOTE=if6was9]
Hee hee! _throws up hands_ They’re just decorarations. And rather cool ones at that, IMHO. Engineering at it’s finest.
[/QUOTE]
Engineering at its finest? So much for engineering to come up with a solution to the sound these things generate. And they look ridiculous in the morning before they’re turned on, all flat and deflated. How about some viagra for Santa and his snowmen?
And the christmas lights that look like icicles, still on the list too.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/13 "2006-12-17T12:48:37Z")
[QUOTE=LouisB]
Shouldn’t it be Virgins de Guadalupe?
[/QUOTE]
No, as **Jillgat** alludes to, it should be _Virgenes de Guadalupe_. The Latin root and the English word are spelled with two I’s; the Spanish word, with an E in place of the second I. If you want to substitute an “of” for the “de”, “Virgins” is just fine, but if you’re using the Spanish phrase as a borrowing, you’re obliged to give it the Spanish spelling and plural.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/14 "2006-12-17T13:54:13Z")
[QUOTE=LouisB]
[QUOTE=chowder]
Jeez, I hate orange lights, mesh lights and lit up Virgin de Guadalupes.
Someone should toss a grenade in your yard
[/QUOTE]
Shouldn’t it be Virgins de Guadalupe?
I hate grenades. Someone should take a flamethrower to your yard.
[/QUOTE]
Those decorations just scream “Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men”, don’t they?
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### Author:  [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/15 "2006-12-17T13:54:24Z")
Everything else ends up inflated in this world, they might as well have Christmas that way too. I can see why it’d be tempting to … pop one of two …
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### Author:  [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/16 "2006-12-17T13:57:29Z")
[QUOTE=chowder]
Jeez, I hate orange lights, mesh lights and lit up Virgin de Guadalupes.
Someone should toss a grenade in your yard
[/QUOTE]
Methinks you’ve been whooshed.
Don’t get me started on the mesh lights. Whoever invented these atrocities against humanity should be forced to lie nekkid in the Christmas tree recycling heap.
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### Author:  [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/17 "2006-12-17T14:13:45Z")
I hate those inflatable pieces of crap too. They are universally ugly, suck up tons of power with the pumps that are used to keep them inflated/operate the blowing snow in the sno-globe/run the animatronic ones, and show an overabundance of money and deficit of creativity and brains.
The faaaaaaaaabulous **matt\_mcl** ’s downstairs neighbour has an animatronic one… I’ll let him tell you about it. Further down the street is a HUGE green portico with six-foot-tall nutcrackers. **Hamish** has fantasies about knifing it and proclaiming himself to be an “Agent of the Rat King”.
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### Author:  [@JustAnotherGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustAnotherGeek)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/18 "2006-12-17T14:47:06Z")
[QUOTE=if6was9]
And rather cool ones at that, IMHO. Engineering at it’s **finest.**
[/QUOTE]
Here, let me help you: You misspelled “tackiest.”
Those gaudy plastic blow-up things are for the folks who wish their house could look like [this](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790604/), but don’t want to spend the time and money.
Well, I suppose that that is a minor win…
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/19 "2006-12-17T15:07:47Z")
[QUOTE=Gukumatz]
B.b. guns are, by experience, seldom powerful enough to, er, _terminate_ such resilient creatures as inflatable christmas gunk. May I suggest a coarser callibre air gun, or maybe a .20?
[/QUOTE]
Wonders wonders to himself if a frozen paintball might do the trick. Considering the populations of of these infernal things we would be doing the local homeowners associations a favor creating a little Saint Nicholas Day Massacre.
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### Author:  [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inflatable-christmas-decorations/384489/20 "2006-12-17T15:39:59Z")
[QUOTE=kung fu lola]
I hate those inflatable pieces of crap too. They are universally ugly, suck up tons of power with the pumps that are used to keep them inflated/operate the blowing snow in the sno-globe/run the animatronic ones, and show an overabundance of money and deficit of creativity and brains.
[/QUOTE]
And if you hang a whole load of giant inflatable ‘snowflakes’ (that look like some sort of weird white sea-urchin) from the glass roof of a covered shopping-plaza that doubles as a wind tunnel, the ones which stay intact will rapidly become dingy with diesel grime, while the ones exposed to the strongest winds turn into festive christmas rags flapping in the tempest. Lovely.
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