They seem to be multiplying like crazy around here.
I did see one that I liked. For Halloween, I saw a woman dressed in an inflatable Santa costume. It was just like the yard ornaments, but she was inside of this big puffy Santa suit. Hilarious.
This. I know you (and him and everyone else who has made these comments) aren’t completely serious, but people do that shit and it’s really awful. Not everyone is just some yuppie who loves to cover their house in inflatables from Walmart.
As I’ve mentioned before, my good friend’s husband was killed in Iraq while she (19 at the time) was 6 months pregnant. The Christmas after his death, a group that does stuff for people who lost a spouse or parent in the war brought her a Christmas package with lots of decorations. Included in the package was an 8 foot tall “Sergeant Santa” who has on his uniform, airborne patch, etc. etc.
Well, even though she lives in what I would consider a very nice neighborhood, someone found it necessary one year to come by and shoot it with a bb gun. Her mom fixed it up though, only to have a few more nights pass before someone came and literally stabbed it in the heart. Sweet, right?
Sure, she wants to have a dorky and festive little yard for her now two year old son, but that little thing was something that meant a lot to her and stood for a part of her life that she wanted to share with her son in a way he could understand. Because either some asshole kids or some huge douchebag who didn’t like looking at it ruined it, she was really upset.
And in re: OP- yeah, I’ve seen a lot more inflatable things this year. They aren’t really my type of thing, but I like any type of decorations. I think it’s all cute.
I survey the decorations in our neighborhood while walking the dog, and I’ve noticed that there are fewer of them also, especially the noisy kind that requires an air pump. My theory is that when people who used them last year got their electric bills, they swore off them. It’s also possible that the plastic discolored after a year in storage and they look even worse now than they did new.
The only new thing I’ve seen this year are lots of bears.
(I’m in the avant garde Bay Area. 
)
I admit to owning an inflatable snowman.
It was a gift from my in-laws, and my 3 year old and my 5 year old twins dearly love him. I feel no shame putting the thing out.
I’ve seen more this year. I passed a house trailer early one morning that must have had 8 or more of the things. Of course, they’d already been turned off so the yard looked like it was full of parachutes.
Folks in our area are being tardy with their decorations. I haven’t seen any inflatables, yet, but with only one or two houses per block being decorated, that could just mean that the folks with the mondo lights are quicker off the mark.
We have nearby a nascar Santa with his pit elves in attendance. Only it’s set on slightly slopy lawn, and it’s ever so slightly deflated. This results in Santa in his car drooping over onto the elves. The resulting effect is that oblivious Santa has trapped his faithful grunts under his car while he waves gaily to the multitudes. It makes me think of Santabot and his slave elves from Futurama.
I (and he) weren’t serious at all, actually. And if he did do something as heinous as shoot up someone else’s Christmas decorations, I’d quit speaking to him indefinitely.
I made no judgment about income or status level of people who choose to buy these things, or the provenance of said items. IMHO they look stupid and obnoxious whether they are from Wal-Mart or Macy’s. But, to each their own. I am certainly not recommending that anyone go on some kind of inflatable Santa shooting spree (er, I mean that the Santas are inflatable, not that the shooting sprees are) and I hope my OP did not sound like I was advocating inflatable-Santa-cide, because I’m not. I just think they’re ugly.
Oh, I see. So while you are denying advocating INFLATABLE-Santacide, you’re all about REGULAR Santacide, right? You’re a grinch, ya know that? :dubious:
(Just kidding! I just can’t stop giggling at Inflatable-Santa-Cide heh)
Waste the Fat Man.
My wife and I can’t stand the Santa on a motorcycle one. We see it all the time.
We do like the snowglobe one where Santa is leaning down looking into the globe to see the snowmen inside.
To answer the OP, I see more this year than ever, not less.
Hey! I resemble that remark. Today I got called “Santa” at least 3 times at the mall. In England. I’m leaving a printout of this thread on my desk in case I meet my demise…[chuckle] I know you’re kidding. I think.
dammit.
I haven’t seen as many Xmas decorations period. I know I’m not the only one in my area who is completely sick of Christmas, and if it skipped a year, we would rejoice greatly.
My MIL sent my daughter an inflatable Santa a couple of years ago. We had to lash him to the house with a rope in order to keep him from flying away. He’s been banished to the basement ever since. Perhaps in a less-windy area, such decorations are “cute” and “fun”, but I doubt it.
I am also less inclined to put out decorations since our Halloween decorations were vandalized one year (someone cut the wires on a string of orange lights in several places). As much as I hate Inflatable Santa, if someone shot him with a BB gun, I would be pissed!
I must find that one, for next year. Our two oldest sons will just go nuts over that.
Yeah, we have Santa on a motorcycle, with 3 little reindeer in a sidecar. The boys love it, and it’s worth it to see them so excited about a $40 lawn thing. It’s lasted 2 years, so next year I’m looking for something different.
It’s for the kids, people, not for the beautification of the neighborhood. We’re the only people on our street who do any holiday decorations at all, and my husband tends to go overboard a wee bit. I nixed his plans for a Nativity scene, and he won’t let me put a singing Elvis on the front porch. Yet the kids like the giant, bright, bouncy Santa.
The reindeer should be pulling Santa, but is that racist or something? The sidecar here has a penguin in a big green elf hat. What is it with penguins? They’re at the South Pole, are they not? Is there a shortage of elves that Santa is importing penguins? Are they illegal penguins, stealing Elf jobs? And what the hell are elves, anyway, some lost Kalahari tribe? Purposely deformed children? Space aliens?
Inflatables have been WAY down in these parts this year–because they keep getting stolen. Putting an inflatable out in your yard is apparently like putting corn out for the squirrels: you expect it to be gone in a couple of days.
So people don’t do it anymore.
Yay.
I see them EVERYWHERE. Some people have about five or more. And aren’t they pretty expensive too?
There are a few I like, though. One house I always pass on my way to the bus has just one-a snowglobe with either Pooh or Charlie Brown (it’s tough to tell). It’s not that big, and it’s very cute.
Other than that, ugh. It’s almost as bad as the jackasses who go all Clark Griswald with the lights.
They seem to be less common here, too, thank goodness. Not that they were ever that prevalent in the first place.
If your kids wanted to you jump off the Empire State Building…well, you know.