A brief history of the ginormous novelty holiday decoration

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/30/a-brief-history-of-the-ginormous-novelty-holiday-decoration.html

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FTW!

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I think part of the appeal to the silly things is that they take so little space to store them during the off season, and that they are quick and (relatively) easy to setup and take down.

And while the articles focused on the giant ones, they do make smaller, more modest, and more tasteful* ones that are much less expensive.

(* ignore the flamingo inflatable in my front yard. :smiley: )

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That having been said, yes, I have some rather silly ones in my front yard right now- dragons and unicorns? For Christmas?! (and the aforementioned flamingo…)

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Yesterday I saw a full-size blow up snowman who was made to look like he was really cold and had a motor that was making him “shiver”. I laughed out loud at first and then was like “why would a snowman be cold?” I mean, if I were to provide him a space heater to warm him up he’d be in even bigger trouble.

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Exactly, they are cheap, take little space to store, and are easy to set up.

Outdoor lights on the other hand are full of headaches.

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My neighbours have a setup that looks like a crime scene in which Frosty killed Minnie Mouse and regrets it while Mickey remonstrates. I suspect it is because of leaky inflatables, but the face on Frosty is truly disturbing.

Found the original. The difference is that Minnie is lying on her back and Frosty is leaning back and crying to the heavens.

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Cheerful Holiday scene becomes a gruesome True Crime Podcast!
Streaming now on your favorite device.

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If I remember I’ll take a pic when I walk the dog tonight, it’s pure unintentional brilliance.

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Yes, please share if possible!

(this year, I put both a small (3.5 foot tall) and large (~7 foot tall) unicorn inflatables out. the larger one, deflates from the front, as the blower is connected to the back hooves via a white spacer. It looks a bit… lewd when it deflates, with it’s butt sticking up in the air.)

I switched over to LED string lights years ago; I’ve had a couple of them that were either DOA out of the box, or had a few bulbs croak after a couple years. The strings of icicle lights I have are probably getting replaced this year, as the casing around the circuitry is starting to brown from being baked from the inside out. I’m debating if I should replace them with something like Hue strips or some other fully programmable light strip setup.

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