Is it just me or is this the year of the Christmas inflatable? I know I’ve blogged about the American celebration before – their fondness for over-the-top celebrations and how far ahead of Britain they are in the “look at how many lights and flags and decorations and ornaments we can put up” race – but inflatables?
Lights I can deal with – colored ones, white ones, twinkling ones, icicle ones, flashing on and off ones, ones in the shape of a reindeer, even blue ones (no, I did not realise that these were Hannukah lights until it was explained to me) – but where did the inflatable Santa/snowman/igloo/airplane, yes, airplane come from? Target, you probably answer, hehe!
So, anyone moving here to Silicon Valley should be alerted to the American tradition of lighting up the outside of houses, yards, trees, bushes – in fact anything that grows out of the ground at Christmas time – whether it be with lights or inflatables or both.
It is a celebration of lights like no other and one which amazed me – the effort, time and dollar amount that went into these super-lit homes as soon as Thanksgiving was over – when I first arrived in California twelve years ago. And naturally, we have totally been sucked into this light mania, and have probably the most lit house in our street now. You will too, mark my words, when you move here!
But I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t find an inflatable Santa anywhere near our front yard…..
Stumble It!
My wife an I are living in Barcelona as native Californians. We were just on a hunt for unusual American traditions and found your post on google. We completely cracked up while reading it. You are on spot with your colorful description of Christmas Inflatables. We thought we’d escape them this year but unfortunately we’ve found them in Barcalona… along with Catalonia’s own strange traditions of Caganers.
Scott
http://www.karieandscott.com