Ugly Christmas

This is going to sound mean, but I don't care.

What is up with ugly Christmas decorations? I'm not talking about in the mall or anything, but people's front yards. Is this a recent trend that I missed the memo on? Is this everywhere, or just here in Texas? I was driving home the other night and I could not believe how many cheesy, tacky, just plain fugly displays were out there. When I was growing up, Christmas decorations seemed to be mostly limited to lights on your house and bushes. Occassionally, you'd see a yard full of plastic figures of Santa or Jesus or what have you, and sometimes those were even of the light-up variety, but I'd say they were definitely few and far between.

But nowadays, it seems like every other house has one of those giant inflatable light-up dealies, whether it's a giant Santa or maybe some kind of fakey snowglobe. I could probably overlook those if it weren't for the fact that usually, the same houses that have these tend to have one for EVERY freaking occassion. Is a giant, inflated, light-up bunny really a necessity for Easter? I don't think so. Do you need to have a giant turkey in your yard to help you celebrate Thanksgiving? Not so much.

And probably every 4th or 5th house has the weird painted wooden cut-outs. Now this, I cannot abide. There is one house in my neighborhood that has almost their entire lawn taken up by a freaking Precious Moments nativity. Yes, as in the cheesy figurines of big-eyed children which are, if you ask me, only a half step above the Love Is... cartoon characters.

I swear, I'm going to drive through my neighborhood later and take some pictures to post.