Monday, December 12, 2011

Noel

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, A Santa that looks this creepy!


Ok, now I've learned to let nothing relating to Père Noël throw me off,  but literally, this plastic decoration was enough to make me fear for the sanity of the decorators in our building.  It started out small, just with some garland and tinsel in the hallways, and a few boxes wrapped up to look like presents.  It was actually really cute and understated.  However, with the introduction of this bit of horror greeting me every time I come into the building, it's a bit different we'll say.














I feel like France has kind of a love/hate relationship with Santa Claus.  Of course, I remember my first time in 2004, I came just after Christmas, and feasted my eyes on this vision:

So herein lies the question:  Is Santa going to be breaking and entering, or is he just hanging on for dear life?  It turns out, apparently, neither is the case.  I don't know if it's all over France, but in Bretagne, a lot of the houses don't have chimneys, so Santa comes in through the windows.  I just remember thinking how absolutely insane it looked to have Santa Claus hanging off your house as a decoration.  (As if his being perfectly still in people's yards in the US is somehow more so.  Then again, decoration is always something I've had questions about.)




Of course, I had preparations for this for years in the US.  My mother changes the decorations for her house once a month.  (Seriously not joking here.  She has a different theme per month.)  Christmas though, used to start after Thanksgiving.  Not like, ok we wait a day and change over.  No, seriously, that afternoon when we got back from Thanksgiving dinner when Dad went to work, the entire house changed from turkeys to snowflakes and angels.  My mother never had a shortage of creepily happy santas, snowmen, elves, and reindeer.

The worst was this snowman she had.  It was life sized and she would st it on the stairs.  So there would be sometimes when you would come around the corner and feel like you're being watched.  Nope, just the creepy lifelike snowman sitting on the stairs, peering into your soul with his cold, dead eyes.  Sometimes I wonder if my mother was decorating to be cheery, or if she was actually creating this world of things being so cute they were creepy.  This coming from a woman who used to have a different festive sweatshirt for every holiday, would surprise me a little though.  

Hopefully there's nothing that makes you feel like pyramid head is watching you every time you step outside with your significant other!  Have a good first day of Christmas.

9 comments:

  1. My mom never decorated for any reason ever - wanna trade childhoods? :)

    And I think Santa hanging from the wall like that is cute! But then, I do love Christmas... Except for the dreadfully boring music.

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  2. Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily complaining about the decoration, but you have to admit, once a month becomes a bit much.

    Not all the music is dreadfully boring. Listen to KT Tunstall's version of Mele Kalikimaka and tell me you're not happier after.

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  3. Santa does look a little odd hanging off the side of the building.

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  4. You should see those hanging santas here, when people just leave them up after christmas, the wind knocks them around and they eventually look like santa suicides by rope.

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  5. They have the hanging santa's all over the Loire and Cher valleys, too. I suspect it's a whole France thing.

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  6. Nubian - It's ridiculous. Plus It's funny how it's not the guy in the long coat with a hood who's hanging off the building, Père Noël, but Santa Claus. That just seems bizarre to me.

    Theaterdog - It does get creepy when people leave them up. Whole lot of santacides going down here!

    wcs - There's something reassuring in the knowledge that Santa is Breaking and Entering all over France. Well, just barely. Thanks for letting me know!

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  7. Oh, I just realized I used an apostrophe where none was needed. Please forgive. And don't send the punctuation police. They have bigger fish to fry... ;)

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  8. I just can't stand outdoor decorations anymore! LOL!

    It feels that some people want to be seen all the way from Mars or something... And such bad taste on top of it all. It's quantity over quality. The real "National Lampoon's Christmas" thing!!
    Hugs
    Jon

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  9. Blue - My family always used to tease me and say I would end up like Clark in that movie. Funny how things change with time. I'd prefer just a few strings of light for outside.

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