Monday, December 20, 2010

A Christmas Heads Up

I live in a rural area.  A village, with fields, and not much going on.  I don't go into the nearby city very often so I can only guess that the stores and malls there are bursting at the seams with Christmas doodads, decorating paraphenalia, shiny gewgaws, beribboned whatnots, tinselled whimsies, and candy-cane-striped gizmos.  This shop front I saw in Vancouver last month was gearing up for the jolly holly season.



I'd venture to say that the white tree to the right of the picture, well inside the store, emanates the snowy, sparkly, glittery jittery Spirit of Christmas Decorating but I must question the appropriateness of the figure seen at the top middle of the photo.  Is a reindeer head mounted on the wall quite in fitting with the Christmas spirit?  Did Santa lose his patience with Donner or Blitzen one snowy Christmas Eve? 



Did Santa's elves grow tired of living on candy canes and demand something a little...gamier...for sustenance?  My world dims a little at the thought...
 


but is quickly revived as I am captured by a display of  gleaming baubles in the next window.


At home this year,  my decorating is minimalist.  Not a deer head or bauble in sight.



A few Chinese lanterns hung with gay abandon.

Fa-la-la-la-la


25 comments:

  1. Your little lanterned tree borne by an unusually well-dressed fish conveys the spirit quite well.

    Even when shopping, a mini mall list approach is quite appropriate.

    I hope the love and joy keeps coming to you.

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  2. DCW,
    Does the local Irving count as a mini mall?

    Did you know that Santa has cautiously begun to make art? Yes, he's making a minimalist and checking it twice.

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  3. Hey, hey, where'd you git those chinese lanterns ??? I saw someone had been in our garden snipping away a few boughs of them... could it be, could it be ????

    And right you are, the nerve of them, displaying old Rudolph's mounted head in their shop, the light in his nose gone out... forever ? (maybe with a bit of photoshop magic, you could have brightened up his nose just a bit?

    And you said your decoration is minimalist, no deer heads anywhere, but is that a curiously feminine looking fish peeking out from under a lacy cloth on which the large pot is setting...

    Police, Interpol, come quick, the chinese lanterns disappeared from my yard, and turned up mysteriously here in Moncton ! Will wonders never cease !

    Cheers Lynne Louciaou Big Sis... happiest of holidays to you !

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  4. My holiday decor this year is even more minimalist than yours. Just one bright red cyclamen on the table! I am intrigued by the wonderful painted doors just to the left of your little tree!!!

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  5. A few Chinese lanterns hung with gay abandon - such a wonderful line, it makes me think of Coleridge somehow :-)))

    and i love your minimalist decor, i think i will go with this style myself, this year... or perhaps a very very small tree? hmm...

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  6. What a wonderful chance to breath during this season of chaos. As we live about half an hour 'outside', as much as possible one is able to say anything alike, of Athens, it is only upon urgend need that I go to the center nowadays (public transport isn't functioning anyhow).

    How would I love to live back in a small town, yet time and life, seems to decide otherwise.

    Please have you all a wonderful Wednesday.

    daily athens

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  7. A new version of an old song is perhaps needed...

    Rudolph the headless reindeer
    Was mounted on a very shiny plaque
    And if you ever saw him
    You might have a heart attack

    All of the other reindeer
    Used to laugh and call him names
    Now they are all in hiding
    From the hunter of such big game

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  8. BrOwen,
    Simmer down, simmer down. Those lanterns were given to me by a local friend who found them growing in her yard. Perhaps the seeds had drifted across the Atlantic from your garden, but I swear I didn't pinch them from your yard, so call off the French hounds!

    I could have lit up Rudie's nose with the magic of Photoshop but that would have been cheating! Besides, I didn't think of it. Where are you with your big fat ideas when I need you??? Or them, rather.

    The lady fish (you can tell by her lipstick, but perhaps that is sexist of me) is a staple in our kitchen decor. But you're right, I did deck her out in a rather liturgical looking cloth. Usually her bare stick legs are exposed but it seemed a bit too outré for such an iconic Christian symbol as a fish.

    I hope wonders will never cease!
    Cheers to you as well, little bro. Not many more sleeps till Xmas hols!!

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  9. jann,
    That sounds like a most perfect approach to Xmas decorating!

    I painted those colourful kitchen cupboard doors myself. I must admit, it took forever. I got the colour combo idea from a Turkish tile someone had given us. If you take away any one of the colours the whole scheme falls apart, and while I was painting them on I was having fifty fits that it was going to look ghastly. It all worked out in the end, though I suppose it's not everyone's cup of tea. I'm glad you like it.

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  10. Roxana,
    I think you find poetry in every corner you peer into. A lovely way to view the world.

    Coming up with a different approach to decorating every year at Christmas keeps it fresh and irrelevant.

    {:-)

    And I never know for sure whether or not I will bother...but it seems I always do in the end!

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  11. Robert,
    Isn't it odd the way that fate conspires to keep us from where we think we'd prefer to be. Nothing to do but make the most of where we are and practice gratitude, I guess. I am determined this year to see my glass of eggnog as half full rather than half empty! Mind you, I'd prefer to keep it topped up at all times.
    Cheers, and happy holidays to you!

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  12. A Christmas Caroler,
    That is truly terrible! But funny. I can just hear the little kids in elementary school choirs in rural areas throughout N.America belting out that version of Rudolph the Headless Reindeer, with great gusto. And the Dads in the audience, decked out in their best plaid flannel shirts and baseball caps, guffawing with glee.

    (I did click on the link to your "name" and could NOT watch that video!)

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  13. I sympathize, the video was pretty awful. Downright raunchy...

    Here's wishing Rudolph will live a long and unmolested life.

    And perhaps the next video link will be somewhat more palatable (sp.?)

    But if this next one still doesn't do it, white froggy wine will be served as a condolence prize...

    :-)

    C.C.

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  14. A Christmas Caroler,
    May you sleep in heavenly peace, once your shift at the factory is over.

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  15. The factory shift is never over, which may be why I'm so shiftless...

    May you have the merriest of merry holidays, with an abundance of chinese lanterns shining magical orange light to warm your heart and please your soul... one of those chinese lanterns could have served very well for Rudolph's nose, methinks...

    Bye for now but not for long...
    :-)

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  16. Merry Ho Ho Ho Big Sis, hope it's happy and bright....I guess with those lanterns 'brightness' is a possibility! xx

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  17. BrOwen and Sister Saj,
    All together on Christmas Day at last! I wish you both, dear adopted siblings, happy holidays filled with warmth, laughter, good cheer (liquid and otherwise), peace in your hearts, and light in your souls.

    Lots of love to you both!
    Lynne xoxo

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  18. Merry merry
    strong drink vital here in NY.
    Hope you have a great 2011

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  19. There are worse things than having your head mounted on a wall. Being forced to drag a large man and a sled laden with gifts literally all over the world in one night comes to mind.

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  20. well at least you made the effort to get an evergreen.. I threw 2 strands of lights on the cactus in the living room ..
    your tree looks real cute!! Hope you are full of the bubbly cheer...

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  21. Elizabeth,
    I'll drink to that! All of it. And best wishes to you for the new year ahead.

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  22. tattytiara,
    Good to have things put in their proper perspective like that; thanks! I feel worlds better now. (The stiff drink also helped.)

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  23. Gwen,
    Sorry to disillusion you but no effort was made on my part to get an evergreen, other than resucing a few of the trimmings from some yard work Pierre had done.

    Some years, we throw some lights on our ficus tree and call that Christmas decorating. I like the cactus idea--very southwestern, especially in a northeastern setting.
    {:-)
    Bubbly cheer greatly aided by soda water added to vermouth!

    I hope the recent snowstorm hasn't hit you hard.

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  24. No disillusion received... and no troubles from the storm except for an extended power outage which was kind of nice to keep us all off these dang machines

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  25. Gwen,
    Our power outage was only long enough to send me back to bed to read a few more pages of Keith Richards' autobiography. There wasn't any point in getting up if I couldn't make coffee.

    Look at me now...I am using my willpower to sign off this dang machine for the rest of the day!

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