Agree or Disagree?: Inflatable yard Christmas decor is tacky

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Several neighbors have inflatable Christmas decor in their front yard, and it is so tacky blowing around in the wind. Does anyone else find this method of decorating tacky and cheap looking?

Tacky, cheap, ugly, annoying, tasteless and environmentally dumb. Its the second worst thing for yard, next to chain link fence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't make me happy. They remind me of all the junk people buy at the holidays and how much of it winds up in landfills and also how much oil and fuel gets used up shipping it to people's homes so they can do this stuff. I get some people use them year after year, but some people don't, and also it becomes another thing that people compete over so what starts as one house with a few tacky inflatables because entire neighborhoods full of them. Yes it is bad for the environment.

Also, there are lots of ways to make kids smile. You can hug them! Bake some cookies! Say you love them! You really do not have to buy a generator and a $100 piece of tacky plastic on Amazon to make your child smile during the holiday season.

Sorry to be a killjoy. I love holidays and celebrating with family and friends and enjoying food and I even like plenty of decorations, just not the plastic crap ones, and the yard inflatables are sort of the poster child for "plastic Christmas crap." I'm not a grinch but I can't get behind these.

Coming from a person who probably has a too big of a house and hires out lawn care...

Wrong on both counts. I live in a condo, don't have a lawn at all. I don't even own a car. I love how the responses to my post have all been "whatever, you're probably a hypocrite." But I'm actually not.

I bet a lot of you talking about how much you love the inflatable lawn ornaments also lecture people about recycling and claim to be environmentalists. But you'll hide behind "but the kids like it!" when you want to buy all your plastic crap from Amazon. Guess what, kids don't understand the implications of filling our lives with a metric ton of plastic waste that must be shipped using fossil fuels to arrive on your doorstep -- it's your job to know that.

The "it's for the kids" argument is particularly galling when you realize that the accumulation of all this plastic crap, delivered via the burning of yet more fossil fuels, is precisely what is destroying this planet "for the kids."

Anyway, I don't care if I'm a killjoy. You people need to hear this.

You are being righteous but neither you nor any of us have a good idea of the environmental footprint of most of our decisions. We try to do our best and balance concerns for the environment with other needs.

P.S. Out inflatable is recyclable and is a whole lot more environmentally friendly than often taunted environmental solutions like owning crypto, an electric vehicle etc

Lol literally no one has suggested you replace your inflatable yard ornament with "owning crypto" or buying an electronic vehicle, weirdo. Also, I am explaining the environmental impact of your decision to you right now and you are like "no one can know!" Yes, we can know. You choose to ignore it, which is different.

One reason this one annoys me is that it's unnecessary. There are environmentally conscious ways to decorate for the holidays. You can decorate with nature (wreaths, collected pinecones, poinsettias, etc), with found objects like vintage sleds or ice skates, with crafts made from recycled and recyclable paper (much more likely to actually get recycled than your PVC lawn ornament and the accompanying air pump), and so on. It's different than yelling at someone for driving a car -- some people need cars to go to work because they don't have access to public transportation, and electric vehicles are prohibitively expensive for most people. But we're talking about holiday decorations. You 100% have a choice between a very environmentally unfriendly option (plastic, manufactured and shipped from oversees, consuming energy the entire time its in use, likely to wind up in a landfill) or an environmentally conscious one. And you are choosing the unfriendly option and justifying it with "kids like them" even though I expect a lot of those kids will like these a lot less when they grow up and realize what their parents did to the planet with their mindless consumption of cheap plastic goods.

Also, this thread is full of people who are like "I was unsure about these until I saw my neighbor had 4 of them, so I bought 8!" or "we only had a couple but then my neighbor called them tacky, so I bought 10 more just to spite her!" It's part of this competitive, spiteful, "these are fun and anyone who doesn't think so SUCKS" attitude which is actually incredibly consumerist and makes what could be a small problem into a big problem. If people in this thread were saying "Yeah, we like the one we have and we found a solar powered pump, here's a link" I might not have such a horrified response. But the attitude on this thread is "Yes, more more more let's fill the neighborhood with inflatables specifically to annoy people!" It's no exactly "holiday spirit" and seems to be more about being loud and ugly to one another than celebrating or making kids smile.

You have no reading comprehension skills.

1. Many things that are touted as environmentally friendly are not. It takes decades sometimes to understand the true impact. The electric vehicle is a classic EXAMPLE of righteous a**holes touting something whose impact they don’t know.
2. You have no idea of other people’s environmental footprint, nor do we of yours. So go get a drink and sit down.

I'm sorry, is your argument actually that we simply cannot know the environmental impacts of plastic lawn inflatables for "decades" so it's not okay to criticize them for environmental reasons? Really?

Also, are you actually saying that you think one day we'll learn that decorating with natural wreaths and pinecones and found objects is weirdly worse for the environment than ordering a bunch of plastic crap from Amazon and leaving it powered up for hours a day for a couple months?

And then you are arguing that since we can't know one another's environmental impact, I'm not allowed to criticize a behavior that is obviously more environmentally harmful than simply not engaging in that behavior. If that were the case then no one could ever criticize the environmental impact of anything. I mean, Amazon seems like a terrible company for the environment but I guess since I haven't sat down and worked out Jeff Bezos' exact carbon footprint, I'm not allowed to criticize. Huh.

This thread is not actually about electric vehicles, and I don't have an electric vehicle nor do I encourage other people to get them, so that's beside the point.

You know you have no leg to stand on so instead you are telling me to "get a drink and sit down." But you can't put together a single cogent argument defending these things from an environmental standpoint. Your arguments are weak and you know it so instead you are attacking me personally. You'll be annoyed about me today but the next time you go to order more plastic holiday garbage online, you'll also think about this conversation and you'll either have to ignore what you know is true about your behavior, or you'll stop. Either way, I view it as a victory.

Happy Holidays!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s tacky but worth it to see my 4yo grinning like a maniac every night when we turn it on

+1, My 14 year old still issues the inflatable report every night. "Santa is up!" or "Santa needs help!"
Bonus, he now goes out and deals with the problem himself!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole point of Christmas decorations is to be wonderfully tacky. Embrace the tacky!

I beg to differ.

The whole point of Christmas decorations is to point us towards the hope that Jesus’ birth brought to our fallen world. I personally find commercial and tacky Christmas decorations depressing.

However, if tacky commercial Xmas decor brings joy to some then let it be.

The Annunciation was in August. Therefore Jesus was born in May, not December.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole point of Christmas decorations is to be wonderfully tacky. Embrace the tacky!

I beg to differ.

The whole point of Christmas decorations is to point us towards the hope that Jesus’ birth brought to our fallen world. I personally find commercial and tacky Christmas decorations depressing.

However, if tacky commercial Xmas decor brings joy to some then let it be.

The Annunciation was in August. Therefore Jesus was born in May, not December.

You'd think the Bible thumping PP would know that by now.

[Anonymous]

Caved and bought holiday season of 2020 when we didn't want to travel during COVID. The smile they put on my then 4 yo's face made it worth it. They'll go up from now on regardless of tackiness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole point of Christmas decorations is to be wonderfully tacky. Embrace the tacky!

I beg to differ.

The whole point of Christmas decorations is to point us towards the hope that Jesus’ birth brought to our fallen world. I personally find commercial and tacky Christmas decorations depressing.

However, if tacky commercial Xmas decor brings joy to some then let it be.

The Annunciation was in August. Therefore Jesus was born in May, not December.

You'd think the Bible thumping PP would know that by now.

Well the church did a pretty good job covering up the fact that the real reasons for Christmas decorations were to strike a compromise with the Pagans and absorb their winter fertility rites, so it's understandable they don't know the true origin of Christmas decorations.

[Anonymous]

I can’t figure out why but I like this thread. It makes me laugh that DCUM can fight about literally anything 😂😂.

[Anonymous]

Tacky, yes.
Completely fine, yes. I'm in favor of anything that brings a little joy.
My biggest complaint with inflatables is how they look when they're not inflated. A yard full of heaps of fabric is neither attractive nor festive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are the opposite of beautiful or elegant, but perfect for entertaining kids.

Don't we have other ways to entertain kids? It is unclear to me why we have to every aspect of a holiday about kids. What about lonely older people without kids -- does no one care about making them happy at the holidays?

Feel free to make your own front yard into a geriatric-friendly wonderland if that’s important to you. Shrug.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't make me happy. They remind me of all the junk people buy at the holidays and how much of it winds up in landfills and also how much oil and fuel gets used up shipping it to people's homes so they can do this stuff. I get some people use them year after year, but some people don't, and also it becomes another thing that people compete over so what starts as one house with a few tacky inflatables because entire neighborhoods full of them. Yes it is bad for the environment.

Also, there are lots of ways to make kids smile. You can hug them! Bake some cookies! Say you love them! You really do not have to buy a generator and a $100 piece of tacky plastic on Amazon to make your child smile during the holiday season.

Sorry to be a killjoy. I love holidays and celebrating with family and friends and enjoying food and I even like plenty of decorations, just not the plastic crap ones, and the yard inflatables are sort of the poster child for "plastic Christmas crap." I'm not a grinch but I can't get behind these.

Coming from a person who probably has a too big of a house and hires out lawn care...

Wrong on both counts. I live in a condo, don't have a lawn at all. I don't even own a car. I love how the responses to my post have all been "whatever, you're probably a hypocrite." But I'm actually not.

I bet a lot of you talking about how much you love the inflatable lawn ornaments also lecture people about recycling and claim to be environmentalists. But you'll hide behind "but the kids like it!" when you want to buy all your plastic crap from Amazon. Guess what, kids don't understand the implications of filling our lives with a metric ton of plastic waste that must be shipped using fossil fuels to arrive on your doorstep -- it's your job to know that.

The "it's for the kids" argument is particularly galling when you realize that the accumulation of all this plastic crap, delivered via the burning of yet more fossil fuels, is precisely what is destroying this planet "for the kids."

Anyway, I don't care if I'm a killjoy. You people need to hear this.

You’re not convincing anyone. You’re just smug and insufferable. Stick your lecture in your ear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't make me happy. They remind me of all the junk people buy at the holidays and how much of it winds up in landfills and also how much oil and fuel gets used up shipping it to people's homes so they can do this stuff. I get some people use them year after year, but some people don't, and also it becomes another thing that people compete over so what starts as one house with a few tacky inflatables because entire neighborhoods full of them. Yes it is bad for the environment.

Also, there are lots of ways to make kids smile. You can hug them! Bake some cookies! Say you love them! You really do not have to buy a generator and a $100 piece of tacky plastic on Amazon to make your child smile during the holiday season.

Sorry to be a killjoy. I love holidays and celebrating with family and friends and enjoying food and I even like plenty of decorations, just not the plastic crap ones, and the yard inflatables are sort of the poster child for "plastic Christmas crap." I'm not a grinch but I can't get behind these.

Coming from a person who probably has a too big of a house and hires out lawn care...

Wrong on both counts. I live in a condo, don't have a lawn at all. I don't even own a car. I love how the responses to my post have all been "whatever, you're probably a hypocrite." But I'm actually not.

I bet a lot of you talking about how much you love the inflatable lawn ornaments also lecture people about recycling and claim to be environmentalists. But you'll hide behind "but the kids like it!" when you want to buy all your plastic crap from Amazon. Guess what, kids don't understand the implications of filling our lives with a metric ton of plastic waste that must be shipped using fossil fuels to arrive on your doorstep -- it's your job to know that.

The "it's for the kids" argument is particularly galling when you realize that the accumulation of all this plastic crap, delivered via the burning of yet more fossil fuels, is precisely what is destroying this planet "for the kids."

Anyway, I don't care if I'm a killjoy. You people need to hear this.

You need a valium

Tell me where I'm wrong.

You can't, so you guys will joke about how I'm no fun. That's fine, it's what shallow people who don't want to be held accountable for their actions do when they can't make a cogent argument, which is always.

You aren’t holding anyone “accountable.” You vastly overestimate your own importance.

[Anonymous]

So so tacky. The most beautiful Christmas displays I ever saw were in Austria just beautiful floral it was so far from the tacky decorations we have here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Toronto and there’s a neighborhood that has over 50 giant inflatable Santas every year.
It’s fun.
https://www.blogto.com/city/2018/12/kringlewood-giant-santas-toronto/

That’s awesome. I was out in the Shenandoah a week before Thanksgiving and passed a house with about 150 of all types of Santa figures all over lawn. A lot of them were the old fashioned hard plastic ones like I remember seeing in peoples’ yards when I was a child… real antiques.

Lol when I was younger I was very mindful of not appearing tacky, very conservative, but now that I have a young child who loves inflatables I put them up every Halloween and Christmas. I completely get the “when I am an old lady I shall wear purple”. I’m not that old yet. If I’m really not sure why younger me was so concerned about what other people think. Plus they really annoy my painfully uptight neighbor… so that is a bonus!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't make me happy. They remind me of all the junk people buy at the holidays and how much of it winds up in landfills and also how much oil and fuel gets used up shipping it to people's homes so they can do this stuff. I get some people use them year after year, but some people don't, and also it becomes another thing that people compete over so what starts as one house with a few tacky inflatables because entire neighborhoods full of them. Yes it is bad for the environment.

Also, there are lots of ways to make kids smile. You can hug them! Bake some cookies! Say you love them! You really do not have to buy a generator and a $100 piece of tacky plastic on Amazon to make your child smile during the holiday season.

Sorry to be a killjoy. I love holidays and celebrating with family and friends and enjoying food and I even like plenty of decorations, just not the plastic crap ones, and the yard inflatables are sort of the poster child for "plastic Christmas crap." I'm not a grinch but I can't get behind these.

Coming from a person who probably has a too big of a house and hires out lawn care...

Wrong on both counts. I live in a condo, don't have a lawn at all. I don't even own a car. I love how the responses to my post have all been "whatever, you're probably a hypocrite." But I'm actually not.

I bet a lot of you talking about how much you love the inflatable lawn ornaments also lecture people about recycling and claim to be environmentalists. But you'll hide behind "but the kids like it!" when you want to buy all your plastic crap from Amazon. Guess what, kids don't understand the implications of filling our lives with a metric ton of plastic waste that must be shipped using fossil fuels to arrive on your doorstep -- it's your job to know that.

The "it's for the kids" argument is particularly galling when you realize that the accumulation of all this plastic crap, delivered via the burning of yet more fossil fuels, is precisely what is destroying this planet "for the kids."

Anyway, I don't care if I'm a killjoy. You people need to hear this.

I just had printed 100 boxes of trial exhibits. I killed a small Brazilian rainforest, polluted a stream near the paper factory, used fedex and guzzled gas to have them transported, etc,. Can’t wait to get home and set up my inflatables!