You know, when you look at the way we do Christmas these days, the commercialism, the chaos and the excess, it’s no wonder why at some point, we have to poke fun at the ridiculousness of it. Here are some great pics of Christmas weirdness, fun and creativity.
This guy wins the award of creativity. I wish I had thought of this! Nope, it’s not a real guy hanging there. He staged this, but after a couple of days, had to take it down. People were frantically trying to run over and help him. A few cars actually drove into his yard in a panic, worked quickly to get the ladder back up, only to find out there was no guy up there. I call this performance art. I wonder if he had a video camera set up?
I Googled ‘dead Santa’ yesterday before writing about the Christmas spirit. I came across a few images that were intriguing. This dead Santa illustration was created by Brandon Reese. This was one of many funny Christmas icon illustrations. It’s odd, but I love the retro look and colors. I can’t help but wonder why he created this image and how it was used.
This one came up on the dead Santa search too. Did you notice the peppermint candy border on the rug? Great artistic details. Good thing they don’t outline all the dead ones laying around in people’s yards. Wow, wouldn’t the 3M tape company love that?
One of my favorite sitcoms of all times is The Drew Carey show. Beer kegs in Christmas lights? These have to be full of Buzz beer. Maybe he’s going to have a block party. If this was my neighbor, I would have to go check to see if any of these actually had beer in them.
Where does one get this many kegs? Notice the extra keg behind the keg tree? I’m guessing his patio table base is also a keg, and judging by the looks of this place, he probably has a basement, full of kegs.
Okay, so we started the tree segment with a beer tree. I found lots of unique Christmas trees out there, ‘out there’ meaning on the internet. Don’t worry, I plan to have many more of my own crazy photos in future posts.
Our Christmas message series at church this year is called Upside-down Christmas. I was so excited when that was decided because we were going to finally use the idea Rod and I talked about, upside-down trees. Sadly to me, nobody liked the idea this year. I thought about hanging my tree upside-down. Problem? It’s a 10′ tree that works like an umbrella. Four extremely heavy pieces, that if placed upside-down, would fall together and look like a tree that should be strapped to the top of a car to take home.
Let’s start with the upside-down tree. This is one of the newest fads in Christmas decor, although there is much controversy about the symbolic meaning of it. For some, this is just to be different, for others, it creates more space for this Christmas icon and makes more room for gifts. Clearly we need more room for all of the stuff we are expected to, and probably will purchase.
Others have said an upright tree points to heaven, an upside-down tree, well, not so much. Anytime you mess with tradition, there will always be a group of protestors.
Why do I like the upside-down tree? I like it for the same reason we are doing a message series about an upside-down Christmas. When you turn something upside-down, it usually makes a mess at first, but then you think about it, reorganize all of the pieces and maybe put everything back together in a different and better way. Turning Christmas upside-down is an intentional action, with results you may never have thought of otherwise. Giving, celebrating and living differently as been an amazing experience for me, so amazing that I cannot go back to my former, selfish ways.
Here are some other cool and creative trees.
Okay, so just one more. I had an idea of something crazy I wanted to do with my hair when it was long. My stylist, Steve Hodges, agreed to bleach and color a peace sign into my hair. Although we have all of the technical details worked out, there’s still the reality of my curly hair. When I wear my hair straight, the peace sign will look like a peace sign. When it’s curly, it will look like an abstract color blob, which really isn’t a problem for me, nor would anyone question it. In the mean time, maybe I can have Steve do this with my hair.
I think Christmas fun might be part of the Christmas spirit. I don’t think a ‘tinselectomy‘ means that you have to spend less time decorating, however I do believe you should encounter joy in it and create some great life moments with it. If it feels like work or feels like something you have to do, then don’t do it. No matter how you choose to express Christmas, make it your own self-expression, depicting what is in your heart, not what society is promoting today.
jody | embrace chaos 