And he has shaped it as a babe that is to nurse and he has made two eyes of glass

[sovay]

Our neighbors are decorating for Halloween. This means giant inflatable ghosts, mummies, pumpkins, green-faced witches, vampire Winnie-the-Poohs, snowglobes full of mylar bats, et cetera, several of which glow at night and all of which are tasteless to the nth—yards full of this stuff, it's unbelievable. It makes me want to put up Halloween decorations of my own. Cornhusks, dog skulls, knots of old ribbon, branches of turning leaves. You know. Normal things.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

vampire Winnie-the-Poohs

I'm quite certain I am not seeing what you're saying; I have an image of a Ernest Sheppard drawing of the bear in question with just a hint of uncharacteristic narrowing along the eyes, mouth open, full of tiny needle teeth.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Why must the commercialization of holidays always make them tasteless as well?

That said, my mother was keeping a squirrel skull (which she found in a bush in our neighborhood when we were out walking one day) in the window for a while. I don't think the neighbors really noticed- but I rather wonder what their response would have been if they had.

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

Your subject line reminds me, for some reason, of Otesanek.

Which would make an awesome Halloween decoration (http://www.clubdesmonstres.com/otik.htm), by the by.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

That's appalling. You have my sympathies. There's a couple of houses like that round here, but so far none of them are terribly close.

Do they do this at Christmas or Hanukkah as well? I hope not, for your sake.

[thomasfreund.livejournal.com]

The recent rash of inflatable decorations at any holiday is very disturbing. Though I'm quite fond of them when they spontaneously deflate and you see lights shining on what used to be an 8-foot tall Frosty the Snowman.

There's a place in Waltham that has committed this offense for several years now. The neighbors here have small children and consequently go a little overboard for several holidays, but at least their Halloween decorations last year were little bats and things hanging from the tree and a little graveyard with grey-foam headstones. However, they did use a fogger during Trick or Treat which we actually asked them to turn OFF because it was literally obscuring sight all the way to the corner and there's quite a bit of traffic there.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I hate the sense that I'm obligated to decorate, period. Tasteful or otherwise. What's this about putting little pumpkin decorations on bushes? Why? Why does everything trend toward Christmas decorations?

I did once put milkweed stalks, with all the milkweed silk popping out, by my door. Now I forever have milkweed seedlings in my garden.

[humglum.livejournal.com]

Hooray for normal stuff!
Those inflatable thingies make me want to sick mad cats on them.

I need to go buy some pumpkins, which will get covered in slugs, which will make them extra ookie :)

I might also make a scarecrow-ish thing. My hands have been so busy this week that making a scarecrow sounds like it should be done.

If none of this makes sense, blame my migraine.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

My downstairs neighbours have decorated the outside of their apartment, and the garden, and the entranceway, with tasteless weird Halloween stuff. This includes something I've never seen and which completely freaked out my friend Gill, childrens' legs apparently disappearing into (or emerging out of feet first) the ground, using jeans and shoes that look as if they've been recently outgrown by their kids. Squick. Do you know what these are supposed to be about?

I have thought about adding to them with normal things... or eye of toad and etc, but as everything is festooned with white fake spiderweb, and as they have tasteless light-up ghosts, I think they'd vanish. Also, sorry, but it isn't Samhain for weeks.

Last year at about this time I came back from Mike Ford's funeral to find a toy gravestone on the lawn. I wasn't amused, and did actually say something to communicate my distress to my neighbour, who refused to move it on the grounds that the children like it. It's there again this year.

Every time I brush past the ghost hanging by the front door and the lights come on and it sings at me, it reminds me of Auden's:

"The lights must never go out
The music must always play
Lest we should see where we are
Lost in a haunted wood
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good."

Because I get it, death, yes, the death of the year, and we too will die in time and some have gone before us, but is all this obsessive playing with the bright and plastic images of death's kingdom not a little too shrill?