Continuing my holiday blog series, I bring to you an analysis of Christmas displays. And fat Santas. Now, it seems that you can guarantee that someone on your street will put up Christmas lights over the holiday. But when I pulled up Yahoo today, I was told that some people are complaining about extravagant Christmas displays. Now, where I live, there really aren't that many displays up: just lights, really. Then again, I reasoned, I live in a small town, so maybe people in the cities are different. My family doesn't put up lights, due in large part to the fact that we're too lazy. But I was curious, so I decided to check it out.

The featured story took me to a story on the Wall Street Journal. The picture it immediately presented to me was quite a spectacle:

  (taken from Wall Street Journal)

Sorry if you're tired of hearing tree huggers complaining, but I just want to get this one out of the way. You can express your holiday spirit, but at some point you're just going over the top. Sure, you can put up lights, but there really is no need to put up a twenty-eight foot high display, especially when you're in a suburban neighborhood. Think of all the electricity you'd be wasting. There is no reason to have all of these decorations up.

The above photo depicts Jim McDilda's Christmas decorations last year. This year, apparently, his house remains barren. It's a good thing he didn't follow up his previous year's performance. Look, I have nothing against showing holiday spirit. There's really nothing wrong with a string of lights or two around your house, but as soon as you need a crane to put up your lights, you've just gone way too far.

On a slightly different subject...

Back on Tuesday, December 11, I was getting bored while hanging around after school in my Mum's classroom, so I picked up a copy of the day's Press Enterprise and began to read it. After about fifteen minutes of reading, I came to the Your Life section, and my attention was immediately caught by a tid-bit at the top of the section, saying, "The surgeon general takes on Santa. The Daily Dude fights back." I quickly turned to the article, which told me that Surgeon General Steven K. Galson thinks Santa's stomach is sending the wrong message to kids.

Okay, I'm for having fit kids, though I myself am in no position to complain, but something tells me that having a fat role model won't make that big a difference. Definitely, Jeff Girod (The Daily Dude), brings up a valid point: it seems the most obvious way Santa would influence today's youth is that he breaks into people houses and eats their food. So honestly, I don't think there's that much to worry about.

Thanks for reading, and have a great holiday.