Longtime readers of this blog will know that I like Christmas. Being Jewish, I'm more or less indifferent to the religious aspects of the holiday. I like the music and I like the lights. Particularly the lights. Single strands of lights aren't impressive. Lights doing little but lining lawn decorations are sad, weak little things. But wrap trees and houses in them, throw blankets of them over the shrubbery, set them to music, and they're as mesermizing as the Bellagio fountains.
But I've noticed a trend toward Christmas balloons, with a tackiness beyond description. I've seen Santa, reindeer, Snoopy, and even Spongebob Santa balloons. Some are animated, like reindeer helping Santa climb out of the chimney. A number of the animasted ones require continuous air flow to stay inflated, so when the homeowner turns off the power in the morning, they collapse, leaving a scene like a Christmas massacre. There's holiday cheer for you.
Lights require and encourage creativity. Their abstractness makes them accessible. And there's just something cheerful about of a lot of synchronized, blinking lights changing color in the middle of December. Balloons may or may not be cheap, but they certainly look cheap.