We returned just last night from Ft. Lauderdale where Steve, Alex and I visited our daughter Biz for a couple of days. We loved the area where she is staying, which has lots of tucked-away suburban neighborhoods with well-cared-for houses, neatly manicured hedges and lovely trees.
Lots of people had decorated their yards and homes for the Holidays. It was a hoot to see lengths of fabric “snow” on Florida lawns that were also peppered with snowmen, and to confirm that the inflatable yard décor trend is broad enough to reach the ocean.
The mix of Holiday themes in yard after yard made me ask myself if eclectic decorating had come to the lawn. Perhaps. But I may also have been witnessing nothing more than a few cases of too much of a good thing. Many settings included way too many total figures—these yards were downright crowded with animated deer, inflated snowballs and candy cane sidewalk ornaments. Sometimes that crowding resulted in manger scenes with unexpected participants. In one front yard, for example, wood figures of Mary, Jesus and Joseph were kept company by not only three wise men, but also Pooh and a snowman. In another, a light-up version of the Holy Family was flanked by Snoopy.
Did the owners of these homes realize how comic their overdone decorating had become? Probably not. I’m sure they were simply delighted with how fully they had expressed their Holiday spirit in the front yard. In any case, these are yards that I certainly will not soon forget.
