A little Christmas (fl)air goes a long way

Christmas is blowing up on my street*, y'all. All my neighbors seem to be very in the Christmas mood - there are lights and wreaths and tinsel decorations everywhere. As I was leaving my apartment one night this weekend, I noticed a popular recurring theme: Christmas balloons. You know, those really big decorations that are kept inflated by a big fan and backlit by some magical Heavenly mechanism. They are the height of tackiness, so naturally I love them. And apparently my neighbors do too, because at least four brownstones on my street currently have big Christmas balloons in front of them.

First on the tour de balloons: Santa riding a rocking horse. Naturally. And yes, it was rocking back and forth, I assume powered by an oscillating fan.

Next, a Santa whose body apparently disappeared inside his beard**. I assume he went all Atkins on us, then became aggressively hungry due to lack of carbs and ate himself. This is my favorite. (Shhh, don't tell the others.)

Third, a polar bear family!  Here, we see a Papa polar bear, a baby polar bear and... Snoopy? Whatevz. There are no rules in the wondrous world of Christmas balloons.

And finally, we come to Santa riding a polar bear. It makes a nice homage to balloons one and three, I think, while still managing to maintain its own sense of individuality.

All of this reminds me of freshman year of college. C and I were dorm neighbors, and for  Christmas we went in together on a balloon snowman to put outside our rooms. We plugged him up and placed him between our two doors, and the fan barely worked - we adopted him from Wal-Mart - so he just kept deflating and toppling over. We would come home and there he would be, face flat on the floor, arms splayed to the sides - nothing but a former version of his puffy snowman self. It became a running joke for several years, our sad little balloon snowman.

This year, I could not afford a sad balloon snowman, but I did purchase some Christmassy stuff and decorate my room. Below is my contribution.

It's a real (albeit dwarf) tree! It smells so good. In New York, people sell Christmas trees on the sidewalks. You'll be walking along- I got mine in Harlem, of course - and all of a sudden you'll find yourself surrounded by trees, in a delicious-smelling Christmas forest. It's amazing. I got some baby ornaments for my baby tree and topped it with a flower pin that I normally wear as an accessory with dresses; the "Meghan Dr." sign is a cheesy souvenir I got from the Empire State Building when my parents visited back in October. (It's really hard for me to find name-based souvenirs because they always spell it "Megan" or "Meagan" or something equally abysmal, so I tend to snatch things up when I see it spelled correctly.)

The greeting card is from my dentist. I guess he sent it because he felt bad for making me miss the Rockefeller tree lighting; it only makes sense for me to make him an integral part of my own personal one.

Happy holidays, world.

*Quite literally, and yes, pun completely intended
**This might also be a snowman