What one large Xmas decoration do I need?

December 18, 2015 7:34 AM

I lile decorating for Halloween, but I do not like decorating for Xmas. I was at Target and saw they had giant light-up stars, presumably for outside your house. This made me think, what one large, preferably light-up Christmas decoration could I take out every year, set up in the middle of my living room, and go, "Bam. Christmas!?" Something fun but not too traditional?
posted by agregoli to Home & Garden (25 answers total)

Back in the 80s my mom fed a bunch of christmas lights through some chicken wire to make a big 4' span star. We used to have a very tall tree outside our house. Every year my dad would scramble up the tree (doing a horribly dangerous ladder to roof to ladder on roof to climbing a tree for 10 feet maneuver) to hang up the star. It was so big and so tall up that you could see it from the entrance to the neighborhood, which was pretty cool. Even on years we didn't even manage to have a Christmas tree we had that star up.

A couple years ago the lights on the star crapped out, which worked out just fine because the tree is half dead and my dad is probably past a safe tree climbing age, so we don't do that anymore, but it was a really nice, constant tradition while it lasted.
posted by phunniemee at 7:39 AM on December 18, 2015 [3 favorites]

Life size Santa.
posted by ktkt at 7:42 AM on December 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well, there is always the Festivus pole....
posted by Ms Vegetable at 7:45 AM on December 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

spiral indoor tree?
posted by smokyjoe at 7:47 AM on December 18, 2015

upside-down tree?

on preview: upside down spiral tree? might look like someone had just come tunnelling through your ceiling.
posted by andrewcooke at 7:48 AM on December 18, 2015

A short (2' or so) fake tree that you can set on an end table would make things festive. Buy a handful of ornaments and a short string of lights, and the tree is small enough that you can leave the decorations on it when you put it in a box for storage, so you can just pop it out next year and not have to do any real decorating.

A nativity scene is literally the reification of Christmas, but if you're not particularly religious, then it probably wouldn't be appropriate.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:49 AM on December 18, 2015

Christmas tree. You can buy them end-of-season on sale, pre-decorated.
posted by samthemander at 7:53 AM on December 18, 2015

Large light-up reindeer.

Christmassy stars for your table, something smaller for your table, to hang from somewhere, and another to hang.
posted by hydrobatidae at 7:53 AM on December 18, 2015

There actually is a company that sells Festivus poles.
posted by Kriesa at 8:07 AM on December 18, 2015

Response by poster: No offense, but a Christmas tree is probably the worst suggestion....opposite of what I mean, in case that wasn't clear. That's what I've done every year...and the cats eat it. I am thinking something weirder and more non obvious that traditional decorations. And LARGE is my hope. Like, you have to walk around it in the center of the room large.
posted by agregoli at 8:08 AM on December 18, 2015

Best answer: An open weave metal basket that's filled to the brim with as many strands of colored lights as it takes. Set on table, plug in. (Note, it has to be metal and fairly open; those lights, even the small ones, generate a lot of heat.)
posted by bricoleur at 8:10 AM on December 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: (But like, what says WINTER and XMAS SEASON that's not trees and santa? I don't know!)
posted by agregoli at 8:10 AM on December 18, 2015

Christmas wreath on front door, and then inside a bowl of pinecones that the cat investigates and then leaves alone.

Yule log on the tv at all times we're not watching something, and then our christmas tree ornaments hung in the windows (we have a very curious cat who cannot deal with shiny, hanging ornaments in the windows means he gets distracted by the windows) There is also a pile of Christmas tree lights just in a corner plugged in... we gave up on untangling them, and said cat likes to bat at them anyways and then lie on top of them. It's nice ambient light. Also it turns out I really do like Christmas tree lights indoors.

We debated a non traditional Christmas tree of a pile of books but weren't sure how practical that would be for us personally.

In conclusion, Christmas this year in my house is a concession to the cat. we'll probably leave the giant bowl of pinecones and pile of lights in the corner throughout the winter. it's kind of nice. Wreath on door stays on until equinox or the last snow.

my home is on the minimal/clean lines type of things so I can get away with a pile of lights in the corner. This may not work for everyone
posted by larthegreat at 8:16 AM on December 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

INFLATABLE SNOWMAN
Standard
Cute
Come to papa-warning, 20 feet.
posted by SLC Mom at 8:24 AM on December 18, 2015

Best answer: (I'm going suggest another reindeer/deer based on your 'large and awkward' requirement - 5 foot tall one)

Giant 3-D snowflake?
posted by hydrobatidae at 8:26 AM on December 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I've always been a fan of the traditional wooden German pyramid--the propellers spin from the updraft of the candles!--but the ones so large you have to step around are prohibitively expensive.
posted by Soliloquy at 8:28 AM on December 18, 2015 [6 favorites]

Idk, I will forever associate that stupid leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" with Christmas and I think it would be the funniest thing ever if it were the one decoration you put out every year to commemorate the start of the season.
posted by Hermione Granger at 9:28 AM on December 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This probably takes "large enough to step around" all the way to "no room for anything else" but I'm kind of partial to this inflatable Christmas brontosaurus.

posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 9:33 AM on December 18, 2015 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: "Inflatable xmas saurus" is getting closer!!!!
posted by agregoli at 9:55 AM on December 18, 2015

Inflatables fans are noisy, fyi.
posted by cecic at 10:43 AM on December 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Doesn't need to be inflatable. Probably more durable if it isn't.
posted by agregoli at 10:51 AM on December 18, 2015

Best answer: Target sells really cute lightup tinsel figurines that I've been eyeing the last few years. They're not as big as an inflatable, but there is a dinosaur.
posted by galvanized unicorn at 11:26 AM on December 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: How about a nativity scene with giant life sized animals and if its not christmas enough put some santa hats on them with some ugly christmas sweaters or throw wreath around a neck.

or if your crafty hang a bunch of giant christmas ornaments
posted by ljesse at 6:17 PM on December 18, 2015

A few ideas:
Santa's laundry on a Christmas light clothes line
A topiary of presents
A life-size Grinch (this gal made one herself! scroll down for the "in progress" pictures)
On the same line as the topiary of presents - a topiary of fun hats. (Make a topiary of anything! Presents, snowmen, giant ornaments, huge Christmas lights...)
An overgrown gingerbread house (make yours from cardboard so it's reusable year to year)
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 12:20 PM on December 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

My in-laws have a wooden nutcracker guy that's almost six feet tell. Seriously, it takes two men to bring him out every year and put him away later.

They have dozens of small nutcrackers around the living room, but this one big guy definitely rules the room.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:12 PM on November 15, 2016