Little Baby Jesus Bar and Grills

[jpskewedthrone]

It's that time of year again, where homeowners begin to decorate their houses with tons of light displays and other holiday tchotchkas. Some are restrained and subtle. Others . . . are not. These others are fondly referred to as "Little Baby Jesus Bar and Grills" in these parts. The past few years, I've posted some pictures of some of these houses on my LJ so that others could enjoy them as well as those in our local area. This year, I thought I'd invite all of YOU to post pictures here in the comments of your regions best "Little Baby Jesus Bar and Grills," those houses that are just too over the top with the decorations, the ones that blind you as you drive down the street.

Show me the best that you got!

Comments

[naomikritzer]

Sadly, I never took a picture of the Jesus House.

About eight years ago, we had a neighbor maybe six blocks away who put up this kind of stunning display every December. In addition to a light-up cross on the roof, there was a life-sized (though not lifelike; everything was painted in gold-tone paint) Nativity scene in the front yard arranged around the centerpiece, which was a projection-screen TV set on which they played Christian cartoons. Not about the birth of Jesus, mind you; we would go out of our way to walk by this monstrosity solely for the purpose of gawking and I remember a cartoon animation of Noah's Ark, a cartoon animation of Daniel, and I think we might have seen Samson (which is even funnier because that's one of the most thoroughly not-G-rated-in-the-original stories in the Bible).

The icing on the cake was the hurricane fencing around the yard with big NO TRESPASSING signs posted every ten feet or so.

I can't even begin to imagine what their neighbors thought of them. They moved after about three years of this.

There's a guy near the Highland library in St. Paul who last year did a display that included Santa riding on a zip line. I will be over there at 3:40 today and I'll see if he's got that up this year...

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

That reminds me, I need to check and see if the neighbor down the street has his display up yet. The Three Wise Men are apparently Santa, Frosty, and Charlie Brown.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Wait, does your icon actually say, "If fire then flee, else bacon"?

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does. If the building is on fire and you don't leave, you will become a crispy critter. I was having one of those days.

Feel free to wander away with it if you like, just please give credit (people who made it are credited in my profile).

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

So have you checked? Did you take photos?

[misunderstruck.livejournal.com]

It's not my neighborhood, but the Dyker Heights part of Brooklyn is known for its epic Christmas light displays. I can't remember what I did with the photos I took down there a couple years ago, but there's an okay gallery here (http://gonyc.about.com/od/christmassights/ig/Dyker-Heights-Christmas-Lights/dyker_heights01-jpg.htm), complete with a picture of the 1.5 story tall statue that is equal parts Santa and Satan:



(Edited because of html failure and spelling)

[kerinda.livejournal.com]

That is horrifying.

[misunderstruck.livejournal.com]

It's even more so in person.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I agree. That's pretty bad. Off to check out the gallery. Thanks for posting!

[teslanomaly]

Wow. If my parents had taken me to that house as a small child, I would have run screaming.

[kmarkhoover.livejournal.com]

There is one house down the block that literally turns into an amusement park complete with music. It's really garish.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

We need a photo!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I don't have a picture of it, but the funeral home that has the giant manger scene on their front porch always startles me.

[djkc.livejournal.com]

Which one/where is that? I might have to go look.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

There one I'm thinking of is on Main Street in Endicott, near Vestal Ave and the K-Mart plaza. It's on the north side of Main Street.

Most funeral homes around here do some sort of decoration for Christmas, which I've always found to be odd.

[djkc.livejournal.com]

I know exactly where that is. I'll have to give it a look.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yes, but not everyone can easily go to Endicott to check it out. Where's the photo?!?

[teslanomaly]

Pahahahahaha. I am hereby adopting "Little Baby Jesus Bar and Grill," which is the best description of these electrical grid black holes centers of overwhelming Christmas spirit I have ever, ever heard.

Pictures will be forthcoming. Beware the can of worms you have opened: I live in Mississippi.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting. . . . *grin*

[teslanomaly]

Sorry this took a while! The place I had in mind is a family that owns a three-acre yard which is filled every year with Christmas lights, a spotlighted nativity scene, and illuminated inflatable figures. Alas, for the first time in five years they appear NOT to have put up this cornucopia of holiday cheer.

Oh, Mississippi, I thought. How you have let me down! But then as my consolation prize, I found this gem:



The angle's a little wonky because the large American flag crosses the front hill of the yard, but the real flagpole behind the illuminated cross gives an accurate sense of scale.

If these are their Christmas decorations, I wonder what they put up for the Fourth of July?

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Um . . . this is supposed to be Christmas decorations?

[rosinavs.livejournal.com]

I need to deliberately go back to my old neighborhood and drive past the two "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" houses next door to each other with Christmas lights everywhere. And yes, they are MBFGW houses, complete with fountains and statues of Greek gods out front.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

We need proof! We demand photos!

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

What I don't get... is that here in the UK there are a few who light up their houses and gardens like Blackpool Illuminations, but they all take the stuff down again before Twelfth Night. I've been to the US in February and some folks still have all their godwottery[*] shining out like Las Vegas.

[*] godwottery = anything which makes you say 'God! What's that?'the first time you see it.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in our house, the tree goes up a few days before Christmas and comes down on New Years Day. None of this "lights still up in February" garbage. It's embarrassing.

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

While I'm not nearly as gaudy as some, I'm usually the biggest display in my town. Although this year I haven't been able to put anything out in the yard (way too much going on to have the time, takes a whole day to rig everything up). I expect to get calls from neighbors asking if we're okay sometime soon.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Well, we should still see some photos of what you've got this year, even if it doesn't qualify for "Little Baby Jesus Bar and Grill" status.