Christmas fun in the sun

I have written about my love for inflatables before. If you ever want to see me transfixed by something kinda ridiculous, take me to a place where they got inflatable things. I will look at those things forever and ever. I don't know how you can not be jolly if you are looking at an inflatable. The scenes they depict are so joyous and whimsical, and the characters in the scenes are so precious and adorable. Oh man, inflatables are the bright spot in any Christmas shopping extravaganza. Sadly, I don't see as many lawns as I would like sporting inflatables, and my apartment complex has decided to go with "wreaths" as their decorating motif this year. By which I mean they put wreaths on the awning around the main office. But imagine how happy you'd be if you turned into your apartment complex and saw an Inflatable Santa in a sleigh? You'd be so freaking happy to get home!

Anyways, the best place to see the largest assortment of inflatables come Christmas time is a store called Garden Ridge, which is a home decoration mecca that has very few locations. It's truly a gift to have one nearby. Garden Ridge starts putting out their Christmas items around, oh, August. It's the kind of store that devotes about one-quarter of their retail space to seasonal items. They still haven't gotten rid of all their fake pumpkins.

I headed up to Garden Ridge this past weekend to do a little Christmas shopping. Because of the proximity to Christmas, all the decorations were massively on sale, and since all the stuff has been out for months now, it's all a bit picked over and sad looking. If you want to feel like Christmas is truly over before it's even begun, head to a Garden Ridge about now. What used to be like six aisles of crazy hilarious holiday inflatables is down to just one lousy aisle. There was a Winnie the Pooh Christmas inflatable, a Simpsons Christmas inflatable, and the following inflatable, which is today's Picture of the Day:

I guess I can see why no one would want it. It is a bit confusing that the snowman can survive in a tropical climate. And Atlanta is fairly warm in the winter so it's not like you need something to remind you of a temperate climate. And people tend to think Christmas tree more than palm tree this time of year. But still…it's so adorable! Why haven't shoppers lined up en masse to take this delightful and affordably priced item home? If I had room for that inflatable, I would get it and name the snowman Winky and the penguin Martin.