Inflatable Snow Globes Are a Big Hit This Season

Inflatable News

Inflatable Snow Globes Are a Big Hit This Season

It's probably not recommended to pick up one of these and give it a shake. At 6 feet in circumference, you'd probably fall over trying to jostle the latest in outdoor holiday kitsch.

Inflatable snow globes that sit on the lawn with a storm of foam balls blowing around Frosty and his pals are everywhere this season.

Confirming the trend, Nathan Owens, manager of the Wal-Mart in Winter Haven, says the globes, which cost about $100, sell out within days of new shipments.

And Don Harrison, a representative for the southern division of Home Depot in Atlanta, says the globes, which plug into an electrical socket and blow up from a fan underneath, have almost disappeared from stores in his region.

The ease of the display and the cartoonish fun is too good to resist for admirers of the globes, but others feel the enormous plastic bubbles are goofy at best, eyesores at worst.

"I don't have an inflatable lawn decoration, and I won't ever have one!" says Joy Smith of Lakeland. "I really think they are ugly -- inflated or deflated and lying on the lawn for days."

She prefers other decorations, such as spiral Christmas trees and strings of lights -- including colored hanging balls and the lighted reindeer that seem to move. "I even like the gator on the roof on North 98."

Bah, humbug, says Sonya Dodds of Lakeland, a fan of inflatables.

"My 5-year-old daughter is a collector of Christmas snow globes in general, and so this was really perfect. We had hoped the globe would cut down on the number of other decorations needed to be placed out in the yard," she says.

Lauren Hemedinger of Auburndale agrees.

"The lawn figures are fantastic -- everyone tells you how nice they look," she says. "For the cost, they are good quality, and the fact that they fold back into a small package for storage is wonderful."

Others hold firm by saying that the quality of the home holiday display is proportional to the effort put into it.

"I think inflatable lawn decorations are a cop-out, unless they're tasteful and part of a larger theme," says Dirk Valk of Lakeland, who likes a ton of wattage in his displays, much like the National Lampoon character Clark Griswold from the 1989 movie "Christmas Vacation."

"Every year I spend a good solid day stringing about 5,000 lights around my eaves, fences and trees in time-honored Griswold fashion."

Critics aside, inflatables aren't a passing trend if they have already spawned collectors clubs such as www.christmas-inflatables.cn. Members of the Internet-based club discuss their favorite characters or snow globe themes and enter contests for the best displays.

By forfeiting risk of life and limb by putting up lights for the no-brainer of plugging a plastic snow globe in the front yard, enthusiasts say inflatables are conducive to enjoying other festivities of the season that don't require as much exertion.

With that philosophy in mind, inflatable Christmas trees are probably next -- oh wait -- they already exist: Plastic candy cane anyone?

Scarlett Tan can be reached at 86-20-38864115 or aoqigz@gmail.com.

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