Ok, Happy New Year’s Eve but with all that partying you’ve got planned, we didn’t think you’d have much time to read our humble blog. This morning I was watching KDKA (Hello Jim!) and they flashed up a list of alternative ‘droppings’ for New Year’s Eve. Just as NYC drops the big crystal ball every year (and this year it’s a whopper with all new LEDs and tons more bling), other towns and cities drop other stuff. From what? We probably don’t want to know. Of the ones I particularly remember were an orange (Florida), a car (Carlisle?), a wrench (Mechanicsburg?) and a popcorn ball (ok, can’t remember this one but give me a break it was like 6am). As for SeyrWeyr though, we’re leaving you with one of our Pengys available on a toddler tee with the message Go-go-go boldly into 2009!
If you did your holiday decorations shopping at IKEA (actually they were pretty tame this year) then you’re already aware that the Swedish can come up with some strange stuff. Now for some really out there examples from Scandinavia:
1. These drunk-looking santa dolls from Fulshop (menaing ‘ugly’ design) will dress up your tree (or dress it down, your choise)
2. Moderna Museet shop brings us the inflatable Nana Baby, filed under Christmas decorations but I’m sure other uses come to mind…
3. What’s more festive than pee and poo?? STUFFED pee and poo! From -you guessed it, PEE AND POO. We never knew a nation other than the Japanese could make bodily waste so darned cute…
My husband’s friend Owen from home is promoting a contest on his blog Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot to get an awesome twitter mug. What is a twitter mug, you ask? A lovely coffee mug covered with all your twitter friends on it. What better way to show off your social media skills in the office or at breakfast? All you’ve got to to is either tweet about the contest or blog about it and comment on Owen’s blog with your link. Good luck (but I hope I win it :p ) And don’t forget you can subscribe to SeyrWeyr blog updates on twitter too- just follow seyrweyr.
We’re not into 2009 yet so take advantage of the 20.08% t-shirt sale (2008, get it?) by entering code ZTSHIRTS2008 at checkout until midnight PST 31 December. See you in the new year!
One of my favourite things to do at this time of year is take a run around the block in the evening and look at the decorated houses. I posted earlier about our trip to Oglebay and will be posting about our yearly family TSO event and if you’ve been on the web in the last few years you’ve probably run across the TSO house (we fondly call it) where the lights are synchronised to TSO selections.
Since then it seems all kinds of people are trying to get on that bandwagon (a friend of ours a few blocks over has been trying to perfect his for the last 2 years or so). Because light displays enchant us so much in this time of early darkness, I thought it would be nice to post some worldwide light displays via Travel + Leisure.
And if you’re hunkering to outdo the Joneses this year with your display, check out TechEBlog’s video tutorial on how to jazz up your stuff.
We were going to take a trip to see relatives for my husband’s birthday (not so exciting to him but a road trip for us in our new car) and that got sidetracked so we drove out to Wheeling, WV to check out Oglebay as they’ve been on tv so visibly this year. The big thing with Oglebay is all the lights but we didn’t realise there’s also golf courses, shops and a resort too. Took about an hour from Pittsburgh each way and then another hour sitting in the traffic line for that last mile to actually get in. Paid the $15 donation and got a season-long car tag so we may go back at some point to waste time.
The lights were nice- there were lots of animations and Oglebay is currently in the middle of converting all their displays to LEDs by 2010 so we’ll see how that goes. Particularly nice was the Garden of Light- tons of little flowers and trees in a garden surrounding the Mansion Museum and a really well-done greenhouse shop. Particularly strange was the cardinal animation just as you come into the park- nothing more Christmassy than a cardinal mother vomiting stuff up to her peeps, chicks, whatever they are in the nest. Yes, I said vomiting little LEDS down to their outstretched beaks. Less gross but still curious were the dragons.
I realise this may be a bit late but know plenty of people who leave it to today to get that Christmas shopping done. No dear readers, this is not a shop update post where we’re giving you 100% off your order, we’re saying, just don’t buy. Economy aside, when I married a non-American 5 years ago it didn’t take very long for me to start seeing my own country as being extremely materialistic. And let’s not even get into the wal-mart stampedes around this time of year. Really?Really? It’s also not escaped my attention the snake-like, subtle influence this buy-buy-buy society has been having on my dear husband who used to keep it all in perspective. A trip overseas was exactly what I needed to realise that those presents under the tree don’t mean jack if you don’t have enough for food next week.
So, Inhabitat comes at us with BuyNothingChristmas.org which reminds us that there’s a spirit of Christmas and it has nothing to do with xBox (and I have an old one so I understand the gimmes). Christmas can be stressful- leave off some of it by staying out of the stores and away from those ridiculous lines that’ll leave you spitting. The United Kingdom has given this some thought too- BuyNothingUK happened on 28th November and its website statement ‘It’s a day where you challenge yourself to switch off from shopping and tune into life’ is a sad testament to our world today.
Don’t get us wrong- we run a business and want your patronage. But we’re pretty much against situations where, like an article on msn today, you’re looking for ways to finance your Christmas (btw, this was a good article, point still being- consumerism). This year try half the gifts and a little more time, peace, love and connection. Trust us, you’ll get more than you asked for.
I say clean, I mean- well, if you’re not familiar with panto you’re probably not missing it. Not that I have a problem with it but as an American all grown up on Bass & Rankin acid-inspired holiday specials and nativity scenes, I’m just not so sure what a production featuring a man dressed up as Dorothy and our cousin in an electric green Sir Elton John getup (the Wizard? dunno) has to do with the birth of Jesus Christ. Oh yes, helloCousin Wayne!
I’m only including panto on this because it’s a treasured tradition in the UK side of the family (yes, I am a panto heathen) and looky-look, our Cousin Wayne in Ireland has shown up on Facebook in the Wizard of Oz. Luckily he’s too far away from me right now to do much about this but I’ll use him as an intro to our US readers to the curious art of panto- short for pantomime (there’s always a few on Youtube if you’re curious).
From what I get of it from my family, panto started as political farces portrayed in ye old days for the public. It’s grown to include those holiday-themed favourites like the Wiz, Aladdin and Cinderella and features lots of audience participation, some bawdy humour and thematic characters in each one (you know, like the guy always dressed up as some little girl). For a much more historically accurate portrayal of this tradition, look here.
The main symbol of Chanukah, the menorah gets the spotlight on Rubell’s Antiques blog, featuring some great vintage menorahs designed by Ludwig Wolpert in a very art-deco style. Jew Wishes blog has a simple, clear explanation of the significance of the menorah for non-jews as well as some lovely imagery. And for a fresh perspective on celebrating Chanukah and Christmas in the American concience, see Conservative Liberal’s blogpost.
