My Year in Review: Lawn Decor

Everybody is doing it – reviewing 2025 as if it wasn’t our annus horribilis with three more horribilises to come. I noticed that the music and film journalists said that 2025 was just an okay year, not stellar. An understatement. Okay, I can pretend to be normal.

However, I do agree with the experts that it was just okay for Lawn Decor.

For a number of years, especially during the pandemic, lawn embellishments were on a sharp upswing with audacious designs, balloons and lights. I saw arches of balloons, mammoth snowmen, and life-sized creches populated with creatures not present when Joseph and Mary were VRBO searching. Houses went all out – they were lit up to definitively prove to other galaxies that there is life on earth and to announce that we are a planet of primary colors.

This year, everything seemed to be toned down. Maybe it wasn’t toned down and, compared to the real world, a six foot blown up Snoopy sitting on a dog house just seems sedate. Maybe people don’t have the money to electrify their homes in neon. I don’t know, but I was disappointed. My urging: You can’t do garish every day unless you live in the White House, so listen up folks, get decorative when it is socially acceptable.

What would my ideal collection of holiday yards look like? I'm glad you asked. In these times, I’d go historically accurate. Keeping with the real world themes, Jews could do giant balloons (life size statues are so heavy) of the twelve tribes wandering in the desert/front lawn, or the Maccabees fighting the Seleucid Empire. Christians also have plenty of violence to celebrate in the front yard. My absolute favorite would be restaging The Crusades, although I realize it would require cooperation with several neighborly lawns, but…. let’s admit it, the sight would be spectacular in blinking, movable, colored lights and a sound track from some Mel Gibson movie. The aliens on Mars would love it and visit New Mexico more often.

It didn’t happen this year. Maybe folks were afraid that ICE would raid their yard and confiscate their decorations that celebrated special immigrant groups, but that anticipation is what separates us from the Danes and all the others who rank high on contentment, ease, and security. We stay anxious.

not like the old days

That's it for 2025. If it all continues much longer, I may need to learn to drink. But for now, my friend Maddy and I wish you a very healthy, happy new year and, we know it is a big ask, but what about a little peace on earth?