Snowman Christmas Decorations in Phoenix

Monday, December 22, 2008 by Dana.

It is a few days before Christmas, and nearly every home has some sort of outdoor lights and decorations to display.  Every neighborhood has their Clark Griswold ensuring their house is visible from outer space, and there are a few Scrooges out there as well.  I like the festive lights, but I have never really enjoyed putting them up myself.  I usually put up enough lights to show that I am not a Scrooge, but only because my wife puts them up and makes me help her.

Yes, we do get snow in Arizona.  It is mostly in the northern part of the state where the elevation is much higher.  For example, the city of Flagstaff is at 7000 feet (higher than the Mile High City I might add), and the ski resort lodge is at 9000 feet.  On the other hand, Phoenix is at about 1100 feet, and is in a desert.  While an unusual dusting of snow might be seen on the north side of town, there is no snow for play.  The most popular winter sports in Phoenix are soccer and baseball, because nobody wants to play them between mid-June and mid-August when it is over 110 degrees every day.

With this extreme lack of snow, what is the purpose of putting up a giant inflatable snowman in your yard?   Is a snowman symbolic of Christmas in some way?  I know that Frosty was magical, but was it the same magic that we associate with Santa Claus?  Do we so all the snowman decorations because a large portion of the people in Phoenix have relocated here from some place colder, and they felt the need to keep their snowman decorations or give the illusion of snow?

I personally don’t get it.  I think we should send our snowman displays north.  While we are at it, we should pack up the lighted wire frame reindeer and penguins as well.  Instead we should put up decorations of Santa arriving on an all-terrain vehicle, and we display lighted gila monsters, rattlesnakes, and scorpions  What do you think?

Posted in Holidays, Suburbia | Print | No Comments »