This is perhaps the oldest of all my holiday decorations ... my prized, oh so ancient, and wonderfully kitschy ... Santa in a Rickshaw!!Yes, this is a bi-cultural sort of artifact that my mother bought me at a Woolworth's in Clarinda, IA, when I was about 4 or 5 years old ...
I, of course, didn't get the rickshaw thing at that age, but my sister has always found this particular piece amusing ... You'll note that not only is Santa riding in a rickshaw, he is also being drawn by a mere six reindeer! What happened to the other two is something only China will ever know.
For me, this is another of those wtf were they thinking? kind of decorations ... the odd melding of West and East, confounding our usual expectations ... like the previously posted Snoopy, this is one of those items I look forward to unearthing every year when we get the holiday stuff out ... it takes me back a long way, and always makes me smile when I see it again. Santa may have survived some hard times and many years since we first met, but they've been interesting ones.
All of which to say ... if I could only keep one of my prized holiday kitsch-objets, this would be the one.
Let me know what you think ...
3 comments:
LOL IVG ... that is hilarious! You have the most interesting christmas decorations ... I can say I have never seen Santa in a rickshaw, with 6 reindeer to boot. :)
Amazing what value we can ascribe to certain objects due to their oddness, isn't it? For me, it just wouldn't be Christmas time if I didn't have this Santa out somewhere in the house ... back when all I had was a very small tabletop artificial tree, I put this guy near the top, riding to the summit of the tree ... now he gets his own space for display...
Ooh ... I love the idea of placing it on the tree!
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