"He puzzled three hours till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! 'Maybe Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!'"
Merry Christmas.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Fah who for-aze! Dah who dor-aze!
Having dedicated this blog to documenting a bit of the commercial hubbub around the Christmas season, it seems appropriate to welcome the actual holiday this year with a few words from Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" -- the 1966 TV version of which we watched this very afternoon with our nephews....
Merry Christmas.
"He puzzled three hours till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! 'Maybe Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!'"
Merry Christmas.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Lights, Camera. . .
Speaking of extreme holiday makeovers, washingtonpost.com's Whitney Shefte fast-forwards through one Sterling, Va., couple's four-hour decorating spree in a minute and a half.
An Expanding Market: Inflatable Holiday Decorations
Sales of bigger-than-life inflatable Christmas decorations are growing.... and growing, and growing. A Dec. 20 Wall Street Journal article on "over-the-top" holiday lawn displays noted that inflatables were the fastest-growing category of seasonal decorations, with $500 million in sales last year. The Journal said that was up from $100 million in 2003, based on data from market researchers Mintel International.
One major contributor to the inflatable outdoor decoration industry is Charles "Chick" Beaulieu, the owner of a Fairfax, Va., Shell station whose holiday displays we wrote about back before Thanksgiving. The Motley Yule praised Chick then for actually decorating for Thanksgiving when many other business were already decking the halls for a different holiday.
But that does not mean that Chick does not go all out for Christmas too, as he has for 21 years. These two images will give you some idea of what Chick has in store for drivers passing his gas station at Route 50 and Jermantown Road these days....
Last week's Wall Street Journal story mentioned that the increasing popularity of inflatable decorations like these has inspired a wave of vandalism and thievery. Indeed newspaper crime reports across the country seem to be filled with items about such crimes -- from Wichita Falls, Texas, to Queen Creek, Ariz., to Colerain Township, Ohio, to Forest Acres, Wis.
Unpopular as these decorations are with some, columnist Robert Paul Reyes may be alone in thinking that "going medieval" on a big inflatable Frosty the Snowman is understandable, if not justifiable. But Reyes makes his bias on the subject perfectly clear in the kicker of his column. "Merry Christmas to all my readers," he writes, "except those with inflatable decorations."
One major contributor to the inflatable outdoor decoration industry is Charles "Chick" Beaulieu, the owner of a Fairfax, Va., Shell station whose holiday displays we wrote about back before Thanksgiving. The Motley Yule praised Chick then for actually decorating for Thanksgiving when many other business were already decking the halls for a different holiday.
But that does not mean that Chick does not go all out for Christmas too, as he has for 21 years. These two images will give you some idea of what Chick has in store for drivers passing his gas station at Route 50 and Jermantown Road these days....
Last week's Wall Street Journal story mentioned that the increasing popularity of inflatable decorations like these has inspired a wave of vandalism and thievery. Indeed newspaper crime reports across the country seem to be filled with items about such crimes -- from Wichita Falls, Texas, to Queen Creek, Ariz., to Colerain Township, Ohio, to Forest Acres, Wis.
Unpopular as these decorations are with some, columnist Robert Paul Reyes may be alone in thinking that "going medieval" on a big inflatable Frosty the Snowman is understandable, if not justifiable. But Reyes makes his bias on the subject perfectly clear in the kicker of his column. "Merry Christmas to all my readers," he writes, "except those with inflatable decorations."
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Toys for Spots
Christine talked me out of buying gingerbread men-shaped dog treats for Belle, my sister-in-law's puppy. Chris just doesn't get into the whole gift-giving thing for pets. But now that one of our favorite cat-sitters dropped off a new kitty toy, carefully wrapped in shiny red paper with a card signed by "Auntie Clarissa," I'm feeling guilty about having not picked up something for the poor poochie. Not anything like the items in the photo here, heaven knows. But something.
Apparently I'm not the only one who has such feelings. A story in Saturday's Washington Post took an in-depth look at the business of holiday gifts for pets. "Responding to what they see as the growing humanization of pets, retailers are finding that there's great appeal in the kinds of gifts for pets that were once the sole domain of their owners, such as Christmas stockings, cashmere sweaters and educational toys," wrote staff writer Ylan Q. Mui.
The Post story cited a consumer survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, which found that about half of all dog and cat owners buy Christmas gifts for their beloved critters. Bob Vetere, the association's president, told the newspaper that empty nesters and dual-income couples with no children have driven most of the growth in spending on pet products, including holiday presents.
More from APPMA's summary of its 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey:
"The Survey shows more than one-half of all pet owners report having purchased a gift for their pets in the past 12 months, with Christmas remaining as the most popular gift giving holiday. Pet owners also shell out the big bucks on Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Hanukkah. According to The Survey, dog owners are likely to buy up to seven gifts per year, as owners of other pets purchase about four gifts per year. Regardless of species, on average more than $10 is spent on each gift."
For the record, Santa will not neglect our little puppy-in-law on Tuesday morning. Christine's sister bought Belle a new rope toy for Christmas. Meanwhile, I've found a recipe for homemade gingerbread dog treats. And I'm sure Belle would think a homemade present was more meaningful than a store-bought gift anyway.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
'The Charlie Browniest'
As Lucy Van Pelt famously told Charlie Brown, "We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It's run by a big eastern syndicate, you know."
Well, it turns out that syndicate actually might be on the other coast, in Burbank. The Disney-ABC Television Group there currently has the broadcast rights to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" -- the beloved TV special that first aired on CBS 42 years ago tonight. And after all this time, the special continues to do big business.
A brief in the Dec. 10 Business Week (2nd item) notes that the 2006 broadcast on ABC drew 21 million viewers and $8.7 million in advertising -- or a primo $218,000 for a 30-second spot.
Business Week also points out that the soundtrack with Vince Guaraldi's music for the special has sold 2 million-plus copies. That should please the program's creators, given how little CBS liked the music when the program was first produced, as recounted in a NPR story last year (streaming audio linked top left).
Fun fact: At one point Linus is seen knocking over a can with his blanket. In the original broadcast, this was a can of Coca-Cola, the program's original sponsor. There also was a Coke sign in the skating rink, but those references were edited out in subsequent versions to make room for more traditional advertising.
Dreaming of a Green Christmas
Holiday marketers are seeing lots of green in the green movement this year, and LED Christmas lights seem to be the environmentally friendly technology that's getting the most attention. Perhaps you've seen one of the oodles of articles on these products -- a great many of which seem to rely on those who sell these lights for details on their specific environmental and economic benefits.
So are light-emitting diodes as good as advertised?
Consumer Reports recently ran tests to determine how much it would cost to light 50-foot strings of LEDs for 300 hours. A summary of Consumer Reports' findings backs up many of the marketing claims on energy efficiency, as well as durability (LEDs last longer and are less prone to break) and safety (they are much cooler than incandescent bulbs and therefore are less of a fire hazard).
But the publication also notes that the price difference between LEDs and incandescents dims some marketers' claims about the bulbs "paying for themselves." And there are significant variations among the different sizes of LEDs that consumers also should know about.
The three sizes of LEDs that Consumer Reports tested -- mini, C7, and C9 -- used 1 to 3 kilowatt hours of energy, compared with 12 to 105 kWh for incandescents. The magazine estimated that would save somewhere between $1 to $11. That's quite a range. And LED strings still cost more. The C7 and C9 strings tested were shorter than incandescent strings with the same number of bulbs, so it took three strings instead of two to make a 50-foot wrap -- another added cost.
Another marketing claim -- that LEDs are now more competitive with incandescents on brightness -- didn't hold up entirely is Consumer Reports tests. The minis were in fact slightly brighter than incandescent bulbs of the same size, but the C9 and C7 incandescents were still five to six times brighter than the LEDs.
Given all of Consumer Reports' findings, it makes sense who the LEDs are mostly being marketed to: Green consumers who can justify a conservation measure that potentially promotes peace on earth and good will to men, even without an immediate return on investment economically speaking.
"By and large, our customers tend to be middle-class with some disposable income and environmentally minded," said Mike O'Connor, co-founder of Jackson, Mich.-based HolidayLEDS in an interview with the Detroit Free Press.
O'Connor also talked about the publicity his company reaped by challenging Michigan's budget-strapped state government to save money by using LEDs in it holiday displays. No reply yet from the state, but many other institutions that erect large public holiday displays have greened up this year by making the switch to LEDs. For the first time, the two most iconic U.S.holiday trees, the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse just south of the White House, and one at New York's Rockefeller Center, are both wrapped in the new fangled bulbs.
Even some less notable large Christmas displays have made the switch. All 41,000 bulbs are LEDs this year at a Fort Lauderdale-area house that uses intricate if not extravagant holiday lights as an annual church fund-raiser -- with the whole display carefully synchronized to seasonal holiday music, such as "Carol of the Bells" and the FOX NFL theme music.....
LEDs also are basking in the warm glow of endorsements from groups such as Environmental Defense, the Alliance to Save Energy and the EnergyIdeas Clearinghouse. So even if these diodes don't live up to all of their buzz, they are a genuinely green technology.
For the record: We've decided to burn through our old incandescent strings before making the switch to LEDs, making sure we get the most out of them before sending them off to the landfill. But we have put our lights on a timer to automatically turn them off at sunrise -- another frequently recommended conservation measure.
So are light-emitting diodes as good as advertised?
Consumer Reports recently ran tests to determine how much it would cost to light 50-foot strings of LEDs for 300 hours. A summary of Consumer Reports' findings backs up many of the marketing claims on energy efficiency, as well as durability (LEDs last longer and are less prone to break) and safety (they are much cooler than incandescent bulbs and therefore are less of a fire hazard).
But the publication also notes that the price difference between LEDs and incandescents dims some marketers' claims about the bulbs "paying for themselves." And there are significant variations among the different sizes of LEDs that consumers also should know about.
The three sizes of LEDs that Consumer Reports tested -- mini, C7, and C9 -- used 1 to 3 kilowatt hours of energy, compared with 12 to 105 kWh for incandescents. The magazine estimated that would save somewhere between $1 to $11. That's quite a range. And LED strings still cost more. The C7 and C9 strings tested were shorter than incandescent strings with the same number of bulbs, so it took three strings instead of two to make a 50-foot wrap -- another added cost.
Another marketing claim -- that LEDs are now more competitive with incandescents on brightness -- didn't hold up entirely is Consumer Reports tests. The minis were in fact slightly brighter than incandescent bulbs of the same size, but the C9 and C7 incandescents were still five to six times brighter than the LEDs.
Given all of Consumer Reports' findings, it makes sense who the LEDs are mostly being marketed to: Green consumers who can justify a conservation measure that potentially promotes peace on earth and good will to men, even without an immediate return on investment economically speaking.
"By and large, our customers tend to be middle-class with some disposable income and environmentally minded," said Mike O'Connor, co-founder of Jackson, Mich.-based HolidayLEDS in an interview with the Detroit Free Press.
O'Connor also talked about the publicity his company reaped by challenging Michigan's budget-strapped state government to save money by using LEDs in it holiday displays. No reply yet from the state, but many other institutions that erect large public holiday displays have greened up this year by making the switch to LEDs. For the first time, the two most iconic U.S.holiday trees, the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse just south of the White House, and one at New York's Rockefeller Center, are both wrapped in the new fangled bulbs.
Even some less notable large Christmas displays have made the switch. All 41,000 bulbs are LEDs this year at a Fort Lauderdale-area house that uses intricate if not extravagant holiday lights as an annual church fund-raiser -- with the whole display carefully synchronized to seasonal holiday music, such as "Carol of the Bells" and the FOX NFL theme music.....
LEDs also are basking in the warm glow of endorsements from groups such as Environmental Defense, the Alliance to Save Energy and the EnergyIdeas Clearinghouse. So even if these diodes don't live up to all of their buzz, they are a genuinely green technology.
For the record: We've decided to burn through our old incandescent strings before making the switch to LEDs, making sure we get the most out of them before sending them off to the landfill. But we have put our lights on a timer to automatically turn them off at sunrise -- another frequently recommended conservation measure.
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