Maybe it’s part of the same phenomenon where it’s getting nearly impossible to find a car that’s not painted a neutral color, but I’ve noticed that in recent years it’s also getting harder to find cars that are decorated for the end-of-year holidays. As we’re right now about a week out from Christmas and right at the first day of Hanukkah (2022), wondering about the prevalence of holiday-decorated vehicles is moving close to the top of the heap of flotsam and jetsam that constitutes my mind. What to do? Naturally the answer to that question was to go for a drive to see what I could find.
In my research expedition, I first encountered someone who had driven all the way across the country in their decorated car.
Maybe the relocation from sunny San Diego – which is where Pacific Honda seems to be – to dreary, gray, New England motivated this Honda owner to want to brighten up their ride with the ever-cheery reindeer antlers and nose.
It used to be that I couldn’t go anywhere this time of year without seeing those things poking up like national flags on the front fenders of some head of state’s car, or like the equally prevalent football team flags flapping from windows on the day of “da game” (I don’t see many of those anymore either). Actually, I am under the impression that a set of plush reindeer antlers used to be almost mandatory on cars during the month of December. Well, perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, and for sure I used to spend more time sitting in the elementary school pickup line…where whimsical car decorations were a common and sure-fire way of exciting small children.
Exciting them to heights of seasonal glee, or alternatively, scaring the crap out of them if they are tarandophobic; which if it is a real thing must be yet another item on the very long list of reasons why it’s difficult to live in Lapland (the northernmost region of Finland and home to about 10% more reindeer than people).
A fun fact for this morning is that Lapland’s tourism motto is “Above Ordinary”. I’ll just note that to me this seems a little passive aggressive for the state that is to the north of the rest of its country. Gee, I wonder what they REALLY think about their not-quite-as-reindeer-endowed neighbors in the rest of Finland? It would be kind of like if North Carolina got really snarky and changed its motto from “Esse quam videri” to “The Superior Carolina”; which come to think of it is maybe what they actually were getting at with that “to be rather than to seem” thing. Except fortunately for the folks in Raleigh, maybe no one in South Carolina knew Latin at the time.
Yes, pre-dating my current status as a Bay Stater – that is, resident of a state which has its own totally crappy motto: Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem (By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty) – I am a Tar Heel by birth and recipient of many years of mandatory North Carolina history in elementary school and Junior High. So there. Quite a few formative years were spent in The Superior Carolina (if you say it often enough, it just might stick) and back then there were LOTS of decorated cars during the Christmas season…which is what we called it back then. Maybe that’s where those ideas about the supposed prevalence of decorated cars come from.
So, after driving around for half a day – covering parts of two states – specifically looking for seasonally-decorated vehicles in service of this CC article, I had only encountered two antler-endowed vehicles, the first of which is our lead photo of the car from San Diego. The second, this BMW X1, didn’t even have the red-Rudolf-nose. Therefore, for all I know they were honoring some entirely different hoofed animal activity that had nothing to do with the holidays. Or maybe this is the staff car from the Boston Finnish Consulate (one of 31 in the U.S.). The Lapland of My Imagination has every vehicle sporting reindeer antlers 365 days a year. They’re issued by the local government, right? Yes, the Lapland of My Imagination, due to my 4th – 6th grade social studies exclusive focus on North Carolina history/geography/culture, my young mind absorbed A LOT about North Carolina to the unfortunate exclusion of knowledge about much of the rest of the world. Finland? Who knows? But ask me about New Bern or Gastonia and we can have a REAL conversation.
Anyhow, these are the sorts of thoughts and questions one has when encountering a car that is only half-dressed for Christmas. Gotta have the red nose.
OK, in full disclosure, I was also devoting a morning to driving around so that I could shake out and experience the rear suspension refresh I did on my car, having finally this week lined up the resources, parts (junkyard!!), and assistance to pull this thing (below) off of my car and replace it with something minty fresh and decidedly rust-free.
Yes, something else we in New England don’t share with San Diego, or maybe Finland…that is, roads so heavily salted from November through April that dogs don’t want to/can’t walk down the street and where giant honking pieces of metal literally disintegrate and threaten to allow your rear wheels to travel a different direction than the other 85% of your vehicle. In the Lapland of My Imagination, people either just know how to drive their permanently fuzzy-antler-endowed cars in snow and therefore don’t need salted roads…or they just stay at home, stack firewood, and ruminate (of course they do!) on exactly why they are “Above Ordinary”. For like 10 months out of the year.
Anyway, a new rear sub frame constitutes my Christmas present to myself and for what it’s worth, the car rides great now. It’s also good to know that I probably have another 10 years before this new used sub frame also turns to dust. And as for my on-the-road research project (someday I’ll need to write a CC article about that), I really do think I’m on to something about noting a decline in holiday-decorated vehicles.
I honestly wish I’d seen more over the top cars with antlers, lights, or jingle bell horns. Then again, I have heard – and read from some CC commenters in relation to Paul’s post about a Eugene-decorated truck several years ago – that colored holiday lights are generally frowned upon by law enforcement. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t seen such-decorated cars in the past and that I do not miss them now.
Fortunately, it’s not altogether impossible to find any kind of festive lighting on a car. On my research drive, the other car I found with a wreath may have been rocking the Pep Boys light up wreath (an amazing bargain at under $3!). I think that wire running into the engine compartment goes to the battery pack for the thing. If so, I applaud the owner.
Manny, Jack, and Moe approve too. Well, at least Jack does.
To me, Jack always seemed to be the trio’s leader and the most sensible one. Moe, on the other hand, impresses me as kind of shifty — like he’s just waiting for a better offer before he’s outta there. I can tell that he’s thinking about hitting up that Scheib guy for a job, because there’s gold to be made in hawking those $29.95 $49.95 paint jobs. The more I look at Moe, the less sincere he seems.
I doubt his motives.
As for Manny…well at least on my desk, Manny is having some difficulties what with the cataracts and that unfortunate incident with his right hand and the tire. So just trust Jack. He’s clearly a solid dude. The kind of guy who would sell a battery-operated Christmas wreath for $2.90. Because obviously that’s obviously what they’re worth.
So back to the cars — Have I said that yet? Seems like I should have. — that’s what I turned up after a whole morning of driving during the Holiday Season. 4 decorated vehicles, and one of them (arguably) may not even be promoting holiday spirit so much as perhaps a connection to a certain Finnish state bucking for attention or some pagan festival focusing on ruminants.
Since the aforementioned cars were the only decorated vehicles that I managed to capture, and none related to anything other than Christmas, I figured that I should get busy and figure out if the marketplace catered to any of the other popular December holidays.
In that regard, it’s good to know that should you be inclined, you could ask your smart speaker to order you up a 2′ car-top menorah! What you would get seems to be a sturdy contraption that fastens to your car with suction cups, bars, and straps (much like the old-fashioned car top carrier that my dad made in 1968). Furthermore, this is no static or parade-speed-only display. The ad clearly states that it’s been tested at speeds up to 75mph. THAT’S something I want to see!
Kwanza car decorations sadly seem to be a bit limited, at least around me. Maybe commenters can enlighten us on what they see in their areas. All I was able to find online were these rather striking seat covers that feature produce and candles. They seem to make a somewhat low-key (non-showy) statement that frankly could be suitable at nearly any time of year. In fact, I may want a set of these for the ’76 Volvo once it wears out its second set of seat covers in about another 50,000 miles. At 350,000 miles, I think that if the car wants seat covers with vegetables…when then it shall have seat covers with vegetables. Maybe I should order them now as an early Kwanza 2025 present.
Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza…that brings us to Festivus, the holiday that I would gladly default to as it is indeed the Festivus for the rest of us. The following clip is totally pointless to Seinfeld fans as they likely have it memorized, and totally avoidable to those who cannot for some reason stand Seinfeld. But maybe we’ll experience a Festivus Miracle and those folks will come around and appreciate the TV show that gave us George’s Jon Voight’s LeBaron.
As any good student of 1990s television knows, the critical Festivus decoration is the Festivus Pole. Internet research shows that this is covered as a vehicular decoration.
It appears that in most cases, vehicular adornments for Festivus include one vehicle carrying the Festivus Pole…
While following vehicles perform the Feats of Strength.
In the end, maybe a bumper sticker will do, although this seems like a pretty low-fi way of decorating for the holidays…even if it’s in keeping with the prevalent modern sensibilities for understated vehicular presence. At least that’s how it seems in my neck of the woods. Or maybe in this age where social media seems to be the necessary driver for all activities, what we need are more “influencers” who take an interest in holiday car decoration and who can inspire the creation of an online event such as “Fuzzy Antlers Monday” (which should fit in somewhere among other popular commercial fabrications such as Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, and Small Business Saturday). This of course would require some commercial interest to lubricate those influencers.
I wonder where Manny, Jack and Moe stand in terms of influencer culture.
Happy Holidays – whichever ones you choose to celebrate – to the CC community. Here’s wishing you festivities, reflections, and many and frequent Airing of the Grievances in the year to come.
And Happy Holidays to you, too. Congratulations on the subframe. That’s a big job, especially considering the propensity for subframe bolts to rust and break.
The old one looks completely dry, though. An annual spraying of rustproof grease would go a long way to fending off rust. I’m surprised here in Ontario how few people do this, then lose their vehicle to rust. Everything else is great but a crumbling structure takes these cars off the road.
My winter beaters are ugly greaseballs underneath, which greatly slows the rust progression.
That oil coating stuff is great, and I’ve routinely done it about every other year on our Highlander and the old Volvo. It has absolutely extended the life of both of those vehicles. I hadn’t done it on my car since about 2/3 of the underbody on the BMW is covered with plastic shields and it seemed like there’s generally little under those shields that would rust badly, plus removing them would be a real pain just for rustproofing. Naturally, the 1/3 of the underbody that’s exposed is the rear sub frame.
I think that I will start to get just that portion of the car sprayed. The problem down here in New England (central New England at least) is that the number of places since COVID that perform the “rust proofing” service has fallen off dramatically due to staff shortages. I checked in the summer for a place to renew it on the Toyota and the Volvo and was told that the soonest appointment I could get was February…of 2023!!
You can buy something called “Fluid Film” in spray cans and do it yourself, a lot of the Jeep Wrangler crowd do that as Wranglers somehow manage to get surface rust underneath even when never exposed to moisture…
It’s as messy as you want it to be, you need a large dedicated tarp to drive the car onto and then jackstands. Or maybe even just two ramps and back the car onto them. An old set of clothing helps too.
Oh yeah, we’re all about the Fluid Film and there are always several cans of it open and going around here. It is essentially the same stuff as what the pros use – lanolin based – but it seems that when they do it it’s a somewhat thicker product. As Poverty says, this makes some kind of slimy greasy mess (and many mechanics HATE it for obvious reasons), but it really does work.
But good point, given that I’m probably not going to be able to get the professional treatment this year, I should probably go after it myself with Fluid Film.
During this season, our Vanagon turns into the party bus, complete with colored lights throughout the interior. They’re visible outside the vehicle as well as inside, and people smile when they see it. They’re not bright enough to be distracting, but I too have noticed a dearth of holiday themed vehicles. Might have to add a lighted wreath to the front grill as well this year.
Happy holidays!
“People smile when they see it”. Exactly! It seems that the more things that can be done to make people smile, the better.
Happy Holidays to you too 🙂
Just last week I came across this wreath-decorated Plymouth Scamp. Somehow, the plain, unadorned wreath matches the no-nonsense Plymouth rather well. Just like how the wreath with the patterned bow matches the Mercedes in your photo above.
Fuzzy reindeer antlers still seem relatively common here in Virginia. I think a good proportion of those cars are so decorated due to endless lobbying by their owners’ elementary-school aged kids.
While not related to cars, another subset of life that tends to fall for decked-out holiday decorations are musicians and their instruments. My wife is an amateur classical musician, and both of her performance groups put on holiday concerts. The musicians dig out their antler headbands and Rudolph noses for one concert per year. It’s always amusing to see.
Oh, and regarding the North Carolina / South Carolina rivalry, when I lived in NC, something that irritated many Tar Heels was when University of South Carolina fans would wear a shirt that just said “Carolina.” Apparently, many in “Superior Carolina” felt strongly that “Carolina” applied to only one of the two states. Otherwise known as The Real Carolina. I always wondered if folks in SC had similar gripes about their neighbors to the north?
I’m surprised there isn’t yet a THE Carolina shirt. 🙂
I like it when the big rig truck drivers deck out their rigs for Christmas!
This guy lives somewhere in my town and decks out his Monaco wagon with a lighted tree like this at Christmas.
I haven’t caught the car to do a CC, but there was a article in the local paper this week.
I’ll bet he brings a lot of smiles too.
I believe that what he’s going for there is a homage to the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where the Griswalds go to cut their own tree. And mayhem ensues.
The Griswalds had a Taurus wagon, but it’s probably easier to find a 70s Monaco wagon now than a Taurus wagon.
That’s exactly it:
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2022/12/14/dundas-mans-woody-wagon-sparks-memories-of-a-griswold-family-christmas.html
That look could be pulled off with a woodgrain-paneled minivan as well. I saw this one on a used-car lot in Tennessee last year:
Just to be “that guy”, the proper Pep Boy order is “Manny, Moe, and Jack”.
I can’t link my video here, but a friend’s Tesla Model S has a downloaded “Carol of the Bells” routine, that can be played in parking lots and driveways (not while driving). To the broadcasting of the familiar tune, the windows go up and down in time, the exterior mirrors wig-wag, and the lights do a rather elaborate blinking light show. Maybe not the biggest production of the season, but the pure unexpectedness of it, along with the elaborate and well done choreography, make it dazzling.
That sounds like quite the show. Is there something unique to the Tesla that enables all of that activity? (I knew about the fart-sounds-horn, but this sounds even better)
Thanks for correcting the Pep Boys’ order. I have to confess that for years (and years) I used to think that it was “Mack” and not “Jack”. At least I got that correct eventually. But really, shouldn’t they have gone with 3 M’s?
Tesla has won lots of fans with whimsical stuff of this sort, like the vintage arcade games you can play on the big touchscreen, or drawing names for high-performance modes or models from Spaceballs. I can’t see Ford or Toyota doing this sort of thing.
I used to occasionally put a (home made) wreath on my pickups but not for decades. But I have noticed that the reindeer antlers seem to be popular in my part of California this year.
That must be where they’ve all gone. I should be glad that one escaped CA and made it to MA 🙂
This was parked outside of my office one day about 5 years ago – I had previously written up a Rampside and these pictures have languished, but today’s subject brought it to mind. Yes, I can forget to eat lunch but I will remember a car I photographed in 2017.
Anyway, as I attach the picture and hit “Post Comment”, I have the same feeling as when I can triumphantly throw down a trump card and yell “Euchre!!!” There is not a more CC-centric Christmas vehicle than a decorated Corvair Rampside! 🙂
You win! 🙂 That Rampside needs Santa in the back to totally nail the On Donner, On Blitzen… effect. Such a happy-looking vehicle.
I’d love to see a Rampside on the road. Even though I only live about 50 miles down the road from Clark’s Corvair, I hardly ever see corvairs…much less exotic ones like this.
Spotted last week
Nice article! We live in Rockland County, NY which has a large Hasidic Jewish population. They have a parade every year in their cars along the east-west NY Route 59 from Airmont to Nanuet with Menorahs and other Hanukkah items on their car rooves.
Traditional British decoration on a 1925 Morris Cowley
That’s very tasteful!
Those fuzzy reindeer antlers are fairly common here in Charlottesville, VA (in the central part of the state). Truth be told, I find them tacky and cliched, especially since the ones here are rigidly attached and thus tilt inward toward the center of the roof (except for vehicles with no tumblehome like Wranglers).
I don’t mind the Rudolph noses or wreaths, and I’ve seen at least one pickup tastefully decorated with multicolored lights on the top edge of the bedsides and tailgate.
I’d agree that if one is going to do the antlers, then the antlers should be adjusted so as to be properly at attention. When these things were more common around here, it bothered me to see them tilting all over the place or worse yet, sometimes there was one missing. Probably lost in a car wash or something.
That’s the problem I have with the game/college flags. Often there’s only one attached, and they just seem messy.
Holiday car decorating remains popular here in SoCal, and the weather is a help in keeping the adornments looking good. One of my favorites collected over the years:
Didn’t have a “Pep Boys” near me when I was a kid. They always seemed to have a full page ad in the “New York Sunday News” though. Manny always was drawn with a cigar then. Even when I was way too young to drive, I would stop and read the ads. Learned a lot, mostly about reading. Always fascinated by the characters. Never did get to visit an actual Pep Boys store until I saw stainless Ventvisors on sale at their store in Marble Hill, The Bronx back in the late 90’s. My LeSabre “H” was more than a decade old at the time. Had lots of brightwork, it was the “Limited” (top of the line) model and badly needed the visors. Always wanted to own a car with them. Finally, got my chance.
I’ll take a “Bah Humbug” sticker.