Folks who are still not sure if they are going to openly celebrate Christmas can now rest assured it’s OK to do so.
Swan Road church/Ryn Gargulinski
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said so.
She issued an Executive Order on Dec. 11, the first day of Hanukkah, which laid down the rules for both Christmas and Hanukkah. The latter ended Dec. 19 but heck, keep that décor in place since we’ve got the green light from Brewer.
She declared that Arizona government agencies are hereby ordered to:
*Allow state employees to personally celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah and put up decorations
*Allow state employees to use “accurate names” of Christmas and Hanukkah and wish others a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanukkah”
*Refrain from censoring the “lawful celebration and acknowledgment of Christmas, Hanukkah or any other recognized religious holiday.”
We are dying to know what disgruntled state employee, who may have gotten reprimanded for putting a mini Christmas tree or Menorah on his desk, prompted this one.
While her Executive Order is targeted for government agencies and state employees, others can use it as a springboard for their own arguments if they get yelled at for putting a baby Jesus in the kitchenette.
Or you can go for some other last-minute decorating ideas:
AZMouse's charming gingerbread house/submitted photo
Gingerbread house:
Those wishing to go for a gingerbread house better start now, as these kitschy little abodes are certainly not very quick to create.
Loyal reader AZMouse hooked up this dandy gingerbread house and tree, with a lot of work and even more patience.
“The hardest part, besides keeping the roof from trying to slide off while it was drying, was doing all the brick outline on the house in frosting,” she said. Brickwork took an entire day to complete, and she topped it off with a fence fashioned from X-Men white stick candles and a path made of licorice and sprinkles.
She even hooked up textured snow on the ground by painstakingly picking through a box of Nerds to extract all the white ones.
Whew.
Everything is edible, as her cats have gleefully discovered.
Rooftop Santa/Ryn Gargulinski
A quicker fix can be had with a giant Santa or festive CHRISTmas light.
Giant Santa:
This guy was spied on a rooftop not far from the Fourth Avenue street fair. Giant Santas work well suspended from the office ceiling or in lobby and waiting areas. You may also want to set one in your boss’s chair before he arrives for the day to really spread the holiday spirit.
CHRISTmas lights:
A Baptist church on North Swan Road (pictured top right) heartily reminds all passing cars of the origin of the Christmas holiday. Anyone driving by gets a very good view of the lights, as many drivers still don’t realize the speed limit in that area is 40 mph and decide instead to putt putt at about 28 mph.
Skeleton with reindeer antlers:
The skeleton on a tricycle that always graces my living room was outfitted with a pair of reindeer antlers. That marks the extent of this year’s holiday decorating. The reindeer antlers were originally placed on Phoebe but stay in place better when they are not worn by a dog who is trying to head butt the world. Skeleton holiday décor is one way to perhaps horrify your coworkers and give them something to gossip about at the office holiday party.
[tnipoll]
Fine holiday skeleton/Ryn Gargulinski
What do you think?
Do you think it necessary to issue an Executive Order regarding the “lawful celebration of Christmas, Hanukkah”?
Were you ever reprimanded for decorating for or saying “Christmas” or “Hanukkah”?
Did you decorate at all this year? Why or why not?
Have you ever made a gingerbread house?
That’s the coolest giant Santa I’ve ever seen!
Back when I was working at one of those ‘chain’ hair salons, we were suppose to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. We had to use very few, neutral type decorations…which turned out to be blue and silver ball things getting hung up, but the tree was no longer allowed out of its box. I don’t really get it.
I do decorate my house every year. Outside lights go up, usually the day after Thanksgiving, because it’s so much work I want the dang things out there for a while. The tree and all the inside decor usually goes up after my youngest sons Birthday (Dec. 5th)
Ryn, love the reindeer skeleton….ever been to therapy?!? LOL
KIDDING!!!
Oh, a shout-out to Jan Brewer for making all this cheer okay!
hhahahahhahahahha!
thanks for the morning laugh, AZMouse – but i’ll take the fifth and refrain from answering your question – ahhhahha.
so glad to hear you get fully into the Christmas spirit, with decor and all. your gingerbread house rocks, by the way. love it!
i remember working in a largely orthodox jewish office, with jewish boss, where we were allowed to decorate for christmas all we wanted – but were NOT allowed to decorate for halloween.
go figure!
Yes, the above mentioned hair salon stopped letting us decorate for Halloween as well.
I think the last straw was when everyone used a mannequin head and made a blown-up looking Bin Laden guy.
hahahha! sounds like a fun place to work!
Heya Ryn! People get offended at every little tiny thing these days. If someone gets offended by being told “Merry Christmas” then they need to relax. They just need to realize that the person is basically hoping they have a nice holiday…regardless of which holiday they actually celebrate. I’m offended by people who get offended by that kind of thing! How bout that, offended people??!! 😛
Azmouse! Your gingerbread house is quite adorable! The tree looks quite tasty, haha! Again, I’m sorry that I didn’t make one like I said I would…how about when Easter comes around, we can decorate some amazing eggs?! I have some really good ideas for those! Then we can donate them to some kids for an easter egg hunt or something fun like that….or just make deviled eggs out of them when we’re done, hahaha. 😀
hiya jenna – i, too, get annoyed by those easily offended folks. if they get offended by a ‘merry christmas’ we should switch and then say, ok, sorry, have a crappy christmas then.
are you sure we’re allowed to say “easter”? i haven’t seen an executive order on that one yet (hahahah).
LOL!
No need to apologize.
I make one every year anyway.
P.S. There is a poll that goes with this post – it’s not showing up in the post but is showing up on the home page.
Mornin’ Rynski! Shoulda done a snappy or crappy with these pics.
1. Az-very snappy! Your gingerbread house rocks!
2. Again snappy as all get out! Though Santa looks more like St. Ludacris than St. Nickolas… 🙂
3.The antlered skull…hmmm…gotta go snap/crap. Snappy in itself, nice artwork! Crappy to scare the beegeezus out of the neighborhood kids with this at Christmas Rynski…shame on you. 🙂
4. Ah, the church sign…alas, crappy. While the sentiment is nice, you’d think they would have had the good sense to let someone sober do the lights. 🙂
Oh, and a very Merry Christmas to our esteemed legislature, though it seems like they’ve been on some sort of vacation all year…
PS- I bet I know what Brewer wants for Christmas…about 4 billion.
mornin’ radmax!
enjoyed your snappy and crappy assessment of the photos. i agree with your rating of the gingerbread and st. nick.
but i’m somewhat saddened you gave my antlered skeleton half a crap. that probably means you would not like my skeleton reindeer card of one year or this year’s dragon card spewing fire that says “merry christmas.” hahhahah
oh! and the CHRISTmas lights – c’mon, the person putting them up had to be sober. anyone who was drunk would have rolled off that roof peak right quick!
Rynski! Re: Rolling off the roof, I believe you have stumbled upon the reason your dog walk bum is missing… 🙂
St. Ludacris…lol.
I think it’s great that our state government is so capable of handling the important parts of keeping the state running 🙂
good call, tiponeill.
every holiday they seem to get their butts in gear – i remember something about wanting to make sparklers legal last fourth of july…seems holidays help initiate action. oh, if only every day could be halloween….
That has to be about the best-looking gingerbread house I’ve ever seen; truly a work of culinary art!
As an atheist, I always refer to Zeus rather than dog-spelled-backward, and I would never send a “Merry Xmas” greeting to someone, preferring the “Happy Holidays” message. Still, I don’t try to “correct” people who say Merry Xmas to me. That’s just rude. Certainly we put up a tree and give gifts. This is in the best of pagan tradition, though it be stolen and corrupted by the christians.
I think it’s OK for folks to put a little menorah or some other monotheistic bauble on their desk. What’s the harm? I would take objection to the state sponsoring a big diorama of christian mythology on state office lawns (aka a creche). I think the money would be much better invested in investigating the diets of coyotes than in promoting odd mysticisms.
it IS a dandy gingerbread – AZMouse takes the cake (even though it’s technically a cookie).
thanks for hearty chuckle, leftfield, regarding the coyote diet research funding – ha!
i agree there is no harm in folks wanting to decorate to their pleasure – as long as they pay for it themselves.
tis not always the case, however – i once lived in the only christian-owned home on the block in the jewish brooklyn neighborhood of boro park. happy, italian family owned the place – and someone actually ripped down the homeowner’s christmas lights.
i am sad, however, we didn’t get a big nativity scene/creche debate this year – or at least one that i’ve heard of – as those are always fun to write about.
I agree with the gov. about having personal choices of decor and someone had to come up to bat for the “people”. I would love to point out that she should spend her valuable time in trying to balance the state finances rather than fix a desk top for decorations. I would recomend that she put in a fast bill before she leaves office today that requires all dollars to be paid out of state funds be on a “bid contract” only. NO if, ands or buts about it. The state has to realize that we are broke because of the STUPID no bid contracts in all directions. I want to see the gov office spend her time on fixing the debt not a table top.
thanks for input, henry.
it DOES seem strange to have time for executive orders about table tops when there seems to be much more pressing issues on the table.
Thanks leftfield! You’re going to make me blush. I guess we can all tell who has to much time on her hands! lol
Hey Redski: And what about all us Germanic Huns (people of pallor) out there who celebrate the Winter Solstice? I don’t see Jan-Baby building a replica Stonehenge on the Capital lawn.
Where is the diversity?
Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba
dear ferrari bubba,
you are absolutely correct – if i were you, i’d take it up with brewer IMMEDIATELY! never mind all that budget stuff. people of pallor are people, too.