The Polar Opposites

It is the time of year for decorating for Christmas.  Because of the place where I rent, I don't really get to decorate my home.  Even when I was at my old home, we never decorated that much.  We usually only had the tree up for a week or two, due to my pine sensitivities and fire threats.  We never did much outside, either.  That is one reason why I like decorating my store so much, even if it turns out a little eclectic.  I even decorate it for other holidays, ones I never paid much attention to at my old house, such as Halloween and Easter (this is a hint for next week's post).  I know that some people can go to extremes with decorating, but I don't mind most of it.  I find religious displays are normally more sedate, although many can get elaborate.  I don't mind brightly lit houses, as long as I am not driving too late at night; I have very sensitive eyes that can get blinded very easily with harsh transitions from dark to light.  I actually love inflatables, even some of the weirder ones, such as Santa in an outhouse.  Some are bigger than the houses that they stand beside.  Some houses have over a dozen scattered around the yard, in all shapes and sizes.  Other homes are more sedate, especially on the inside.  Perfectly trimmed trees can get a little boring, but even trees in outre color schemes can be adorable.  The newest trend seems to be upside-down trees, although I remember seeing one on the '80's show My Two Dads, although it may have been the early '90's instead.  However, there is one type of Christmas decoration that I can't stand, and that is penguins, especially when they are paired with polar bears.  These two things can't go together, and definitely not at Christmas.  Traditionally, in the United States, Christmas and Santa Claus are connected with the North Pole.  As a far off point where it is cold, that makes some sense.  However, penguins are not native to the Northern Hemisphere.  Many are found in Antarctica, near the South Pole.  More are found in Australia, Africa, and South America.  Some might even be as far north as the Galapagos Islands.  None are anywhere close to polar bears.  This fact was even the major clue in an Encyclopedia Brown story I read when I was a kid.  Don't get me wrong, I actually kind of like penguins.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I would put them somewhere around a 4. (As for my favorite animal, maybe next week.)  They are find any other time of year, just not around Christmas.  Maybe they are a popular Christmas decoration somewhere further south, such as Australia.  I had a cousin who lived there once, but I don't really know them well enough to ask.  It just seems wrong to me to feature an animal so out of place as penguins around polar bears at Christmas.  Strangely enough, I don't seem to have much of a problem with other out of place animals, such as elephants, probably because they don't seem so ubiquitous as penguins are.  Many penguins don't even live in cold climates.  If you must decorate with penguins, at least keep them away from polar bears. That way, at least it will not go against the natural flow of the world.