Residents of Gorham who regularly drive or walk along South Street (Rt 114) near Weeks Road may have noticed an unusual outdoor display of lighted and unlighted plastic figures, creepy-looking wooden constructions, glowing zombies, and plastic animal skeletons, among other objects that appear to be yard sale finds and cast-offs. Many items appear related to recent movies like “Minions,” “Frozen,” several Tim Burton films, as well as the classic “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”
Those who drive further south along Rt 114, toward the Maine Mall area, have probably noticed that there is a similarly unusual display on 114 in North Scarborough, just past the Beech Ridge Road intersection.
While some people may do all they can to ignore these iconoclastic mash-ups, others might wonder what is going on. Are these displays the work of Tim Burton fans, influenced by the “Nightmare Before Christmas?” Fans of Dr. Seuss’ Grinch book and its spinoffs? Is it possible Christmas Tree Shops were acquired by Spirit Halloween after they went bankrupt?
Gorham resident Chris Blair, the creator of the unusual yard display located at 171 South Street, stated in a recent email that if the display has any theme, it is “just a mashup of the holidays that I hope helps Gorham smile a little bit more in these uneasy times.”
It turns out that Gorham and North Scarborough are not the only places with such graphically mixed-up evocations of two very different holidays.
A recent internet search revealed that such displays are becoming more common. In fact, they seem to be popping up all over the country, in various forms. For some reason, the far Western states and the southwestern desert region seem to be where these displays are most popular, while they are seen less often in the Northeast.
A humor article in a Eugene OR news- paper espouses the “turducken” theory. Namely, there is supposedly a similarity with the way fans of “Turduckens” aren’t content with enjoying a roast turkey but insist on stuffing their turkey with a duck that’s been stuffed inside a chick- en. According to that theory, designers of mashed up holiday displays want to double or triple their holiday enjoy- ment by stuffing Halloween (and some- times Thanksgiving) into Christmas.
Another article, from El Paso, TX contains an observation that some local people are clearly leaving their “Dia de los Muertos” decorations up longer and longer, often right through the Christmas season. This allows the traditional depictions of ancestors and other loved ones to commingle with displays featuring Santa, elves, Rudolph, candy canes, etc. While this trend is mostly a Southwest phenomenon, it has likely influenced the general American culture, especially with the popularity of the Disney/Pixar feature “Coco”.
One factor seems to be that residents of the West tend to be less tied to tradition, at least when it comes to such whimsical things as holiday yard displays. Feeling less tied to traditional restraints, westerners may be more willing to publicly experiment with unusual artistic expressions, some could be referred to as “outsider art.