The Christmas Dinosaur

Summary

Summary of "The Christmas Dinosaur" Episode of Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Podcast Information:

• Title: Armstrong & Getty On Demand
• Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
• Description: The official, On-Demand podcast of The Armstrong & Getty Show! Accept no substitutes!
• Episode: The Christmas Dinosaur
• Release Date: December 20, 2024

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In the holiday-themed episode titled "The Christmas Dinosaur," hosts Joe Getty and Armstrong delve into the nostalgic and contemporary practices of outdoor Christmas decorations. The conversation weaves through personal anecdotes, neighborhood trends, and the evolution of festive displays, offering listeners a heartwarming exploration of holiday traditions.

1. Reflecting on Past Christmas Decorations

Armstrong's Holiday Displays

Armstrong begins the discussion by reminiscing about his elaborate Christmas decorations from previous years. He fondly recalls an inflatable carousel adorned with Santa, a penguin, and an elf, all lit from within to create a vibrant nighttime spectacle.

Armstrong (02:13): "My favorite one was a. An inflatable carousel. It was like a big, like, you know, cylinder inside of which was a carousel in which Santa, a penguin and an elf, I believe, were riding the carousel and it actually rotated."

Katie's Current Decorations

Contrasting Armstrong's past extravagance, Katie shares her more modest decorations, which include light-up candy canes and an inflatable snowman. This highlights the varying degrees of holiday decorating enthusiasm within a household.

Katie (02:45): "I have little light up candy canes and an inflatable snowman."

2. The Psychology Behind Decorating Habits

Personality Traits and Decorations

Joe Getty explores the correlation between personality traits and the inclination to decorate. He points out that outgoing individuals might not always choose to decorate extravagantly, and vice versa, suggesting that the desire to decorate is influenced by personal motivations rather than solely by one's extroversion or introversion.

Joe Getty (02:50): "I have not found that that is a trait that goes along with any other traits that I can identify... I've not seen any consistency."

Armstrong's Motivation

Armstrong attributes his past decorating efforts to a love for lights and the joy it brought to his family, emphasizing the aesthetic pleasure over social interaction.

Armstrong (05:54): "I just like the way lights look. I think it looks beautiful."

3. Neighborhood Christmas Extravaganzas

Elaborate Community Displays

The hosts discuss the trend of increasingly elaborate neighborhood Christmas displays. Michael introduces the concept of fully decorated trees using lifts from Home Depot, topped with figures like the Grinch, turning streets into festive attractions.

Michael (06:35): "They actually decorate full size trees. They go to Home Depot and get a lift and put the Christmas lights on top of them."

Unique Decorations

Armstrong and Joe share observations about unique inflatable characters, such as robots and dinosaurs dressed in Santa hats, contributing to the whimsical nature of modern holiday decorations.

Armstrong (07:45): "A rock and roll Christmas dinosaur. No, wait a minute. No he doesn't."

4. The Practicality of Modern Decorations

Inflatable Decorations vs. Traditional Lights

A significant portion of the conversation centers around the practicality of using inflatables over traditional string lights. The hosts highlight the ease of setup, cost-effectiveness, and the ability to create impressive displays without the time-consuming effort associated with classic lighting.

Joe Getty (08:32): "You're going to have to tether it. Or your neighbors knock on your door and say, hey, your pumpkins down the street."

Armstrong (09:32): "You can just go down to the Home Depot or the Lowe's and spend $150 on some sort of 15 foot tall... and you'd get that same wow."

Ease of Use

The simplicity of inflatables—easy to install, deflate, and store—makes them an attractive option for those seeking impactful decorations without the hassle.

Katie (08:28): "He only deals with the big bills. No, I think the inflatables are probably popular because they're so easy."

5. Nostalgia and Challenges of Traditional Decorations

Historical Lighting Issues

Joe Getty nostalgically recounts the challenges of older Christmas lighting technologies, such as serial wiring, where a single burnt-out bulb could cause the entire string to fail. This often led to frustration and a ritual of painstakingly checking each bulb.

Joe Getty (09:32): "They were wired in a single line... you would have to go socket by socket with a bulb you knew worked until you found the dead one."

Tinsel Traditions

The conversation touches on frugality and tradition, with Joe Getty sharing his mother's practice of meticulously saving and reusing tinsel each year to avoid purchasing new ones.

Joe Getty (10:50): "To save us a dollar. Wow."

Safety Concerns

Michael brings up safety issues from the past, such as excessively hot outdoor light bulbs that posed burn risks, underscoring the practical challenges of traditional decorations.

Michael (11:30): "How hot outdoor light bulbs used to get. You could put your hand on and you would burn yourself."

6. Personal Anecdotes and Humor

Family Memories

The hosts infuse humor and personal stories into the discussion, such as Katie's recollection of learning cuss words from her father's frustrations with malfunctioning Christmas lights.

Katie (10:05): "That's actually how I learned a majority of my cuss words from my dad around Christmas time when he would."

Community Interactions

Joe Getty shares experiences of engaging with neighbors over decorations, illustrating the social aspects and community spirit that holiday displays can foster.

Joe Getty (06:35): "Although I'm new to the neighborhood, so they're already looking sideways at me."

7. Concluding Thoughts on Holiday Decorations

The episode wraps up with reflections on the balance between elaborate and simple decorations. Armstrong emphasizes the joy and energy that decorations bring to families, while also acknowledging the shift towards more convenient and less labor-intensive options.

Armstrong (07:21): "It reminds me almost of the relationship between like a performer in the audience that anything I did, the energy would be returned by my kids and they would be enthused."

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Key Takeaways:

• Evolution of Decorations: There's a noticeable shift from traditional string lights to more sophisticated inflatable decorations, driven by ease of use and impactful visuals.
• Personal vs. Communal Joy: Decorations serve both personal enjoyment and foster community interaction, though motivations can vary widely.
• Nostalgia Meets Modernity: While modern decorations offer practicality, there's a strong sense of nostalgia tied to traditional practices and the memories they evoke.
• Safety and Practicality: Modern solutions address many of the safety and logistical challenges posed by older decorating methods.

"The Christmas Dinosaur" episode offers a comprehensive and engaging exploration of how Christmas decoration trends have evolved, blending personal stories with broader community observations. Whether you're a fan of elaborate light displays or prefer subtle festive touches, Joe Getty and Armstrong provide insights that resonate with diverse holiday decorating experiences.

Transcript

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[Joe Getty]

Ah, yes, the Christmas dynasty. Or It's One More Thing. Armstrong and Getty.

[Armstrong]

One More Thing.

[Joe Getty]

Did you, Joe Getty, put up any outdoor Christmas decorations this year?

[Armstrong]

No, not really.

[Joe Getty]

But in the past, when your children were younger, you did, if I remember correctly.

[Armstrong]

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Different hood now and they actually have like rules on inflatables and that sort of thing.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, really?

[Armstrong]

You can believe that? Yeah, I've seen them flouted somewhat, which is fine.

[Joe Getty]

God, you are a certain sort of person. If you would go complain about somebody putting up something for Christmas, but it's undignified. What the hell ever. But. But you used to put stuff up.

[Armstrong]

Oh, yeah, yeah, we had. My favorite one was a. An inflatable carousel. It was like a big, like, you know, cylinder inside of which was a carousel in which Santa, a penguin and an elf, I believe, were riding the carousel and it actually rotated.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that's pretty cool. That's fantastic.

[Armstrong]

It was fantastic. And it was lit from within. For nighttime news, it Was lit.

[Joe Getty]

You were lit. Everyone was lit. Katie, do you have stuff outside?

[Katie]

Yes, I do.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, you do? Okay.

[Katie]

I have little light up candy canes and an inflatable snowman.

[Joe Getty]

I see. I would, I wouldn't have been able to guess whether you'd be outdoor Christmas decorations or not. I have not found that that is a trait that goes along with any other traits that I can identify. And I don't know if there have ever been any, like psychological surveys, the kind of person that does this stuff or the kind of person that doesn't. But I've not seen any consistency.

[Armstrong]

For the record, I would like to go full Clark Griswold. That would make me happy. I would like to go nuts. It's just a question of logistics and timing. It just didn't really come together this year because I've got the standard stuff because I've.

[Joe Getty]

Because I've known people with very outgoing personalities who do nothing. And people are like quiet into themselves, who do a lot and vice versa. So I just, I don't know what is. What makes you a. I'm going to dedicate the time and money to this or not. I don't. I haven't done anything for Christmas. I did a fair amount for Halloween. My dad never did anything when we were kids. And then when he got older, before they retired and moved away, he. His thing was they in front of the garage. Like a lot of garage, you get two little floodlights that are white year round. But like two weeks before Christmas, he'd replace one with a green bulb and one with a red bulb. And then he changed it again. That was it. It was this old. And people would say, ken, you're gonna put the red and green light bulbs this year. Oh, you know I am. But my son and I have started collecting as anecdotes. Where did, when did this become a thing? Like the, the, the gym we go to. First they had an inflatable Santa playing the guitar. Okay, Santa, why is he playing the guitar? Right. Spine.

[Armstrong]

Then it doesn't play the guitar.

[Joe Getty]

Then. Then it was added to it. A robot with a Christmas hat. So you got a robot in a Christmas hat playing the drums. And I guess they were putting together the band slowly. Then it was a dinosaur, like a.

[Armstrong]

White stripes thing there for a while, drums and guitar.

[Joe Getty]

Then it was a dinosaur in a Christmas hat playing bass. And I don't know why a dinosaur or why a robot or any of these things.

[Katie]

Yeah, I'm missing the theme.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Well, it has become very clear to me that there is. Everything is okay now. Just any character of any sort. You put it in a Santa hat and it's part of Christmas, I guess.

[Armstrong]

Well, of course, Dickens, classic Christmas carol. He does mention the rock and roll Christmas dinosaur. No, wait a minute. No he doesn't.

[Joe Getty]

Man, the people that really go big. We've got a couple of houses in our neighborhoods that are the. How long. Not to mention what it costs. But just how much work would it be to put that up and take it down? Talking many, many, many hours and.

[Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Do you, do you have a guess as to what the personality trait is that makes you want to do that?

[Armstrong]

Oh goodness. That's an interesting question. You love Jesus. The obvious answer.

[Joe Getty]

Not when it's all Santa stuff.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, that's right. I don't know exactly. I don't know how to describe it. I've met people like that and they're usually like jolly people who are open. They. They want to talk to their neighbors, they want to interact with people. They're extroverts and generally fairly light hearted. I just like the way lights look.

[Katie]

Yeah, that.

[Armstrong]

I think it looks beautiful.

[Katie]

Yeah, the lights. And then also my neighbors were putting up decorations. I'm like, ah, I can't be that one house.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I'm that one house on our. In our little cul de sac. Although I'm new to the neighborhood, so they're already looking sideways at me.

[Michael]

Yes, Michael, there's the neighborhood in where I live where they actually decorate full size trees. They go to Home Depot and get a lift and put the Christmas lights on top of them.

[Joe Getty]

And has the neighborhood risen to the point of people drive from other places to go down the street and check.

[Michael]

It out, which is.

[Joe Getty]

It's is which is its own thing. You either want to be in a neighborhood like that or you don't.

[Armstrong]

Right, right. I know. Just speaking for myself, it reminds me almost of the relationship between like a performer in the audience that anything I did, the energy would be returned by my kids and they would be enthused. And so I'd think this is fun and I'd add more or come up with crazier or show up and surprise them with something. It was just big fun. Now it's mostly just for me and I guess the neighbors in a way. And it's like.

[Joe Getty]

And the Home Depot for instance, the giant category where they have a 10 foot looks like Frosty the Snowman, 10ft tall, different snowman, 10 foot angel, if you want to go with that. 10ft 10 foot gateway with Grinch on top. So people would have to walk through your arch to get your house. That's pretty cool. Lots of stuff.

[Armstrong]

The Grinch, of course, is mentioned only in the book of Matthew. Interesting.

[Katie]

I remember that part.

[Joe Getty]

That's right. Dr. Seuss invented the Grinch. And it's been my around my whole life. So it kind of seems Christmassy, but it's not by nature any more Christmassy than a robot or a dinosaur.

[Armstrong]

Right. A rock and roll Christmas dinosaur.

[Joe Getty]

12 foot giant sized motion led pre lit cone tree. What I like about this one is it looks like you take it out of the box, stick it in the ground. Done. All you need is electricity.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, perfect.

[Joe Getty]

$90 giant stuff has become very popular.

[Armstrong]

How big is the tree?

[Joe Getty]

That thing was 12ft, which is pretty tall.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, 90 bucks. That's, you know, change book back on your general grant, huh?

[Katie]

I also think these.

[Armstrong]

That is that. No, Benjamin's. Benjamin's are the hundreds.

[Joe Getty]

Sure.

[Armstrong]

Grant is the 50. I don't throw cash around much.

[Katie]

He only deals with the big bills. No, I think the inflatables are probably popular because they're so easy.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Katie]

You know, you unplug it and the thing deflates and you roll it up and stick it back in the box. It's not.

[Joe Getty]

That is an advantage. Like my giant jack o'lantern man, it took me like five minutes to set that up. But the tethering, you got to tether it. Or your neighbors knock on your door and say, hey, your pumpkins down the street. That's happened to me a couple of times.

[Armstrong]

So. Yeah, that's a good point. So to put up Christmas lights, especially if you go beyond the basics, is time consuming, frequently dangerous. As you're dangling out over ladder, reaching for the. The corner of the gutter and the rest of it. That's a hell of a lot of time and effort to get the wow. Or you can just go down to the home despot or the Lowe's and spend $150 on some sort of 15 foot tall rock and roll Frankenstein or robot or whatever it was with a Santa hat on inexplicably, and you'd get that same wow.

[Joe Getty]

You missed out on this, Katie, because you're young and they started wiring all Christmas tree lights in parallel. But before they started wiring them in parallel, they were. They were wired in a single line. And so if one bulb went out, the whole thing didn't work. Oh. And the only way you could find out where the problem was is go socket by socket with a bulb you knew worked until you found the dead one. And it was really a pain in the ass. And it was just part of the Christmas tradition every year at my house. Anyway, growing up, I'm not.

[Katie]

I'm not too young for that. That's actually how I learned a majority of my cuss words from my dad around Christmas time when he would. Oh yeah, cool. Yeah, he plugged. He. Well, we made the mistake one year of putting them up before checking them and wow, was that some Christmas cheer.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

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[Katie]

You know.

[Joe Getty]

Oh yeah. That's one of the famous lines from Christmas Story with Ralphie. Does that one goes out?

[Armstrong]

They all go out.

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[Katie]

Yes. Sounds like my dad.

[Armstrong]

Oh, man. Oh, that stresses me just to remember it.

[Joe Getty]

I know.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, you'd get all the lights up on the tree. We did that I think one year without testing them and it was effed up. Oh, no.

[Katie]

Yeah, that'll ruin Christmas.

[Joe Getty]

My mom, who is very frugal because she grew up in a rough part of the country, depression wise, was big on saving the tinsel every year. We weren't gonna buy new tinsel every year. So after we put all the tinsel on the tree, then we had to pull it all down one strand at a time and put it back in the box for next year. And that was like a two hour job.

[Katie]

Oh boy.

[Joe Getty]

To save us a dollar. Wow.

[Armstrong]

That's frugality.

[Joe Getty]

That was part of the Christmas tradition. Well, you know, stock market crashes, the Nazis are in the march. You're going to wish you had that tinsel back. I think it was the way she looked at it.

[Michael]

I don't know if you guys remember back in the late 70s how hot outdoor light bulbs used to get. You could put your hand on and you would burn yourself. Serious burns.

[Armstrong]

Oh, yeah. People would have a just completely desiccated, dried out Christmas tree by the 26th. Running Incandescent bulbs on it that got super hot. With the obvious result in many a household. Oof.

[Michael]

Well, I guess that's it.

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