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Christmas kitsch: Festive chicks with tricked out Christmas tree hats & hairdos
12.19.2017
11:48 am
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A woman having her hair styled by Frans Van Oers in 1971.
 
The lovely lady pictured at the top of this post is getting the mother of all holiday hairdos by Dutch stylist Frans Van Oers in 1971. It seems that this kind of holiday hair was a thing in the Netherlands as Van Oers was not the only stylist creating these whimsical types of yuletide hairdos. Another Dutchman, Robert Engelander, was also known for coming up with extravagant holiday-themed hairstyles.

A different kitschy throwback when it comes to decorating your head for the holidays was the invention of the Christmas tree hat. The hats were popularized during the 1950s and 1960s—though you’ve probably seen at least a few festive folks wearing modern adaptations around town during December. However, nothing quite beats the vintage awesomeness of the Christmas tree hats/hair I’ve dug up for you today. Merry Christmas!
 

 

A Christmas-themed updo by Dutch stylist Robert Engelander.
 

YES.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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12.19.2017
11:48 am
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Faster, Santa! Kill! Kill!: Christmas-themed horror movie posters to get you through the holidays
12.14.2017
09:37 am
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A poster for one of the greatest horror-themed Christmas movies of all time, ‘Christmas Evil’ 1980
 
The fantastic phenomenon of Christmas-themed horror is something that helps me get through the holidays. The idea of a knife-wielding maniac who shows up unexpectedly after-hours at your house pairs perfectly with the happy fantasy of a guy with a white beard wearing a red suit who was also able to sneak into your house while you were in your bed dreaming of dancing sugar plums or some shit like that. In accordance with the rules of Santa’s ability to surreptitiously gain access to your home, everyone must also be fast asleep—OR ELSE! So really, it’s not much of a stretch to reimagine this scenario having a much more sinister tone—where instead of a sack of presents Santa Claus is armed with an ax and a naughty list with your name on it.

Regardless of the time of year, I’m always up for eyeballing a horror film. And thankfully there are more than a few excellent Christmas-themed horror films that give us the gift that just keeps on giving—movies that cater to those of us that prefer Santa serving up some good-old-fashioned blood and gore while he slashes his way into our hearts—quite literally. One film I’d like to explicitly call out here that you may not be aware of is 1995’s El día de la bestia or Day of the Beast. The Spanish film is a holiday gem that brilliantly gets laughs out of its horror storyline by teaming up the unlikely duo of a Catholic priest and a heavy metal headbanger, who join forces to stop the birth of the Antichrist. While that should be more than sufficient to sell this glorious film, there’s MORE! Here are a few words I swiped from the start of the trailer for Day of the Beast that further illuminate the film’s fantastic balls-out synopsis:

On December 25, 0000 Christ was born
On December 25, 2000, The Anti-Christ will be born.
One pious priest can stop this force of evil
But to gain admittance to the devil’s coven, he must become…
A SINNER

DAMN. I can’t recommend strongly enough that you try to track this film down (as well as pretty much every other title in this post) and own it, especially if you’re a fan of blasphemy and priests doing all kinds of stuff that only Satan would approve of. I’ve posted a large selection of holiday horror film movie posters and DVD art below as well as the bonkers trailer for Day of the Beast. Hail Santa!
 

‘Silent Night, Bloody Night’ 1972
 
Much more art depicting yuletide gore after the jump…....
 

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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12.14.2017
09:37 am
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Get stoned with Santa and the Grinch! Awesome Christmas-themed bongs and pipes


A massive Grinch bong made by Smoking Peppers in Durango, Colorado.
 
If your life’s dream has been to get stoned using a pipe that was fashioned after everyone’s favorite Christmas bunny, Ralphie from the 1983 classic holiday film A Christmas Story, then I have great news for you. Such a pipe exists, and it can be yours just in time to meet Santa under the tree so you can smoke a sweet bowl of full of Bruce Banner (one of my preferred strains) together. Christmas is SAVED!

In addition to their sweet Ralphie pipe, California company Chameleon Glass also makes a pipe in the image of the Grinch, the abominable snowman Bumble from the Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), and of course Santa. I also dug up a Frosty the Snowman pipe for 45 bucks here, as well as a couple of cool snowmen bongs. If you’re a fan of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, there are a few bongs and pipes out there that pay homage to characters in the film like Jack Skellington and the Oogie Boogie.

The most covetable of the all of the bongs and pipes seen here, of course, is the bong pictured at the top of this post of our beloved grumpy Grinch which was made by a glass artist for Smoking Peppers in Durango, Colorado. The impressive bong was priced at $1200—though I’m unsure if it sold so perhaps you still might be able to give the greatest Christmas gift of all time to yourself or your favorite stoner.

I’ve provided links to purchase the various holiday-themed smoking devices under their images. Stay stoned my friends.
 

Another look at the Grinch bong.
 

The Ralphie pipe by Chameleon Glass. Get it here.
 

Frosty the Snowman glass pipe. Get it here.
 
More festive glass after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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12.04.2017
10:41 am
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Vintage photographs of women posing with their pagan fertility symbols
12.23.2016
08:13 am
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000xmastree.jpg
 
Every Fall I keep my eyes peeled for the appearance of the first Christmas tree. They seem to come earlier every year. The earliest I’ve ever seen one was at the end of September last year when a bright glittering aluminum tree appeared high in a tenement window in the north of the city.

By December windows all across town are glowing bright with colored lights like so many opened windows on an Advent calendar. The earlier the tree, the more likely it is to be aluminum—or “artificial” as we call it in the UK—for obvious reasons.

My parents always had a fake tree, which was taken down from the attic during the second week of December then covered with baubles, tinsel, candy canes and lights. The usual kinda stuff. There was always a great pleasure taken in decorating the tree—a childish excitement at the fast approaching holidays.

Which brings me to these fine vintage photographs from the 1950s and 1960s of women proudly sitting or standing beside their Christmas trees—looking all happy and proud. Though these are quite wonderfully festive pictures they kinda overlook the original history of such seasonal trees as giant phallic symbols that have a pagan history going way back to ancient times.

Depending on who you read the Christmas tree became fashionable with northern Europeans around the mid-fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Estonia and Latvia still bicker over who put up the first Christmas tree—the Estonian’s claim they did in 1441—while the Latvians point out they have documentary evidence to the first decorated Christmas tree displayed in Riga in 1510.

Thereafter, the use of trees to celebrate Christmas spreads to northern Germany where the first printed reference of such festive firs appears in 1531. These trees were later decorated with cake, candles and even glass baubles.

This tradition spread to England where in 1800 Queen Charlotte the German wife of George III, “set up the first known English tree at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, in December, 1800.” It would take until during the 1840s when—after their promotion by Prince Albert (the German husband of Queen Victoria) and through Charles Dickens’s popular festive tales—decorated Christmas trees became a seasonal “thing” in people’s houses, rather than town squares or churches. The Christmas tree was seen as a symbol of renewal and hope—which kinda takes it back to its pagan history.

Long, long before Victorians popularized the Xmas tree—the ancient Greeks considered pine trees as sacred to Attis the god of flora and Cybele the Earth goddess. The Greeks were said to decorate their trees with small silver trinkets as a symbol of rebirth and renewal—which was similar to how the ancient Egyptians viewed their palm trees, using palm leaves to decorate their homes as as “sign of resurrection.”

Then there were the Romans who associated evergreens with the return of the sun during their festivities for Saturnalia during December—a period of gift giving, feasting and human sacrifice. The Romans decorated their “trees with bits of metal and replicas of their god, Bacchus [a fertility god]. They also placed 12 candles on the tree in honor of their sun god.”

The evergreen fir tree was seen as a highly potent phallic symbol for continuing fertility during the winter solstice—symbolizing the soon approaching Spring and the birth of new life.
 
001xmastree.jpg
Just waitin’ for Santa.
 
009xmastree.jpg
Santa knows if you’ve been naughty or nice.
 
More festive women and their Xmas trees, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.23.2016
08:13 am
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Fabulous ‘Mermen’ Christmas ornaments to make your tree gay & bright this year!
12.20.2016
10:24 am
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‘Bear Merman’ glass ornament. Get it here.
 
If you’re still looking for the perfect holiday gift I have good news for you. While I was finishing up my own shopping I came across these absolutely fabulous ‘Merman” tree ornaments that totally made my day.

Made by a Florida-based company called Diamonds of the Sea there is a nice variety of glass Mermen for you to choose from such as a Lumberjack carrying some (ahem) wood, a cop, and a my personal favorite a “bear” complete with a hairy chest, mustache and beard. If this all sounds good to you then I have even better news because many of the Mermen can still ship out in time to be the greatest Christmas gift ever.

I’ve posted loads of pictures of the adorable, shirtless Mermen for you to consider below along with links to where they can be purchased. Because if you don’t know anyone that would appreciate a gay Merman ornament then you’re probably hanging out with the wrong people. Merry Christmas!
 

‘Lumberjack Merman.’ Get it here.
 

‘P-Town Merman.’ Get it here.
 
More merry Mermen after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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12.20.2016
10:24 am
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Unplugged: Controversial Xmas ‘Tree’ sculpture deflated by vandals
10.18.2014
10:05 am
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This morning Parisians awoke to find Paul McCarthy’s controversial sculpture “Tree” looking like a discarded giant prophylactic after it was deflated by vandals at the Place Vendôme, Paris, during the night.

Since its installation the art work has divided opinion with many Parisians outraged by the 80 foot sculpture’s similarity to an… er… adult novelty item. Well, it now turns out that “Tree” was indeed inspired by that very item as artist McCarthy told Le Monde newspaper that “It all started as a joke.”

“...I realised it resembled a Christmas tree, but it is an abstract work. People can be offended if they want to think of it as a plug, but for me it is more of an abstraction.”

The “abstraction” was lost on some Parisians with one irate passerby slapping the 69-year-old artist in the face and shouting:

“You’re not French and this has no place in the square.”

McCarthy was allegedly dazed but unhurt by the assault and asked:

“Does this sort of thing happen often in Paris?”

The sculpture was specially created by the artist for Paris’s International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC) that is being held in the city between 23rd-26th October. McCarthy’s previous work includes an enormous Santa Claus with what some critics claim is an unfeasibly large implement in his hand and a sculpture of former US President George W Bush getting intimate with pigs.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, vandals climbed the metal fence surrounding the giant sculpture before cutting the power supply that pumped air into the inflatable and slashing the tether that kept it upright.

According to the Daily Telegraph, McCarthy said he did not want the sculpture re-inflated or repaired. However, the paper also reported that organisers at FIAC said the sculpture would be “re-installed” as soon as possible. Now, that sounds painful…
 

 
Via the Daily Telegraph

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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10.18.2014
10:05 am
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Furious mayor declares his city’s Christmas tree the ‘worst in the world’
12.18.2013
11:27 am
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Mayor Darryn Lyons, of Geelong in Australia, has declared his city’s Christmas tree to be the worst in the world and he ain’t too happy about it. “It’s an absolute disgrace,” Mayor Lyons said.

Apparently the tree set the city back $30,000 (£16,500, US$27,000). AND the starfish decorations. Don’t get Mayor Lyons started on the starfish decorations.
 

 
Via Arbroath

Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.18.2013
11:27 am
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