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Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Aesthetics of office decorations (holiday edition)

I arrived from my two days of jury duty fun (I was never called into the box), to discover that Halloween had come to my office environs. October had arrived. Still. If this is what had found, I would have been happy.



It was not what I found.

I don't like the aesthetics of my office as a whole. But, like a "make your own decisions" kind of boss, I let the mahogany and black happen. I have carpet. No one else does. I just ordered non-faux wood (it's just faux) for an office make-over. But furniture is not the subject here. It's shiny skeletons. Shiny pumpkins. Shiny witches.

Kind of like this (only bigger and more shiny):



It's horrifying. Not boo scary. Scary bad. Scary shiny. But, what can I say? I make noise about secular winter decorations and that results in a lot of snowmen (some shiny) in December. We are a state institution after all. But in October? Nothing I can say. Other than, "you decorated." Think flat tone there.

I shudder internally every time I walk out of my office. I don't mind the inflatable spider and would be fine with some leaves an a gourd or two.

So, here are the questions, blogfriends:

Do you decorate your office/office spaces?

For which holidays?

What's your aesthetic for that decoration?

Anyone want to trade some gourds for a shiny skeleton?

Oh, and if you like shiny jointed skeletons, speak up and tell me why!

By the way, I was looking for an image and discovered that "fallgourds.com" is available. Now's your chance!

7 comments:

WenWhit said...
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WenWhit said...

No, no, and no. No decorations in MY office (don't tell Scout I have an office with a door!)

We do put up a "holiday" tree in the reception area in December. It's a POS tiny fake and it's decorated by people with a 55 IQ. Now THAT'S festive!

Suzanne said...

Don't mention Wendy's office walls to Scout either.

I love gourds. We used to have a fellow who'd bring in gourds to decorate the front office during this season. But he got laid off. We will have no gourds this year.

Sometimes people bring in holiday themed food. But that doesn't really count as decoration, does it?

I say if someone is energetic and enthusiastic enough to put up the decorations, it behooves you to just relax and enjoy them. Even if they are shiny.

SassyFemme said...

I do put out a few seasonal decorations, seeing that my office is in a school, and we tend to be kid friendly - at least on our good days. However, I despise scary Halloween stuff, I prefer fall harvest.

Christmas decorations are generally snowman type things, but with a few santas sprinkled here and there, and an equal smattering of Hanukkah stuff just because it's the right thing to do.

bryduck said...

I only decorate for Christmas, and I only provide a lego Christmas tree for the occasion. Bah! Humbug. (But the tree is pretty, though.)

Teresa said...

No office decorations in our workplace. Nope. Serious business, the Gay Agenda™. We do have a couple of editors who generally set out holiday-themed candy, though. They become popular around this time.

Still, bet your shiny, shiny decorations pale in comparison to the bad taste our local Coco's restaurant exercised in strewing about rubber rats this Halloween season.

Middle Girl said...

Our office only decorates for Christmas. Chicago is home to a convention in our industry during that time of year and the owner and other corporate partners are in town. We host a dinner in our space to celebrate the season, the year. The usual, garland, bells, fake tree. One co-worker has collectible old-world Santas that he displays.