When Did Parade Balloons Stop Being Creepy? (And How Do We Get the Strangeness Back?)

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Our traditional holiday piece, The Short Brutal Life of A Parade Balloon, focuses on their more mortal aspects   . . .

The Atlantic's Phillip Bump has stumbled across the not unsurprising fact that The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Balloons Used to Be Extremely Creepy, with everything from flying pigs . . .

image: New York Public Library

. . . to alligators, grumpy Captain Nemo's, and floating disembodied heads . . . 

image: Associated Press

I don't have any balloon images from old Chicago parades, but this photo of a glammed-up Humpty Dumpty on State Street may gave an idea of the idiom of the day . .  .

image courtesy The Chuckman Collection

Today, even in Chicago, balloons tend to veer towards a Disneyfied blandness . . .

.  . . and the most readily recognized brands . . .  

Is it too late to get a little strangeness back into the parade balloon design equation?  I'm cheered by this Instagram image from Bjarke Ingels from this year's Macy's parade . . . 

Christmas in Chicago Retro: Zoo Lights, Trains, Trees and Kringles

Okay, so we just posted on Christmas in Chicago 2012.  Now here's what it was like in 2009 . . .

Check out all the photographs here. And if you're still not Christmas'd out, check all the great photo essays and stories from previous years.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas in Chicago 2012: a City's Architecture as Holiday Backdrop

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Yes, it's time for annual photographic essay on how Christmas transforms Chicago and its architecture, complete with our patented bad video of interesting things . . .
As the jolly guy says as his train pulls away:  "Santa's got to fly!  Stand Back!  See ya all Soon!"

And so, dear readers,  a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!  . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Parade!

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See all the photos after the break . . .

A Holiday Tradition: The Short, Brutal Life of a Parade Balloon

Read the story and see all the pictures (parental supervision advised) here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"I can't believe you cut the turkey!" - Gabriel Krichinsky, as played by the great, late Lou Jacobi.

May your family gathering be bereft of such schisms, and may you take a turkey out for a tofu dinner. Have a great holiday, Pilgrim!

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 a horrified onlooker reacts to the pummeled remains of Yogi Bear