unholiday – Into the West

Nine Years of unHoliday Spirit

unHoliday Decorations 2018 (click image to see all nine years worth of unHoliday Spirit)

I started this blog in October 2010, over nine years ago. I had blogged for a couple of years, writing book reviews mostly, on MySpace, but didn’t care for their interface. Once I found GoodReads (Summer 2008), I started writing reviews there and then when I re-discovered my love for astronomy, I needed a place to post photos and write about my new adventures. Less than two months into my new blog, after returning to work from Thanksgiving, I walked into my building and saw the most hideous holiday decorations of my life. I took a photo with my cell phone (remember, it was nearly ten years ago, so the quality sucks) and post the first of my longest running blog series on ‘unHoliday’ decorations.

To see all the lobby decorations for the past nine years, click on the photo above to be taken to my Flickr album.

For even more fun, help me decide which of the Nine should be awarded the title of “Worst unHoliday Decoration” by participating in this completely unscientific poll: https://forms.gle/mmUEnKRSvswL8MUf6
Jon Moss, November 2019

For the past nine years I had to console myself with the Country Club Plaza Lights, the Mayor’s Christmas Tree at Crown Center, the Kansas City Life Insurance Building and an annual trip to the inside of Union Station.

There is hope for my building as the Curse of the unChristmas Spirit appears to have been lifted and will be revealed in a forthcoming post.

Merry Bowlingmas

Welcome to my annual roasting of my building’s attempts at modern art holiday decorating. When I showed my husband this year’s photo, his first words were: “Bowling pins?”

20171127_160137 — unHoliday Lobby Decorations (2017)

I had to concede his point. At least this year the dominant color is red with a swash of green.

Continue reading “Merry Bowlingmas”

A Deer in the Headlights

It’s not bad enough that my Texas trip was cancelled at the last minute. Or that I haven’t seen the sun since before Thanksgiving and that Kansas City is experiencing it’s fifth consecutive day of rain and drizzle (more rain today as it’s slightly above freezing). Or that I gave up my day off to voluntarily drive the vanpool to work because I believed both my back drivers had requested this Monday after Thanksgiving off. Surprise! Both of them rode in the van this morning.

Nope, it couldn’t possibly get any worse, right? Until I remembered as I got off the parking garage elevator and walked to the building elevators and saw this:

Continue reading “A Deer in the Headlights”

Looking Like Christmas in Kansas City

You can always count on Hallmark and Crown Center to pull out all the stops at Christmas time. I drive through the heart of Crown Center twice a day during my commute. The December mornings are especially pretty in the pre-dawn darkness:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/mossjon/93qF0V — Mayor’s Christmas Tree at Crown Center (Dec 2014)

Continue reading “Looking Like Christmas in Kansas City”

Decorations Making Me Cringe

My building continues its tradition of untraditional completely politically correct unholiday decorations. I came back from a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday vacation to this … whatever you might call it … ‘greeting’ me at the elevators:

I’ll have to see this ‘festive’ accretion for at least another thirty days.

My consolation though is my twice daily ‘fix’ of proper Christmas decorations when I drop off riders at Crown Center, headquarters of Hallmark.

To see what my building accosted us with last year, follow this link.

unHappy unHolidays

I walked into my building’s lobby yesterday morning, returning from more than a week of vacation in Texas, completely oblivious to the unHoliday decorations sprouting around me. That is until I stood idly waiting for an elevator to arrive to whisk me vertically to my floor and found this assaulting my eyes:

I must admit, compared to last year’s lobby largesse, this year’s decorations are a slight improvement, but seem to be a return to the first year (being 2010) metal montage. Then the building launched it’s crusade to snuff out any resemblance to traditional Christmas heraldry.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the last three years worth of unholiday spirit on display in the building lobby:

All I can say is at least this year’s metallic monstrosity matches the color scheme near the garage access elevators:

Thank goodness for my two daily stops at Hallmark, where I can bask in the warmth of a more traditional Christmas spirit on display, spreading Peace, Love and Joy indiscriminately.

Return of the unHolidays

unHoliday Decorations II

I returned to work today after a long Thanksgiving break. As I approached the elevators, I became concerned that a new form of fungus had usurped our sedate lobby ferns. Then I remembered. The building must have hired the same interior designer from last year’s decorations. I am tempted to scrounge through my Christmas decorations at home and bring in the largest brightest red and green balls to hang clandestinely among the bleak colorless concoction displayed above.

I’m getting depressed just looking at this picture. Ugh.

unHoliday Decorations

I returned to work this morning to this lovely creation in the elevator lobby. Is it just me, or does this creations seem to celebrate autumn, rather than a traditional holiday occurring within a few days of the winter solstice?

Happy unHolidays?!?!

November 30, 2010