Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Kitschy Khristmas Shopping List #1

Submitted by Allee Willis December 19th, 2010
Certifikitsch Winner

Last weekend I drove down to San Diego to see a performance of my musical, The Color Purple. I rarely get a chance to see the show but when it’s anywhere near LA I choose which performances I’m going to see by which town has the best thrift shops and then I make a whole trip out of it. For this performance I mapped out all the second hand shops between LA and San Diego. But we left too late so dealt with the shopping jones in one antique mall in Solana Beach on the way to SD. I especially love antique malls this time of year because the Khristmas Kitsch comes out in full force.

Which is why no one should ever travel without a camera at this time of year. There is far too much kitsch to document by storing the wonderfulness in your head only.

The first thing I came across was this Bedazzled holiday fauna interpretation. These trees on felt or velvet are common Khristmas kraft faire but this one was done with more precision than most that line thrift shop shelves this time of year, with everything lying at the bottom of junk drawers messily glued on to form the tree. This crafter used chunks of resin to fill in the gaps between jewels instead of just accepting patches of black velvet looking like dead branches on the tree.

I am so not a Mickey Mouse connoisseur so don’t know the vintage of this, but were I to let the mouse run around my house it would likely be in the form of this plastic cup with the big feet and double holed grip.

You can always count on a sweater smorgasbord this time of the year.

I dig homemade Christmas decorations but for $95 Santa’s mail won’t be delivered anywhere near my house this year.

Were I of the right religion I would definitely have gone for the following. If anyone ever spots Moses rolling through the rushes in mosaic let me know.

I’m definitely not into these little guard guys but you always see them around at Christmas. This one is particularly festive. I especially love his rubber chair leg tip shoulder:

I know that it was the individual bunches of tinsel that were for sale here but if I were someone who was decorating for Christmas I would’ve bought this whole thing and used it as a giant ornament:

Barbie, of course, always gets in on the Christmas action. With this kind of packaging I wish she were made out of chocolate:

Little baldheaded children with long eyelashes always look good dressed for the holidays:

I know that snowmen always abound in Christmas decorations so nothing special here other than the homemade quality of these three. I especially like how off-center the nose is on the guy all the way to the right (the snowman’s right, not yours):

I always like light up yard decorations of Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. I love how coiffed Jesus is in this one, especially in his pink pantsuit, and how much baby Jesus looks like a bubbling souffle.

Vintage Pebble Art is great all times of the year but looks especially good in these praying Christmas portrayals:

Although it has nothing to do with Christmas, The Color Purple, the musical I co-wrote and which is what brought me down to San Diego in the first place, has an awful lot to do with a little girl praying and writing letters to God. Seeing my show for the last time for a few months until I fly to Detroit in April to conduct my high school marching band playing a medley of my greatest hits in the lobby of the Fox theater, where The Color Purple will be, was an excellent early Christmas present for me, especially after a day of such kitsch as aforementioned lighting up my eyes with wonderment. Look what God has done!

And speaking of purple and Christmas, it’s still not too late to order a lovely Pigmy Will ornament for the tree or to use as a hat on little baldheaded rubber Christmas children.

8 Responses to “Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Kitschy Khristmas Shopping List #1”

  1. k2dtw

    I love the mosaics.. LOL…I’ll be looking for baby Moses in mosaic…talk about a little rare…smile
    I got all excited..Picture #1…The Roy and Dale photo. I thought someone had embellished Dale Evans w/a Christmas Corsage!!! Then I realized it was the red berries from the “NOEL” arrangement…sigh..
    Have you ever re-arranged any of the colorful “NOEL” ceramics in a mall to “LEON???”….me either…smile

  2. Nessa

    I had a similar mickey mug when I was a kiddo… if I recall it also had a lid that was mouse-ear shaped with a straw-hole in it. I would assume it was from the same era, so early 1980s on that one. =)

  3. Bren

    Hurray for another fun and funky day!
    More kitch on the way some another day.
    Haven’t opened my gifts yet, hope there is kitsch in there.

  5. NancyKateGraysonDesign

    Lovely pic of Dale and Roy, gives me hope it was her 4th marriage, and what a proposal!
    ——————————————————-
    Roy Rogers And Dale Evans, Husband And Wife on Dec.31, 1947 New Years Eve.

    Dale and Roy resumed their friendship and spent countless hours together making movies and appearances at rodeos, auto races, fairs, and more. As the months went by their friendship deepened and took on a new and different tone. In the fall of 1947 Roy proposed marriage to Dale while he was sitting on Trigger and waiting to be introduced at a rodeo in Chicago. He was introduced immediately afterwards, and Dale had to wait for her own introduction to ride into the arena after him to say “yes” only moments before they sang the National Anthem together.
    Dale Evans and Roy Rogers were married in the home of Bill and Alice Liken on the Liken’s Flying L Ranch in Davis, Oklahoma on December 31, 1947. A snowstorm caused a lot of difficulty for the guests traveling to the wedding, and the minister was two hours late when the roads were closed and he had to finish his journey to the ranch on horseback. Dale and Roy were happily married for more than 50 years, until Roy’s death on July 6, 1998.