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By Sadie, December 23, 2011 12:51 am

In the last winter or two, I’ve noticed a growing trend that completely confuses me. What is the deal with outhouse themed holiday decor? I first noticed this when I spied a rustic outhouse in the Christmas village section at Walmart a couple of years ago. I laughed about it and even purchased a couple of them as gag gifts for cottaging family members. This winter though, I’m finding more weird holiday outhouses. I’m not quite sure how this decorating trend began or why anyone thinks it’s a good idea, but it seems to be here anyway.

The other thing that’s odd about it is how every one of them has that silly crescent moon-shaped cut in the door. Living out on the islands, basically no one has running water. We all have and use outhouses regularly and that means I’ve seen and used lots of outhouses in my lifetime. Out of all real life outhouses I have seen, none of them ever had that crescent shaped cut in the door. I really think that the moon is only found in fictitious outhouses. It’s impractical to have in real ones as it would just let bugs in and give the mosquitoes a way to come in an bite you at night. Plus, if you’re so far in the wilderness that you need to make a wooden house to go to the bathroom in, it’s probably safe to say that you’re far enough away from electricity that you wouldn’t be able to use any nifty electric woodworking tools to make curved cuts like that easy to do.

Maybe I’m just reading too much into it that I’m missing the holiday message. Who knows. Though I might not be willing to decorate my house with outhouses for the holidays, I’m willing to try decorating my outhouse with garland and battery powered lights this summer. Maybe a Christmas in July theme will help the holiday cheer last for the whole year – or it will at least give everyone something to giggle about when they go down the path.

Happy holidays to all.

The Walmart Christmas village outhouse that may have started the trend:

Inside / Outside makes outhouse ornaments – I had to buy the ornament set that included it because I wanted the Muskoka chair:

A singing Santa’s outhouse that I found at Big Lots – no I didn’t buy it:

An inflatable Santa’s outhouse at Lowes – I didn’t buy this either: