Saturday 7 December 2013

4 easy ways to goth up the Holidays

In this post I am going to point out four easy ways to goth up the celebrations that occur in the latter half of December. One reason for this post is that I am going to spend my Christmas with some friends and we are going to do all kinds of funny things, since we all represent the darker subcultures. I shall make posts about them in the end of December. 

1. The Gingerbread House
Instead of the traditional gingerbread house you could try to make the house of The Addams Family as a 2D background for example and then the characters in front of it. Or, if you have to spend Christmas with people who are not going to allow you to do anything too bold, just add two little gingerbread men to the traditional installaton and call them Hansel and Gretel. Me and my friends are probably going to make an installation of the final days of the dinosaurs or a dramatic Jurassic Park scenario.


2. Snowman
I saw one with devil horns in a park the other day. Too bad I did not have my camera with me. So the tip is, why not make a really sinister looking snowman next to the gates of your garden? See if any Christmas carollers dear to knock your door.


3. Candles
This time of the year is mostly dark and all celebration is concentrated around the day when sun is starting to shine a bit more, basically all celebration in the end of December is about celebrating the turning point of winter towards spring and summer. Generally people tend to burn more candles when it is dark and cold, but some people claim people used to burn a lot of candles and torches during the winter solstice to encourage sun to "win the darkness".

I am not going to say goths are the children of darkness or anything that cheesy, but I'd like to point out that a lonely candle makes the darkness around seem even more dark. Candles seem to be widely accepted decorations in goth subculture and so they are when it comes to christmas ornaments. But those candles with happy little elves and reindeer are not that goth-y. On the other hand I think those candles with an elf or an angel decoration are a bit perverse and sadistic. I mean, you burn them. The little happy elves are going to melt.


4. Special Christmas decorations
There are a lot of little enterprises who make all kinds of decorations and I am quite sure a goth can find a lot of creepy and kooky ornaments online. I myself bought some silver hand grenade ornaments for the spruce. First of all I think they are pretty in a very disturbing way. Secondly, I do not believe violence is productive way to solve conflicts and I think these ornaments can be seen as a joke or a twisted way to reflect how people have through out times justified a lot of violence, death and war with religion.

8 comments:

  1. Great ideas Jade. I might turn my small greenhouse into a Gingerbread House this year. Happy December.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. :) What do you mean you'll turn a greenhouse into a gingerbread house? Like you make an edible model of it or that you'll decorate the green house with gingerbread men?

      Delete
    2. I’ll all the junk from inside then cover it with ginger coloured cloth (Old dust sheets) and make a scene inside probably with figures and toys etc. but it`s just an idea yet.

      Delete
    3. Well, that idea sounds like a lot of fun! I hope you'll do that, or if you get another idea for the greenhouse, you'll take some pics and show it to the people in blogger. :)

      Delete
  2. Oooh please make the Jurassic Park one and then post pictures! Sounds awesome!

    Also... Krampus!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, Krampus! I had forgotten him because he is not a part of the trafitions we have in Finland. :D But I must include him into this year's celebrations!

      Delete
  3. I only tried a gingerbread house once - they're a lot harder than they look! I hope you do post pictures of whatever you end up making ... Jurassic Park sounds exciting! :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too feel a slight terror lurking behind me when I think about gingerbread installations. They are a LOT HARDER then they look, that sure is true! :D

      Delete