Art is in the Eye of the Beholder and Her Pocketbook

The Collectibles Guide and Miniatures Guide at About.com would literally kill me for saying this, but who buys all this crap? I imagine these mail-order houses probably hold private contests for artists to see who can come up with the gaudiest most awful-looking piece of trash. I bet they award prizes for the tackiest design in collectibles. I mean, what else could explain this phenomenon?

You can’t pick up a Parade insert in the Sunday newspaper without finding a full-page ad for some tasteless trinket or a limited edition Elvis Presley inspiration pressed into velvet and passed off as collectibles.

I used to think the baby angel on a motorcycle wearing a leather jacket was my favorite, but yesterday, The Bradford Editions reached a new low that exceeded my wildest imagination.

Let me see if I can describe this accurately enough for you to picture this newest little gem. It’s a foot-high crystal snowman with extended arms made from bell-shaped glass, wearing metallic mittens, matching scarf and a top hat that resembles a dinner plate topped by a diamond ring and finished with a crystal bowl.

But wait, there’s more, inside the body of the snowman is a tiny little Bavarian village with houses, a church, pond, walking bridge and 12 itty bitty villagers, all dusted with snow. If that’s not enough to flip your switch, the exterior base has a miniature holiday train that actually moves around the snowman. And the whole thing lights up. The glass also has swirls and gilded touches, and for good measure, the artists threw in a miniature lantern suspended by a diamond-looking tennis bracelet around the snowman’s right mitten.

And it’s only a $100. I bet The Bradford Editions makes hundreds of thousands of dollars on this cheeky masterpiece. I’m sorry if I have offended Thomas Kinkade aficionados and doubly sorry if you wake up one morning to find this holiday spirit-filled inspiration on your doorstep, but somebody has to step forward here and just say no to this stuff.

While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs published in previous years.