If the inflatable Three Wise Men hope to worship an inflatable baby Jesus this Christmas, they're out of luck (the air-filled Savior won't reach stores until 2004). But they can pay homage to a blow-up Bart Simpson, Scooby-Doo or giant penguin.
These and other 8-foot-tall, electric-powered balloons are sprouting up on lawns and roofs nationwide. The perpetrator of the trend is Gemmy Industries of Texas, whose previous cultural triumphs include Big Mouth Billy Bass, a Dick Vitale alarm clock and a line of animatronic dancing hamster dolls.
The lawn inflatables debuted two years ago as a domesticated version of those blimp-sized gorillas tethered to car dealerships and other businesses.
"We started with two styles -- a Santa and a snowman," says Jason McCann, Gemmy's vice president of marketing. Today, the number of designs has soared past 400, including a Winnie-the-Pooh vampire for Halloween, a goofy turkey for Thanksgiving, assorted Disney and Dr. Seuss characters, NFL players and two dozen college mascots. On tap for 2004: a Shrek Valentine's Day balloon, a Nativity set and a giant pink flamingo. Prices range from about $38 to $100 for 12-foot-high models.
Powered by a small fan and illuminated by seven internal lights, the standard Airblown Inflatable guzzles less electricity than a string of Christmas bulbs, McCann says. And the setup takes just a few minutes.
Some owners put the balloons on timers. During the day, they look like puddles of plastic on the lawn, "then at dusk, they start rising out of the ground," McCann says.
A few inflatables live indoors. A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, which has sold out of the product at some stores, says she's heard about customers displaying the balloons in their family rooms.
Although officials at Gemmy (pronounced "jemmy") won't reveal precise sales figures, McCann says hundreds of thousands of the inflatable creatures are now lurking in American yards.
The vast majority seem to be camped out at the home of Sharla and Greg Gerhardt in Sparks, Nev. The couple displays so many Christmas inflatables -- 35 and counting -- that they had to haul in a diesel generator to power them. The menagerie includes seven polar bears huddled around a homemade campfire, a row of snowmen, a rooftop Santa and a Grinch in the family's treehouse.
"We're a little crazy," Sharla Gerhardt concedes. In addition to the inflatables, she and her husband host a holiday hayride, string up hundreds of lights and dress their live, noninflatable goat in a Santa hat.
