If there's one thing to take away from the commercialized part of the holiday season, it's that Hot Wheels and Matchbox aren't the be-all and end-all of miniature cars. Just as trees are decorated to suit owners' tastes, cars have come out in ornament form to help with that.
Because I can't get away with covering a tree in Christmas Puffalumps or secretly hooking up the house lights to the internet, I must resort to other means of decoration. Usually, they're cars.
Some of the cars on the tree are just ones that looked cool, like this turquoise 1957 Chevy Bel-Air hauling presents and a tree.
Others are more stylized, such as this pink 50s-style convertible being driven by a reindeer.
Other vehicles were more stylized to begin with—namely, in the shape of a giant wiener. If you don't recognize this car, I don't think we can be friends anymore.
Many more, such as this red Ford pickup and the turquoise glitter-Beetle-like-thing at the top of the page, were either cars we've owned or cars related to ones we've owned.
Yes, my mom had a Beetle with flowers painted over the dents. Raphael needs to do the same with his Baja Bug. Flowers. Everywhere.
Dad's most memorable old cars—which I'm still mad at him for getting rid of, by the way—were a series of C3 Corvettes. I haven't found one of those in ornament form yet, but I have found a Santa in a generic C1-like car and an insanely detailed black C6.
This car was made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Chevrolet, and the ornament version even has a full interior inside.
If there's not a 50th Anniversary 911 somewhere in ornament form, I'm going to be one sad Porschetard.
Not to leave out trainlopnik or planelopnik, we've got those, too.
Just to make sure we haven't left out anything with wheels, there's also a tractor.
Of course—because it's my tree—we have the Killer Rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, too.
It's so soft and fluffy!
Regardless of what you're celebrating this holiday season, show us your shiny vehicular holiday baubles in the comments below.
Merry everything!
Additional photo credit: Stef's Mom (Stef and bunny)