Have a Beery, Beery Christmas!
If it's Christmas, and the wreaths are made of brewski bottles, you know you're in Philly.
Leave it to someone in the City of Brotherly Love to come up with a holiday decoration that combines the exuberance of Christmas with a Philadelphian's love of suds.
These hilarious - and oddly gorgeous - wreaths were made from beer bottles by the staff at South Philadelphia Taproom, 15th and Mifflin.
"We were trying to come up with something to give the people at Philadelphia Brewing Company for their Christmas party," says Kelly Longacre, who co-owns the taproom with her husband John; PBC is one of their most loyal suppliers. "John thought it would be funny to make them a Christmas wreath out of their own beer bottles."
The bottles are wired together at their necks, then pulled into a circle and adorned with a bow at the base.
They weigh a ton. Can you imagine how much heavier they'd be if they weren't empty?
One wreath is comprised by only blue, Newbold bottles - a brand the brewery created in honor of the South Philly's "Newbold" section - a name that John Longacre newly christened the the taproom's neighborhood, which is having a bit of a renaissance.
A second, multicolored wreath uses bottles from PBC and other creators of yummy beers.
These wreaths are so ingenious, so unquestionably hometown, they got me thinking that there must be many more, only-in-Philly Christmas decorations that deserve inclusion in this blog.
Like what, you ask?
Oh, I don't know - maybe someone has made a life-size sleigh carved out of Scrapple? Or a Philly cream-cheese, front-porch Frosty?
Share your Philly-inpsired Christmas decorating ideas and anecdotes, or e-mail me your photos (polaner@phillynews.com), and I'll post them here.
Food, by the way, doesn't have to inform the décor. It's just where my brain usually heads, all by itself.
Note: Crossposted at Earth to Philly.