I took this photo last night, outside of what I’ll call the Crazy Christmas House in Canarsie, Brooklyn. The wooden Nutcracker guy actually marches — he’s not just stationary — and that green duck near the front door streams an endless carol of “Feliz Navidad.” (I mean, of course the green duck is Latino!) Nearby is a merry-go-round, a carousel, a gigantic display of Santa’s Workshop, a nativity scene that takes up an entire garage, and Santa Claus, in the front window, reading Christmas stories. It’s one of the most excessive things I’ve ever seen.

But I get it. My boyfriend and I drove thirty minutes to see it, so we’re complicit in the excess. Because if this isn’t the “real” America — like, you know, the whole Go-Big-or-Go-Home and Holy-Shit-Do-We-Like-Shiny-Things! America — then, really, I don’t know what is. That’s the America we craned our necks to see.