In the weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday, people all over the United States decorate their yards and homes with colored lights, plastic Nativity scenes, and inflatable Santas.

Of these, only the Nativity scenes, which recreate the scene of Christ''s birth in a stable, have anything at all to do with the event that the holiday ostensibly celebrates.

Santa Claus, snowmen, elves, reindeer, and wreaths are far more common. In recent years, inflatable figures, lit from the inside and often incorporating motorized parts, have become wildly popular.

The photographs in this project document some of the kitschy and often over-the-top strange decorations that I have seen in my hometown, Fort Wayne, and the surrounding areas in northeast Indiana.