If there’s one thing we could all use in 2020,
it’s something to look forward to. Which
could be why holiday decorating has gone
into turbo mode this year: Elaborate Hal-
loween tableaus lit up yards in August, and
Christmas and Hanukkah decorations
started popping up in July.
Among the usual tinsel, star toppers and
pine cones, topical décor also abounds this
year, like ornaments rendered in the like-
ness of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and menorahs
featuring an even-more-miniature Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There’s also the inev-
itable flurry of objects making references to
the Great Toilet Paper Panic of 2020.
Vendors who deal in seasonal cheer
had to make a choice this summer:
proceed with business as usual, or
lean into the grief, anxiety and nihil-
ism of this year, and hopefully make
people laugh in the process. “We had
no idea what the holidays were going to
look like,” said Chelsie Rowlett, the chief
technology officer of the Houston boutique
Biscuit Home. “We all joked at the time that
Christmas was canceled.”
In July, the store cautiously ordered three
pandemic-related ornaments, unsure how
they would be received; when the items
went on sale in September, Biscuit sold
more than 1,500 in the first day. “We were
blown away,” Ms. Rowlett, 30, said.
Ann Sinclair, 39, the owner of the Fig Tree
in Chicago, said the choice to sell topical or-
naments, dark as they may be, was a “no-
brainer.”
“Humor and snark have always been part
of my brand,” she said.
In addition to ornaments featuring Dr.
Fauci and toilet paper, she will be selling
tiny dumpster fires and bottles of hand sani-
tizer to hang on the tree. The store also has a
“Pandemic Collection” of greeting cards,
some with “sentiments that I’m pretty sure
are not fit to print,” Ms. Sinclair said.
It may be hard to imagine hanging a
dumpster fire figurine next to your great-
grandmother’s blown-glass vintage Santa,
but for many people, holiday decorations
are about commemorating the past year,
and as 2020 comes to a close, a dumpster
fire seems pretty appropriate.
On sites devoted to artisanal goods and
crafting, people are avidly searching for
such items. Dayna Isom Johnson, a trend
expert at Etsy, said there was a 260 percent
increase in searches for mask décor be-
tween August and September.
Swasti Sarna, an insights manager at
Pinterest, said that in years past, people
started searching for holiday décor in Sep-
tember, but this year, searches began in
April. Many of them were on brand for2020: ornaments featuring toilet paper, face
masks and messages for home-schooling
moms.
Kristen Hatfield, 31, an Etsy shop owner,
started making and selling hand-painted
wood pandemic-themed ornaments in July.
Ms. Hatfield, who lives in Kentucky, said
crafting and painting the ornaments had be-
come a form of therapy for her during a
tough time. “I wanted to make something
that might give others a chuckle to re-
member this crazy year,” she said.
Laura Davis, 56, the owner of the
online shop Needlepoint by Laura,
said her business had increased
fourfold in 2020. Initially she was
worried about making light of the
year’s vast devastation, but the more
sarcastic and nihilistic offerings in her
shop have become best sellers.
Even more traditional holiday outlets like
Old World Christmas, which has been sell-
ing handblown glass ornaments for 40
years, are seeing big sales of 2020- and pan-
demic-related items. “Our Santa with a face
mask ornament is outselling anything
we’ve ever made,” said Neal Applefeld, the
chief executive of the company.
Mr. Applefeld, 53, said that in past years
people had gravitated toward items that
commemorate new babies or anniversa-
ries. This year, it’s ornaments in the shape
of comfort foods like mac and cheese and ra-
men, as well as martinis, wine and beer.
There has also been a spike in travel- and
gardening-related ornaments.
“It’s interesting to watch, because I think
people are buying ornaments that reflect
things that gave them comfort at home, or
things we’ve been missing in our lives,” Mr.
Applefeld said.
Ms. Sinclair, of the Fig Tree, said she
found solace in these 2020-themed decora-
tions. “I think about hanging them on my
tree in 2060 when I’m a little old lady,” she
said. “I guess it gives me hope that one day,
this pandemic will be in our rearview mir-
ror.”Dark Humor
For the Holidays
Decorations from
Needlepoint by Laura,
left; the Fig Tree in
Chicago, above; and
Biscuit Home in
Houston, below.By DINA GACHMANOrnaments and other décor go topical
for much-needed pandemic laughs.
2 ST THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020A report last Sunday about the
wedding of Samantha McCluskey
and Louis Keleher misstated the
year of the couple’s first date. It was
in 2016, not 2018.
A report last Sunday about the
wedding of Roxann Belle and Gaspar
Stinfil misstated the location of the
ceremony. It was at the San Fran-
cisco Palace of Fine Arts, not at City
Hall, where they had originally
planned to wed.CORRECTIONSAge 28HometownPerth, AustraliaNow LivesA one-bedroom in West
Hollywood, Calif., filled with art
and fluffy pillows.Claim to FameMs. Bahbah is an
Australian visual artist known for
her color-saturated photographs
of young women, as well as the
heartthrob actors Dylan Sprouse
and Noah Centineo. She also runs
Possy, a creative agency in Los
Angeles, through which she di-
rected a music video for Kygo, a
rising Norwegian D.J., and creat-
ed an ad campaign for Gucci’sGuilty cologne.
“My art is birthed from the
deeply challenging and sacred act
of giving myself permission to be
vulnerable during adversity,” she
said, “and allowing the pain from
my traumas and experience to
simply exist without my condi-
tioned impulse to repress, disas-
sociate or escape.”Big BreakIn 2014, while she was
an art director at a small ad
agency in Melbourne, Ms. Bahbah
released a 26-part photo project
on Instagram called “Sex and
Takeout,” which captures young
women in various states of un-
dress indulging in food. She re-
ceived more than 50,000 new
followers the next morning and
dozens of interview requests.
“I quickly watched the body of
work circulate around several
media outlets, international art
fairs and countless social media
accounts for the next five years,
turning my art career from side
hustle to full-time artist,” she said.Latest ProjectLast month, she
released “3eib,” an Instagram
project that features 31 photos
and a video of herself reciting a
poem she wrote about the sexual
abuse she suffered as a child.3eib, which describes shame in
Arabic, is her most vulnerable
work yet. “In my previous work, I
revealed my trauma but hid my-
self behind other bodies because I
was not ready to completely
expose myself to my corrupted
standards of Western beauty and
the violence of shame stigmatized
by my Arab culture,” Ms. Bahbah
said.Next ThingMs. Bahbah is work-
ing on a second installment of
“Sex and Takeout,” this time
featuring three Black trans wom-
en. She also plans to start a cloth-
ing company called Lazy Cake,
featuring sweatsuits embroideredwith quotes from the subtitles
used in her previous photo series,
such as “Wine is the only one I
can trust.” “When you wear this
sweatsuit, you’re essentially
giving yourself permission to rest,
to be lazy, to do absolutely noth-
ing, or eat what you want without
guilt or shame,” she said.Open BookAs a Palestinian wom-
an raised in the suburbs of Perth,
Australia, Ms. Bahbah struggled
with identity and self-expression.
She turned to art as a way to
process her experiences. “My art
is birthed from the deeply chal-
lenging and sacred act of giving
myself permission to be emotion-
ally transparent,” she said.
BRIANNA HOLTUP NEXT
SARAH BAHBAHShe Uses Her Camera
To Process Trauma
Sarah Bahbah at her home, in front of one of her photographs.CHLOE PANG FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESFashion isn’t clothes—it’s community.To all those who sketch, cut, design, assemble, style,model, photograph, curate and deliver the fashion that
helps us express who we want to be...THANK YOU FOR CREATING.
Sacai.