Very spiky balls hanging in the mall.

I’ve seen dangerous-looking Christmas decorations at the mall before, but at least those looked like…well, Christmas decorations. This spiked ball looks like something you’d find at the end of a mace, or maybe on the end of a chain for some knight to swing around.

Maybe the order called for a “morning star” and someone got confused?

For various reasons, braved the crowds at South Coast Plaza yesterday. Oddly, it’s the easiest mall I’ve parked at all weekend. Getting to the Marketplace was a disaster, but that’s just because the streets are wholly inadequate to get cars in and out of the parking lot, and the Village (formerly the Mall of Orange) was just plain full.

At South Coast, as part of their Christmas decorations, they had these giant, shiny, 14-pointed stars hanging from the ceiling in several places.

Stars of Doom!

Classic Christmas, but when you go down to the first floor and look up, there are all these giant, gleaming spikes hanging over your head.

Death (star) from above!

It’s a little disconcerting. “Death from above!” is not something I want my holiday decorations to invoke.