Indie Squid Kid

My plans for a week of short Christmas ornament posts got waylaid by a time destroying combination of illness, work, weather, and social commitments. So here are the two that were intended for Thursday and Friday…

This Santopus (or should that be Cephaloclaus?) ornament sports a biologically inaccurate toothy grin (and eye brows), but I’m willing to go easy on it because its arms all twist and curl in different directions. And I think that’s neat.

This one is probably my favorite of the bunch—a Sperm Whale and and a Giant Squid (and some echinoderms) on a wreath of seaweed. The ornament came from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. It is particularly appropriate because the museum’s logo was inspired by one of the oldest specimens in their collection: a complete skeleton of Physeter macrocephalus.

Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like Hellboy draped in tentacles., originally uploaded by Cryptonaut.

The classic image of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy draped in giant tentacles, that we first saw in Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #2 (1994), was finally rendered in Christmas ornament form in 2002. The ornament was sculpted by the now apparently defunct Big Chief Studios and released by Dark Horse Comics.

Christmas octopus 2007, originally uploaded by Cryptonaut.

Elves make the toys, reindeer pull the sleigh, but cephalopods are perfect for the oft-overlooked but highly important task of keeping the Christmas lights untangled!

My sister got this festive octopus ornament for me a couple of years ago in the U.S. Virgin Islands—St. Thomas, to be exact.

Christmas octopus sees you!, originally uploaded by Cryptonaut.

Cephalopodmas (aka Squidmas, aka Solstice) is next Tuesday, so every day this week I will post a bonus photo of a different cepahlopod holiday ornament.

I don’t think this rubber octopus was intended to be a Christmas decoration, but it has a string on it so…POW! ORNAMENT!