Every December, somewhere in the world, a perfectly innocent decoration goes up and someone starts laughing. A napkin is folded the wrong way, a string of lights is wrapped a little too enthusiastically around a palm trunk, or a cheerful Santa looks very different from behind. This collection gathers thirty of those festive design fails, mostly shared by their owners on Reddit, Imgur and Twitter, where communities such as r/CrappyDesign have turned spotting them into a hobby.
Almost none of these were meant as jokes. They happen because designers and decorators look at an object from one angle, at one size, at one stage of production, while the rest of us see the finished thing in a living room, a shopping centre or a street at night. A shape that reads as a candle on paper can read as something else entirely once it is lit, wrapped or photographed from the side. Our brains are wired to find familiar shapes, so once a second meaning appears it is very hard to unsee.
The photos below are grouped by where things went wrong, each with a credit to the person who shared it. At the end there is a short checklist for anyone making their own decorations or cards who would rather not end up in a list like this one.
At the table and on the mantelpiece
Napkins with a mind of their own
A long dinner table set with red damask, white plates and wine glasses looks ready for a family feast. The napkins, folded into tall standing cones and propped in each glass, are meant to be elegant; from this angle, the shape suggests something else. Shared by Lemonlaksen
Cookies shaped like candles
A home baker’s cookie, iced in white to look like a candle with dripping wax and set on a base of sugar sprinkles. The idea is charming; the proportions and the “drip” are where it goes wrong. Shared by furzigel
Bell-shaped bells
A pack of 21 glittery gold and red decorations, sold under a “Holiday Time” label as “bell shaped bells”. This is less a dirty joke than a wonderfully redundant product description, the kind that makes people wonder what other shape a bell could be. Shared by paigepaige77
Angel candle holders
Two glittery angel figurines in pink robes, each holding a tall candle at waist height. Seen side-on, the candle position turns sweet carollers into a classic accidental innuendo, a problem a simple change of angle in the mould would have avoided. Shared by Anitia158
Baby Jesus, or a toe?
A small ceramic ornament hanging on a tree shows the infant Jesus swaddled in a manger blanket. The pale, rounded shape with a few painted lines made its owner first think it was a severed toe, a good example of how detail lost at small scale changes what we see. Shared by JoshuaHubert
The ceramic Santa from behind
Two views of a glossy red ceramic Santa on a kitchen table. From the front he is a traditional, bearded Father Christmas; from the back, the smooth red hood and body make a very different silhouette, which explains why the whole family was laughing. Shared by Mhblea
Snowmen in an awkward pile
A set of plush snowmen in knitted hats and scarves is arranged so that one seems to be climbing on another. The arrangement, not the toys, creates the joke, which is why the owner’s mother saw nothing odd about it. Shared by summit28
A tearful Lucia figure
This figure appears to be a Saint Lucy, or Lucia, the girl in a white gown with a crown of candles who is central to Scandinavian celebrations on 13 December. Real wax from the candles has melted down her face, making her look as though she is crying, a reminder that candle decorations change shape as they burn.
A glass Santa icicle
A clear glass ornament made to look like an icicle ends in a little Santa face. The long, twisted shape with a rounded tip is the problem, especially when it hangs alone against a plain wall.
Chocolate Santa, half unwrapped
Two hollow chocolate Santas: one still in its red foil, one with the foil peeled down. Without the printed costume, the moulded shape underneath reads very differently, which is why so many people photograph this exact moment. Shared by serious_redditor
Christmas lights that went wrong
Underpants over the high street
A town centre at night is strung with curtains of white lights hung between the buildings. Each panel is meant as a decorative swag, but the outline looks remarkably like a pair of giant underpants floating above the traffic. Shared by ProgVal
Candle-and-holly street lights
Neon street decorations on lamp posts show a candle with a flame and a sprig of holly. In the dark, with only the outlines lit, the candle and the round berries combine into a shape that drivers have been giggling at for years. Shared by tuks6
Virginia Beach by daylight
Virginia Beach runs a holiday lights display along its oceanfront, with figures made of bulbs strung on metal frames. At night they glow as festive scenes; by day, the bare wire outlines against the sky look far stranger. Shared by Michaelsj723
“Flickering” lights
A shop shelf holds orange boxes of “10 Flickering Lights”. The letters L and I are printed so close together that they merge, turning the product name into a word you would not expect on a family shelf. Letter spacing, or kerning, is one of the most common causes of accidental rude words. Shared by kennyjonesradio
A palm tree lit from top to bottom
Green lights on the fronds and red lights wrapped tightly around the trunk of a single palm outside a house. The colour split and the round shape at the base produce an unmistakable outline. Shared by GamingKarma
Why palm trees and fairy lights do not mix
A public square full of palms, each trunk wrapped in bright white lights up to the crown. Because the fronds stay dark, only the trunks show at night, and a whole row of them gets the same unfortunate effect. Shared by misnamed
Printed designs and festive clothing
Wrapping paper that says something else
A present wrapped in “Let it snow” paper. The repeating text was cut at the edge of the gift, so only part of the slogan shows, and the letters left visible spell out a different, ruder phrase. It is a perfect example of how a cut can change a pattern’s meaning. Shared by WharfBlarg
“Santa, I’ve been a good girl”
A cartoon door sign shows a snowman and a smiling girl holding a sign that reads, over several lines, “Santa, I’ve been a good girl, please stop”. It is meant as “please stop at this house”, but the line break leaves “please stop” standing on its own, which gives it a far creepier ring. Shared by Poopenheimer
The colour-changing mug
The box promised a black mug that reveals a Christmas sleigh scene when filled with something hot. The real mug shows the scene printed small and off-centre, leaving most of it plain blue, a reminder that product photos and the finished item can differ. Shared by Matt
McCafé mittens
A red McCafé cup printed with two white mittens and the words “Warmest greetings”. On their own, the mittens are fine; once someone draws fingers on them, as the person who shared this found, they turn into a rude hand gesture. Shared by chris_m_h
Santa on a stack of pancakes
A flyer for a Saturday breakfast with Santa at a community centre in San Jose, California, shows Santa standing on top of a towering stack of pancakes. Unfortunately, the dark streak running down the stack looks less like syrup and more like Santa is responsible for it. Shared by Pyehole
The kindergarten Christmas jumper
A smiling boy in a navy Christmas jumper with snowflakes, a house and “Merry Christmas” in yellow script. Look at where the yellow lettering starts: the small Santa beside it appears to be writing the greeting in the snow himself, a toilet joke the parent noticed only after the teacher pointed it out. Shared by angryhamzter
Santa’s beard, full of faces
A detailed drawing of Santa with round glasses and a huge white beard. Look closely at the curls and you see small faces and figures hidden in them, which makes the picture more unsettling than cosy. Shared by pennsler
Leggings with badly placed Santas
Red and white striped leggings from LuLaRoe, the clothing brand once sold through home parties, with a print of Santa faces and arms. Because the print was cut without considering where each motif would land on the body, Santa’s hands end up in very odd places. Shared by BeardAfterDark
Shopping centres and public displays
Bears that stare into your soul
A shopping centre display of large furry bears in scarves standing in fake snow. Their glassy eyes and slightly human postures push them into “uncanny valley” territory, where something looks almost alive and therefore unsettling. Shared by a Reddit user
Santa hanging from a bridge
A Santa figure dangles from a steel footbridge above a banner wishing passers-by joy. Meant to look like Santa climbing, from a distance it looks like something much darker. Shared by dtschoerner
Santa toys pulled from the shelves
Plush Santa dolls with long striped legs on a shop shelf. The way the legs are attached and folded creates an obvious rude shape, and the person who shared it said the product was withdrawn from stores; we could not confirm that independently. Shared by bleachboy
Paul McCarthy’s “Tree” in Paris
This one was no accident. American artist Paul McCarthy installed “Tree”, a 24-metre green inflatable, on Place Vendôme in October 2014 for the FIAC contemporary art fair. Many people saw it as a sex toy rather than a Christmas tree; McCarthy was slapped by a passer-by on the day it went up, and two days later vandals cut a cable and unplugged its pump, and it collapsed. Shared by jeffreybaratheon
A tree that looks like a swirl
A shopping centre Christmas tree made from stacked brown spiral tiers wrapped with small lights. The colour and coiled shape make it look more like a famous emoji than a fir tree. Shared by maxt0r
Topiary reindeer and a tree
A moss-covered reindeer stands in a shopping mall with a small Christmas tree placed right behind it. The positioning, rather than either object, produces the wrong impression. Shared by lenin_rios
Why we see shapes that were never intended
Psychologists call the tendency to see meaningful patterns in random or unrelated shapes pareidolia. It is the same reflex that finds faces in electrical sockets and animals in clouds. Our visual system evolved to recognise important outlines quickly, so it jumps to a familiar interpretation with very little information. Once someone points the shape out, the brain locks onto it and it becomes hard to see the object any other way.
Many of the fails above share a few causes:
- Silhouettes. Lights at night and backlit figures remove detail, leaving only the outline.
- Cutting and wrapping. Repeating text and patterns change meaning at the edges of paper, fabric or a mug.
- Placement. Two innocent objects side by side, or a toy posed on another, create a scene no one planned.
- Scale. Detail that looks clear on a large design disappears when an ornament is small.
- Letter spacing. Tight kerning can merge letters into an unwanted word.
A quick checklist for your own decorations
- Make or print one sample before producing many copies.
- Look at it at real size, from across the room, from the side and from behind.
- Turn the lights off and look at lit decorations in the dark.
- Wrap a test gift and check what the visible part of any slogan says.
- Ask someone who has not seen the design what they notice first.
Not every accidental joke needs fixing. Plenty of families now bring out the “wrong” Santa every year because it makes everyone laugh. But a minute of checking is the easiest way to make sure the laugh is one you chose.
Sources: Photos credited above to the people who shared them on Reddit r/CrappyDesign, r/funny, r/pics, Imgur and Twitter; The Local France: Vandals deflate Paris sculpture (2014).
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