When it comes to beard grooming, the conversation is typically about moisturizing with beard oil and healthy growth. However, this year, beard care has taken a turn for the absurd. The beard isn’t just the preferred facial hair of CrossFit athletes, indie musicians, and actors. It’s an expression of creativity for the everyman. This year, we’ve seen guys decorating theirs with all the beard accessories from Valentine’s Day candy to autumn leaves. Krato Beard Jewels even launched a Kickstarter to produce a specialized line of beard jewelry. Refinery29 touted this launch as the start of the apocalypse – it’s beard Christmas lights.

In London, one stand at the East Village E20 Christmas market offered bearded passersby the opportunity to pimp their beards with a full array of Christmas lights. There’s a shockingly wide array of options… Guys can choose white or colored lights, and they can specify whether they want them to twinkle or not. It’s an unfortunate opportunity to transform your beard into your face’s Christmas wreath.

Esquire argues that beards have plenty of personality on their own, and a string of beard Christmas lights can be overwhelming. Which, as a thought exercise, just imagine of your annoying neighbor’s Christmas decorations overload, then imagine them on his face. Then ask yourself if they’re wrong.

Our friends at Esquire and Refinery29 need to lighten up, however. The beard Christmas light fad might be marginally annoying, but it’s not exactly a sign of decline in beard culture that they’ve made it out to be. It’s just some bearded men having a laugh over the holidays, albeit a stylistically unfortunate one.

The jury might still be out on whether beard Christmas lights are in good taste, but they’re about as banal as an ugly Christmas sweater. They’re designed for fun, jokes, and attention. Which, fine, maybe they do successfully check off all three boxes. There’s no accounting for taste, we suppose.