LauderBlog
Dec 2: Xmas Beachside
Posted On: December 2, 2008 11:38 AM
Posted By: LauderBLOGGER
Related Subjects: Greater Fort Lauderdale
Have you been down to the beach lately? Well, no, of course you haven’t if you’re shivering in Chicago or Toronto or some place right now. I love the holidays up north but that nippy weather doesn’t sound appealing to me, I must say. On the other hand, a stroll along the Fort Lauderdale beach can put me in a holiday spirit. A different kind of holiday spirit than I felt in all my northern years, yes, but a holiday spirit nonetheless. That’s what struck me the other day as I walked along A1A looking at the decorations. There I was in shirt sleeves, watching people in bathing suits on a sunny beach. Yet I still felt moved by a sense of the season.
It made me smile. I was standing there in the sun and then I looked up at the light pole entwined in green pine garland, festooned with two red bells. I looked down and saw a young woman in a Brazilian thong bouncing toward the ocean. I looked up again, eventually, and noticed holiday lights strung along a restaurant entrance. I looked down again and watched a sunburned guy posing with his friend for a picture on the sand.
That contrast is what the holidays in South Florida are all about. There’s just something amusing to me about stringing up rows of icicles on rooftops when it’s 80 degrees with brilliant sunshine. Amusing – and charming. Or hanging those huge illuminated snowflakes on the lightposts along the street just behind A1A. South Florida is very into holiday decorating, much more so than other places I’ve lived. Those lights and garlands and red bells and snowflakes are our way of reminding ourselves that it’s December, not October or March. We whip ourselves into the spirit with enough holiday lights to line the runways of several major airports. We plug in our Santas and menorahs and whatever else and stand back. And then, yes, we smile, just as I smiled standing along the beach that day. Not a bad way to spend the month of December, when you think about it – smiling at all our funny decorations while standing in shirt sleeves by the sea. If there happens to be an occasional Brazilian bathing suit tossed into the mix too, who am I to complain?
It made me smile. I was standing there in the sun and then I looked up at the light pole entwined in green pine garland, festooned with two red bells. I looked down and saw a young woman in a Brazilian thong bouncing toward the ocean. I looked up again, eventually, and noticed holiday lights strung along a restaurant entrance. I looked down again and watched a sunburned guy posing with his friend for a picture on the sand.
That contrast is what the holidays in South Florida are all about. There’s just something amusing to me about stringing up rows of icicles on rooftops when it’s 80 degrees with brilliant sunshine. Amusing – and charming. Or hanging those huge illuminated snowflakes on the lightposts along the street just behind A1A. South Florida is very into holiday decorating, much more so than other places I’ve lived. Those lights and garlands and red bells and snowflakes are our way of reminding ourselves that it’s December, not October or March. We whip ourselves into the spirit with enough holiday lights to line the runways of several major airports. We plug in our Santas and menorahs and whatever else and stand back. And then, yes, we smile, just as I smiled standing along the beach that day. Not a bad way to spend the month of December, when you think about it – smiling at all our funny decorations while standing in shirt sleeves by the sea. If there happens to be an occasional Brazilian bathing suit tossed into the mix too, who am I to complain?
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