Christmas in Florida: What Everyone Ought to Know!
Christmas in Florida took some getting used to. I was born in Brooklyn, New York and I lived there up until the ripe old age of 11, at which point my mother remarried and moved us all out to Long Island. I remained on Long Island — yes, we say on Long Island, not in Long Island — until my (latest) permanent upheaval to Florida in 2003, family in tow.
15 years later and we’re still in Sunny Florida. All is fine now, but there were definite reconciliations that needed to take place. I am a native New Yorker, after all.
Growing up in New York was spectacular, in all its gritty substance. There really isn’t anything I couldn’t say about The Melting Pot. It was wonderful. There was opportunity, adventures, culture; the list was endless.
That’s not to say there weren’t hard times, of course there were. But I accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative, #Glass Half Full.
New York is magnificent any day of the year, but Christmas in New York is something else entirely. It’s magical, and I cannot tell a lie, I loved it.
I couldn’t choose which was better: St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, The Tree, ice skating beneath the great golden statue of Prometheus, Radio City Music Hall and Times Square.
New York also has its fair share of “small town” fun, considering most of the state is comprised of just that! 30 – 60 minutes in either direction and you’d find your pick of sleigh rides, tubing, caroling, school plays, mall Santa Clauses, and…
CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE
We’re all familiar with these scenes and lest we forget, most Christmas cards depict northern scenes of some sort: pine trees, snow, hot chocolate, snow, Santa Claus in the snow, snowmen, sleigh bells ringing in the snow, and Thomas Kinkadesque snow covered houses.
You get the picture. Let’s face it, not once do you ever consider a beach or a palm tree during Christmastime, myself included! Those are vacation scenarios, not Christmas.
Nevertheless, the fact remains: millions of us live in the Sun & Sand States and contrary to popular belief, we exist quite well during Christmastime without snow. In the spirit of complete transparency, however…
CHRISTMAS IN FLORIDA TOOK SOME GETTING USED TO
The first year was surreal at best, and sometimes downright wrong! I didn’t know what to do with myself. The calendar said it was Christmas, but it was 80 degrees outside. The carolers sang, “In the meadow we can build a snowman”…but it was 80 degrees outside.
One particular morning greeted me with 59 degrees. I went to the grocery store, took one look around and found everyone wearing coats, scarves, and gloves. What the?
Meanwhile I was wearing shorts, thanking the Lord above for a break in the Swelter Weather! It simply didn’t feel like Christmas, so I get it, believe me!
But, there was nothing I could do about it. Floridians we had become and Floridians we were to stay. The Hubster and I allowed ourselves a Suck it up Buttercup moment, deciding to focus on the positives:
- My 6 year old son was able to ride his new bicycle that Christmas immediately and daily. Not having to wait until March, if that!
- I didn’t have to bundle up my baby girl in layers & layers of bunting and blankets (while investing 30 minutes in the process).
- We didn’t have to shovel snow out of my driveway, then traipse over to my parents to dig them out, and yet again to my in-laws for more of the same.
- We didn’t have to “warm up the car” for 20 minutes before going anywhere and the de-icer was rendered obsolete.
- I didn’t have to drive in sloshy, day-after snow, for months. Freshly fallen snow is magnificent, but snow is like bread, it doesn’t stay fresh for very long.
The list continues but you get my drift. I plugged along Living My Life Like its Golden.
Fast forward 14 years and things are a little different. So much so, I have to laugh at the irony. It all started the day my blood thinned out.
BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE
We were at my son’s baseball game when suddenly, an off-shore wind blew in. It was 65 degrees and, shock of shocks, I got cold!
I scrambled for one of my daughter’s blankies, encasing myself within the Mom-Shawl, hoping there were no witnesses.
How could a self-respecting New Yorker be cold in 65 degree weather? Sacrilege!
But, as the years coursed on like sands through the hour glass, I realized everything had changed and yet everything remained the same…
THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST WILL EXPLAIN
Carols were blasting through the house (in English & Spanish), decorations were being hung, coquito flowed a-plenty (Puerto Rican egg-nog w/Bacardi rum), and I had an epiphany.
It hit me then and there that Christmas wasn’t different at all, not even close. The food was the same, the music was the same, the decorations were the same, the festivities were the same, my family, including some new friends, was the same, and most of all…
TRUE CHRISTMAS IN FLORIDA HASN’T CHANGED
My parents were there, my in-laws were there, my children were there, my Husband/my Rock, always by my side, was there. The tree was there, the presents were there. All was as it should be.
Although I had heard it many times before and thought I knew it, I had finally understood it down to the marrow, the profundity of the true meaning of Christmas: LOVE
Christmas isn’t snow or lack of snow, its not ice-skating or surfing, its not sledding or swimming, its not a traditional tree or a pink tree, its not hot chocolate or sweet tea, yet its ALL THOSE THINGS AND MORE.
Christmas is humbly embracing whatever makes you happy, whatever lifts your spirit, whatever fills you with joy and sharing it all with the people you love.
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
AND SO IS NOEL
Accordingly, Christmas in Florida no longer feels foreign to me. Floridian Christmas now feels like every Christmas I had ever spent up north. I no longer take my blessings for granted.
A December day at the beach feels just as normal as a day spent building snowmen. Christmas shopping in jeans and a T-shirt feels just as normal as being wrapped in a wool coat.
Decorating my palm tree holds no difference to decorating my Christmas tree. I am now a NY Ex-Pat living in FL, and I must bloom where I am planted!
Pining for yesterday blinds you from your blessings today. Plus, I have many new adventures to experience in Florida. I no longer visit Rockefeller Center for Christmas, but this Lady is Certainly not Without Her Options! Click To TweetI now have new Christmas traditions:
- St. Augustine. America’s oldest city hosts Florida’s Nights of Lights Festivities, and it reminds me of Old San Juan without having to pay the plane fare. This event was also on National Geographic’s top ten list of must-see holiday lights displays.
- Universal Studios Orlando. I know its a Theme Park, but bear with me, Universal is SOOO MUCH FUN. We became resident pass holders when my kids outgrew the park-that-shall-not-be-named (sorry, I couldn’t resist the Harry Potter pun). Aside from the yearly concert series (we’ve seen Pit Bull, LL Cool J, Ne-Yo and Diana Ross just to name a few, free with a resident pass) and CityWalk, featuring a new Steampunk Restaurant that is super cool, the Christmas celebration has not 1 but 2 fun-filled parades: The Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular featured at Islands of Adventure and Macy’s Holiday Parade featured at Universal Studios.
- Lake Eola, Orlando. Wonderland Christmas Tree Show: a 72-foot Christmas Tree comes alive with a light show synchronized to music.
- Christmas in Florida means trading in the Rockettes at Radio City for The Orlando Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker at the Dr. Phillips Performing Art Center.
- The Santa Skydivers in Cocoa Beach, hysterical!
- Surfin Santas: this event is just so much fun and has grown exponentially over the years.
- ICE! at Gaylord Palms: TWO MILLION pounds of hand-carved ice sculptures and a couple of ice slides, 2 stories tall! The theme changes yearly, at the time of this posting it was “Christmas Around the World”.
- Light Up UCF: Now that my son will be attending UCF, we have to check this out!
- Christmas Celebration in Celebration, Florida: featuring everything you expect right out of a Dickens book, Carolers in Victorian regalia, Santa Claus, horse-drawn carriages, hot chocolate, a choo-choo train ride, special concerts and “NOW SNOWING”, where they make it “snow” on the main avenue. It’s kitschy but hey, its all in good fun.
- Victorian Christmas Stroll at the Henry B. Plant Museum where you can go back in time and enjoy Christmas of yesteryear.
There are plenty other adventures that didn’t make this list, but Its OK. This is more of a Bucket List than a Top Ten, as one adventure becomes lackluster with familiarity, it’ll be replaced with another.
Of course, whether in New York or Florida, nothing beats the best experience of all, Christmas at home, with my own twinkling lights, my favorite mug in hand, book on stand-by, music at the ready, cheesy holiday movies on repeat, and most of all, surrounded by my family. Blessed indeed!
HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A MAGNIFICENT NEW YEAR!
Be Well!
Cynthia
385Life
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