Christmas doesn’t seem as Christmasy in Florida. Forget dreaming of a White Christmas, unless you mean sand. There are no chestnuts roasting on the open fire, nor Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Only no-see-ums nipping at your toes.
To a lifelong northerner, attempts to decorate for the holidays in Florida sometimes seem amiss. Flamingos with wreaths around their necks don't seem to have the same cachet as giant stone lions with wreaths. A starfish skeleton with a Santa hat. A sand snowman. Those just don’t say Christmas to me.
To help me get in the Christmas mood, I googled "How to get in the Christmas spirit in Florida." I eagerly clicked on 16 ways to celebrate Christmas in Florida.(1). Before the website displayed, a pop-up with FREE ULTIMATE FLORIDA PACKING LIST covers the page. Hint: Shorts, t-shirts, flip flops. And no-see-um spray: lots of no-see-um spray.
All but five of the ideas in the list center around Orlando and twelve of them are Christmas shows at Florida’s theme parks: Disney World, Busch Gardens, EPCOT, SeaWorld. There is Christmas, FL, home to the world’s longest alligator, a two-hundred-foot-long building that looks like an alligator (2). Twenty-four miles from Orlando, it’s mainly a fort, founded during the second Seminole war. There is a post office where you can get your mail stamped Christmas.
World's largest alligator in Christmas FL. Do they put a wreath on it for Christmas?
On the plus side, after reading Naples Florida Christmas Events (3), I realized I was mistaken about not having a White Christmas. Third Street South in Naples has The North Pole on Third Annual Tree Lighting & Snowfall Celebration with snow. I’ve just convinced hubby we have to go. I wonder do they make the snow with a snow machine? How long the snow will last? Hopefully more than a few seconds.
Being ever curious, I googled snow machines. You can buy your own, and – wait for it – you can even buy an INDOOR/outdoor snow machine, which begs the question who would make snow inside their house? What kind of mess would that make? Who has a house big enough for a snow drift?
There’s even a website that rates the 10 best snow machines. After following the link to the highest rated snow machine, I found out it’s compatible with Froggy’s water-based snow fluid. Well, can’t beat that! And all this goodness is available on Amazon. Froggy’s comes in extra-dry formula (I suppose that’s for indoor use) and a long-lasting formula to “create romantic, small flurries or a giant blizzard of fluffy white snow. These lightweight flakes will tumble and carry in the wind - just like real snow!” It doesn’t require cold weather, which is a good thing because I can’t imagine someone in Syracuse, New York wanting a snow machine. They already get 127.8 inches each year without it.
Our next door neighbor's house in 2010. Real snow.
Snow aside, another plus of Christmas in Florida is you can string lights outside to your heart's content wearing shorts and not bundled up in down parka puffers, mittens, and trapper hats. And you don’t have to wait until it’s warm in June to take the lights down. Curious, though, it seems far fewer people decorate their lawns in Naples than in Chicago. Perhaps they are enjoying the beach and outdoor activities too much to decorate.
When it comes to decorating, I can’t help but notice that most of the light displays featured on the Great Christmas Light Fight show are in warmer climates: California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia. There is a limit to how many hours a person will spend in freezing temperatures to make a spectacular light display on their yard. Someone in a Chicago suburb won the Great Christmas Light Fight several years ago, but they paid to have the display installed. Cheating.
My personal outdoor display paled in comparison to many. I simply wrapped the bushes with lights, paying great attention to even distribution and coverage. For 30 years I used red and white lights then switched to multicolored lights in 2012 when we moved to a new home. I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to Christmas displays. I prefer displays that don’t mix last year’s strands with yellow, green and red lights with this year’s strands that feature blue. And don’t plop a giant blow-up Santa next to a Magi in a Nativity Scene. It’s ok if there are different scenes – just stick to the theme of the scene.
Crummy pic but you have to see Deerzilla, a 20' homemade deer. No explanation needed.
Speaking of Christmas lights, I miss our holiday tradition of driving through light shows at community parks. For decades the family piled in the car and drove through Ritzy’s Fantasy of Lights. We had the displays memorized, but it was still a joy to drive through animated displays of kids throwing snowballs at each other, teddy bears popping out of Christmas gifts, and reindeer leaping across the lawn. Click here for a six-minute video.
St. James Island, South Carolina, has an amazing drive-thru show: “three miles of illuminated joy, amounting to over 700 Christmas light displays and two million bulbs.” Click here for a 14 minute video. We stayed at the RV park one year and they even had small displays on the walking trails – a real treat. Worth a trip if you are anywhere near Charleston, SC.
Dragon display one of hundreds at St. James Island, SC from Pam Harrington Real Estate.
So, I’m coping with Florida Christmas. Our building strung garland and lights on our balconies, I put up the tree last weekend while listening to Arthur Fiedler’s Boston Pops Christmas festival (and some pop Christmas music). Dave is working on the electric train Christmas display in our community’s hobby building. We’ll watch the Nutcracker and Christmas Story II with several of our friends and will attend a Christmas piano concert.
And maybe we’ll hit the beach... with no-see-um spray in our beach bag.
References
16 Ways to Celebrate Christmas in Florida, Florida Trippers, November 14, 2021
Mike Miller, Christmas, Florida, Florida Back Roads Travel, November 17, 2022
Naples Florida Christmas Events and Holiday Celebrations on the Paradise Coast, Paradise Coast.com,
Well, Dear, you'd be happy to be down there when you have to get out to shovel because they won't come until it's 2". This week we had just a dusting, less than 2", of wet, heavy snow that I had to shovel off the driveway for company coming for dinner. UGH! Florida in winter is a good thing. Miss you guys though. Love you, Lynn