...is weird! I can't get used to it! No cold weather, no chance of even a dusting of snow unless you go to the top of Haleakala, and you get lucky.
Fewer people here decorate the outside of their homes, in my last neighborhood you could land a 747 because every house was lit up so brightly with Christmas lights!
A luau on the beach for Christmas day in your swim suit, Christmas trees that are already wilting when you buy them from the travel time and the heat, Santa arriving on a surf board not a sleigh - as I said weird! Christmas music in the stores and the air conditioning on, people shopping barefoot in their shorts and tee shirts. Tropical fuits for sale, hard to find anything like a parsnip or other cool weather vegetable, display stands of sun tan lotion, hats and sun glasses.....Probably all normal for Chrissy though, seeing as Christmas has always been in the middle of summer for her!
I am hoping that some of you will post pictures of your Christmas decorations to get me in the Christmas spirit - a couple of lights thrown in a palm tree is just not the same....
Christmas in the tropics
Our Santa comes via scuba!! I love Christmas on the island....Christmas Day dive, always, and always on New Year's Eve...we normally get in the water around 11:30 p.m. and wait for our dive time to reach :30 minutes and then look towards the surface...we can usually see the sky lighting up as the fireworks go off all over the island....don't tell anyone but we actually shared a split of champagne one year at 60 feet!!!
I love seeing the snow during the holidays...on the T.V. somewhere else!
When in Rome, do as the Romans... Rather than thinking about snow and wintry scenes look for the fun in Santa on a jet ski or the elves in Bermuda shorts singing "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" as they merrily light the palm tree and feast on pineapples, coconuts and dates and roast pig or goat.
Forget that wilted tree and use something tropical in it's place. Decorate it with lovely island treasures of tropical flowers and sea shells. And then be sure to post lots and lots of pictures to show that the Holiday is alive and well in the Tropics!
And if you really want to have a cold weather tradition try roasting some chestnuts on that luau fire.
If ya really think about it Jerusalem rarely gets snow and yet we are conditioned to think of a White Christmas with Snow covered stables.
And Santa may be from the Snow and ice but he spends Christmas eve flying around the world so the spirit of Christmas should be just as strong with a luau on the beach as it is in front of a fireplace during a blizzard. After all. When Santa crosses the hemisphere he is probably looking forward to that tropical fruit for a change!
Make it a Holiday to remember and the next one will be even better as it becomes your traditions also.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Jenny, John, Zany. I haven't decorated in years. Almost all of our celebrations take place somewhere else...my brother's, my daughter's, my son's. Everyone who still has a small child in the household gets priority. I see no reason to go all that trouble to decorate a plastic tree and move my treasures around just for Mike and I. I do have a creche 1/2 live size in the front yard with a light on it. Hoping not to get in trouble with anyone but *Jesus is the reason for the season*. Hate that little rhyme as well. This is not a Holiday Season, it is Christmas. Not, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas. This will probably be deleted by Admin. but there are sometimes when I can't help but speak up. Sorry, Jen. Did not mean to go off. Nothing personal. Lots of "stuff" on Dave's Forum today and I kind of got upset.
Hurray for you LouC. I agree.
"This is not a Holiday Season, it is Christmas. Not, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas."
But it is indeed a Holiday Season. Some of us celebrate Christmas at this time of year but other groups also have holidays that are celebrated during this time. This is a very diverse group of people from many cultures and beliefs from Athiest to Christianity, to Buddist to ... who knows!
I celebrate Christmas and Easter while others do not. I am not coming to a garden site to discuss theology. I do not care if the person I am discussing slugs, flowers and veggies with agrees or disagrees with my religious beliefs. They are, after all, based upon my personal Faith and I do not need anyone else to tell me I am right or wrong in my beliefs. They did not come here for Theology either. If they want to discuss it they will (and some have) email me or join me in a place where that type of discussion is the focus.
Sometimes I will say something like "God bless you" without realizing the person I am speaking to is of a different religion. I sincerely hope they are not offended by it any more than I am offended when I hear someone say "May Allah be with you" or Happy Hannuka (sp?)
Here, the emphasis is gardening, mutual respect and sharing of cultures. I like it this way!
Sorry folks - I didn't mean anything by my post except how different it was to live in the tropics. Never meant to offend anyone, my appologies....
Braveheartsmom, I don't think anyone here was offended! I just wanted to try to show you the lighter side of the Holiday and help you get past the homesick for the holidays feelings people often feel when they are far from home and the traditions they are accustomed to seem so distant from those around them.
I am afraid it is I who owe you an appology! I should not have reacted to Dear LouC's post that way on your thread!
So in the spirit of Peace on Earth. will you forgive me?
By the way, do they really get a a dusting of snow on Haleakala way out there in the tropics?! Who'd a thunk it!
Aloha Zany, no worries, no apologies owed, it was a silly topic in the first place. Just trying to have a little fun!
John, I agree with you on the snow, TV is the best place for it; and the fireworks must be spectacular through the water
Perhaps we could all agree to "Peace on earth"
How long have you been "suffering" in the tropics? LOL Wanna change places for awhile?
I am the one who is out of place and I greatly regret it. Feel I have done more harm than any possible good. Jenny was exactly right in comparing the different ways Christmas is celebrated. This is was one of those times many times when I tend to start my fingers rolling before I engage my brain. Please forgive this unnecessary outburst. It was most certainly not how I wish to be known. I do realize and have even had opportunity to share other's faith at this time of year.
We have a 14 month old great-granddaughter this year. May even reconsider and put up our tree. To all of you who have read this and thought "what a kook", you're probably right. Now, let's get back to the original question:
How do you decorate for Christmas?
Zany, you are absolutely correct, this is not the time nor the place.
Zany - its a tough life, but somebody has to do it! Been suffering for 5 years now, part time suffering for 11 years. Feel very sorry for me!
Aloha
Jenny
Oh, Dear! 5 years of tropical depression! We will have to see if we can get one of the Alaska folks to exchange homes with you for the winter months :~) But I don't know if they could handle your extreme weather!
When my kids were home for the season we would go all out with the decorations. Lots and lots of lights outdoors and every nook and cranny decorated inside. The year we all remember the most though is when we were flat broke and every penny we had went to just keeping a roof over our heads and beans in the pot. We had a lost most of our decorations in a move and were feeling pretty sad and depressed.
Well, one morning about 2 weeks before Christmas, I couldn't stand it any more! I took 6 reams of typing paper, scissors and tape and began making snowflakes. When the kids woke up I had already strung over 300 of them from the ceiling with fishing line and tacks. They joined me making more and then their friends came and by the end of the day there were paper snowflakes in every room of every size and each one as different as we could make them. I added the few glass ball ornaments we had and the effect was amazing!
We didn't buy a tree that year but wrapped our two little strands of lights around my ficus tree that was in the corner of the living room and added more snowflakes and a cardboard star covered in paper and glitter to the top by suspending it from the ceiling above the tree.
I bought each kid a box of colored pencils and wrapped them along with a package of the typing paper and decorated the presents with more white paper and a candy cane and put them under the tree. Their grandmother made them each a new outfit and that was it! But come Christmas morning, when the neighborhood was teeming with children riding new bikes and showing off their toys my three would proudly show off their new clothes and their "art sets"
Isn't it funny that if you ask any of them what their best Christmas was they all remember that one and not the ones where they got mountains of presents ! The Year of the snowflake! was 1974 in Torrence, California.
Now Zany that's what I'm talking about! What wonderful memories for both you and the kids. Those are the things that just warm the heart!
Dear Zany, Thank you for sharing your Christmas story.
My father had a bit (!) of a problem with alcohol and depression and I do not have many happy holiday memories from childhood but there sure are advantages to being an adult now!! My father died over a decade ago on Thanksgiving Day. BI was laughing (really) about it the other day, thinking that even on his last day on earth he managed to ruin another holiday for all those close to him. The laughter is genuine, not resentful or maicious because EVERY TIME I HAVE A GOOD HOLIDAY I am the living praoof that it is ppossible to over come. And I have lots of good holidays. For many years while I lived in Berkeley going to a new movie on Christmas was a trradition for me.
While at another home here in Mexico I had a huge promegrnite orchard on the property where I lived. They get ripe around Thanksgiving and I had the only really good pomegranites in town. I would load my little "old lady" two-wheeled shopping cart full of pomegranites and walk around town giving them away. This tradition grew a bit year by ar and I now have a complete Santa outfit and I spend Christmas giving away toys (I hunt thrift shops for good stuffed toys when I'm in the US) and crayons and candy. Make no mistake, I do not do this for the children (at least not primarily) I do it to keep myself sane and happy. A secondary benefit is that I have the appreciation of my neighbors in a way that I would not otherwise have it. But I do it because it keeps me from wallowing in painful memories.
Thanks again, Zany, and remember everybody, it's never too late to have a happy childhood. (Then, again, maybe I'm just hopelessly immature).
katiebear
katiebear, I can picture you wheeling that wheelbarrow around passing out pomegranets! That is exactly the kind of thing that makes a season memorable! And Pomegranets are one of my favorite fruits with their wonderfull juicy mess!
What a dear, dear person you are. Even as a senior citizen herself, my mother would dress as Mrs. Santa and take fruit, nuts and candy to those in a nursing home. Something I should definitely consider. I still have her outfit. Thanks for a great idea.
Christi
Once you get past feeling like a total idiot it's a lot of fun.
kb
Braveheartsmom! I'll be decorating my whole Island, so be sure to come over and help me. I will bring christmas trees and maybe you can help me to decorate them?please!!!!!!!!
BHM, we have celebrated Christmas in the cold snowy winters of Indiana, warm green winters of Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, and Texas!!!!! The warmer climates take getting used to, but are certainly my favorites! We were in the Doctor's office when the song, "Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say, on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day"came on and Mom and I both began to tear up! We had three wonderful warm Christmas' there and will never forget it!!!!!!!!!
I am so very thankful for my Christian heritage. I respect other people's right to believe as they wish, that is their choice. At this time of year there are many Holidays celebrated by many different cultures! It is truly a wonderfull time of year from Thanksgiving when as a nation we gather at the same time, to show our giving thanks for so many things. I especailly am thankfull that we live in a free society, and that we do have freedom of worship. I am thankfull that God gave His only Son, Jesus, and that we have the freedom to celebrate openly His wonderful birth! I appreciate the freedom of speech that we share as a nation, where believers and unbelievers can live together in harmony, even tho each has a right to disagree, I happen to agree that "Christmas" is about Christ, and should be remembered as such. Wishing each other a "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" should bring about a spirt of Joy!!!! Let us be thankfull that we can choose to either agree or disagree, but maintian a spirit of "Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward Men (and women, children) or as it is said in Hawaiian:
"Mele Kalikimaka"
Aloha!
Katiebear, I love your new holiday traditions, how very nice of you to make sure some of the local children are made to feel special.
With all that love and kindness you have for the kids and for the dogs you have adopted you are a very special person, and I don't doubt that making good holiday traditions goes a long way to healing some bad memories. Having grown up in a similar household, I know just how bad it can be, always living with fear really, never feeling safe...so to my "sister survivor" I send you extra special love this "holiday" (to be politically correct) season.
Jenny
Oh I forgot. Terri, put the kettle on!
Ahhhh Christmas! I won't say in the Tropics but Christmas in the Heat ...Christmas is just 3 days short of the longest (and sometimes hottest ) day of the year ...most of us enjoy a baked dinner even in those soaring temps because it is "tradition" ...seafood is slowly creeping into the picture and trifle is gradually replacing the hot Christmas puddings ...a lot of times we have both!
We are a funny lot most of our Christmas cards are snow scenes
which is a bit silly ...but traditional.
Ralphe Harris is singing 6 White Boomers (that is albino male kangaroos) "racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun ...6 white boomers, snow white boomers ...on the Australian run" Then next song is Bing Crosby crooning away about a his dreams of " a white Christmas" ...our Christmas stuff is a bit of this and a bit of that ...these days being so very multi cultural ...you can throw many other things in as well ...our Christmas days are slowly evolving the way the World is slowly evolving. It is a time of love and gratitude.
May I share Christmas 2001 day with you ? a day when a red fire truck full of sooty faced angels ...drove into our lives and saved our home ... here is a short exerpt from an article on that day.
26th December 2001
Mother nature was up to her tricks again, with temperatures in the high 30's Celsius and strong winds, the state of New South Wales experienced about 70 major bush fires on Christmas Day 2001. About 5,000 fire fighters and other emergency personnel were on duty on Christmas Day with up to 20,000 people being engaged in fire fighting and support services at the height of the blaze which raged for 22 days before rain and calm conditions allowed it to be brought under control.
We lost 33 homes in our town, but all lives were saved ...the house across the road was burn't down in about 10 mins ...I had my 4 grandchildren with me and we fled in the car out onto the road as the fire had leapt the road and was on our fence 10 ft from our home .. hubby had run off into the fire to try to save the house I didn't know if he was dead or alive.Out of the blue they came ...exhausted, faces blackened and sweat streaked ...calling to us "shell be right! ... just stay there" and they too disappeared into the smoke and flames.
They saved our home! didn't wait for thanks ...suddenly gone as fast as they had come. In the weeks of fire that followed more homes were lost but hundreds were saved ...more important no lives were lost thanks to these wonderful fire fighters and volunteers (we think of them as our Christmas Angels)
I think this just about sums up the feeling of Christmas in my country everywhere you look people are volunteering to do for others ...everyone has somewhere to go and even the most important people in the land will wait on others during charity luncheons which are held everywhere for everyone ...not only for the needy but also for the lonely. I think it is most fitting that our Santa's here in Australia turn up in our fire trucks wih the sirens blazing :)
I love the sooty faced angel story but no giving chocolate! Melts? Have you no ice packs? LOL
Yes we do give chocolate but it lives in eskies and fridges and everyone wants choc ice cream instead! ...I mean't that you can't wrap it up prettily and place it under the tree with all the other gifts :)
I think it would be nice to experience a cold christmas just once so you don't have to try and cook ,shop, decorate and everything in killer heat ...the Texas folk would understand heat that buckles the railway tracks and melts the tarred roads ...it can be a little uncomfortable.Thousands of Australians do spend Christmas at the beach ...which between the blubottle jelly fish stings, hammerhead sharks and the scorching sun and sand (and booze) is a little unwise. The unbearable heat is only for about 4 months , not really a huge price to pay for living in this wonderful Country ...I had better shut my gob because I sound like a whinger (Summer does that to me ) Christmas does bring some wonderful bounty
cherries,mangos,paw paws, all the melons ...beautiful fresh salad veggies ...prawns, magnificent seafood,huge figs ,delicious and plentiful passionfruit ,grapes etc I could go on and on.Despite the heat it really is the lucky country.
chrissy
It does sound wonderful if you can take the heat! But I wilt at 80 degrees farenheight and melt at 85!
Wow, what a Christmas! Those firemen were indeed Santas! I really enjoyed learning about Christmas in Oz - and had completely forgotten Ralphe Harris. Who was it that sang "Tie me kangaroo down, boy"? I loved that song when I was a kid, although I don't remember too many of the lines anymore...must be getting oldtimers disease.
Hope you stay safe this year Chrissy, perhaps with all the rain you have been getting there will be fewer brush fires, a blessing indeed.
While this thread seems to have been turned around for the better,
I have to comment on the greetings thing, but will keep it positive.
Myself included, many people use alternate phrases in an effort to include
everyone. If people would for one moment consider that, there may
be less squabble about what to say to one another.
One belief does not negate all others.
It seems we are often defined by how we greet one another,
as though we were making a statement. This is exactly why I choose a
neutral, non-denominational, non-ethnic phrase. Season's Greetings.
We know people of all walks, of all beliefs and ethnicities. To me,
wishing "Season's Greetings" includes everyone. It is a season, and
I am greeting you in this winter season, no matter your beliefs. It's hard
to offend anyone with that one.
Personally, I think a tropical holiday, no matter the country or belief system,
would be quite an interesting change. I've always found the tropical decorations
to be very cute. Pink Flamingos on holiday trees, santa in a pair of shorts,
pineapples with candles in them.
It helps those of us used to standard holiday decor open our minds to realize
there are some who never see snow, some who use cactus as their decor
and such. Some people have never in their lives made a snowball or seen
a snowman in real life.
It's all good. As long as there are cookies. ;-)
What I can't figure out is how to keep from offending those who do not believe in celebrating any holidays or special occasion? They must get awfully tired of being wished seasons greetings and happy holidays at this time of year when almost everyone else is celebrating something or other!
COOKIES? Where? Save some for me!!
Zany,
LOL. We'll just keep the cookies for ourselves. Hee hee!
Here's our Christmas morning in Honolulu in 1985...Hickam AFB. A few hours after this photo, we had a house full of folks who weren't able go home to the Mainland, and didn't have family visiting. 'Was a special day for all of us.
To me, Christmas isn't about where you are...but who you share it with.
To me, Christmas isn't about where you are...but who you share it with.
That is how I feel about life in general ;~)
chrissy....your Christmas story made me tear up...and my husband caught me. Had to let him read it too. You were very fortunate.
Our base house had strafe holes in one of the front upstairs bedrooms. We lived a block from Pearl Harbor. First year we were there, our neighbor across the street said a little lady knocked on her door one day and asked if she could come in and just look at her house. She had lived there during the Attack, and had hidden in the closet under the stairs. I always hoped someone would knock on our door one day and tell us their story, but it didn't happen.
I am covered with *goose bumps* from such a wonderful story.
BB, loved your pic of Christmas in Hawaii! Do you know I made one of the macrame christmas trees too!
Are you sure that lady wasn't Madam Pele? LOL!
Whooooo....Pele... After the Banyan tree stories about kids standing under them being swooped up...my daughter (at 8-10yrs back then) didn't want to stand under any tree!
I saw your brugs on another forum...your garden is gorgeous. What's at the end of the path in the 1st pic? Maybe a secret garden?
G'day everyone ...b your story reminded me of one my husband tells ...Christmas during the 40's when he was a young boy ...one time was spent huddled in an underground bunker hidden beneath a cabbage patch in his little town in Italy ... we are all so lucky aren't we? whatever the climate! :)
LouC ...and everyone
from Italy with love ...
