Coastal Christmas Time

I’ve only seen the snow once in my life, when we took a family trip to Lake Tahoe. That's when I learned that snowmen weren’t as easy to construct as Frozen made it look, and that no amount of clothing stopped my cheeks from feeling like they were going to fall off my face.

Here in SoCal, things are a bit different. The tree outside my window started to morph from green to orange months ago, and now it is a fiery form of red, just scarcer in leaves. Clouds gather, but the sun persists, and in mid-November I can still survive without a jacket. It doesn’t snow during Christmas time (although I wish it did) and the palm trees are more suited for other holidays, but we have our own winter activities.

Macy’s hosts Santa meetings for the little ones, and the Santa tracker plays through the radio station. At the start of December, there is a Christmas parade from nearby businesses and student marching bands, the Christmas tree buoys make an appearance on the canals, and palm trees are wrapped in tinsel and festive lights. It will be at the lowest, around fifty degrees fahrenheit but we’ll be bundled up nonetheless. It's the traditional Christmas activities adapted to the coastal climate.

A stirring of excitement occurs within my heart at the thought of putting up the tree soon, of delicately pushing each ornament back into the tree to ensure they won't slip off the branches. My grandparents will soon be preparing tamales, although with slight cultural variations, and I will be wrapping gifts, and we will all be together. The thought puts a smile on my face.