I’m not dreaming of a white Christmas. Though I was born in Illinois, I am a child of Southern California and snow and frost and all of those types of things so rapturously extolled in Christmas songs are not a part of my memories…or expectations…of the holiday season. (I did experience one “white Christmas”…while living in Colorado Springs for a year when I was a child…and while interesting it was not a happenstance I have ever been especially anxious to relive.)
Christmas in the parts of California where I have spent the majority of my life had nothing to do with snow (snow is a relatively short drive away but it never lays its frosty blankets on my doorstep) and everything to do with bright blue days and warm (relatively speaking) nights. Frost (when there is any) is fleeting…withering in the golden glow of the early morning sun…and most often I need to bundle up in nothing more protective than a light jacket or sweater (and then only if I’m venturing out in the Southern California briskness of the evening for one reason or another.)
We sing of white Christmases and of Jack Frost nipping at our noses, but our snowmen are plastic and our snowfall comes from spray cans…winter is not as warm as summer but it is, for the most part, warmer than any classic Christmas tune will ever acknowledge.
Chances are I will be able to go out barefoot on Christmas Day and I will not feel that it is even the slightest bit strange or uncomfortable. If you’re dreaming of…or living in…a white Christmas, I salute you (neither with envy nor pity…we all embrace what touches our souls)…me, I’m thinking about going to the beach…
Enjoy the season (whatever the weather in your corner of the world :-)
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