Let’s start by saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. No matter what you might think about the best place to spend your holidays, there’s nowhere else on this planet that we would rather be this Christmas and New Years!
But, let’s get something off our chests: when you consider how many Christmas Carols, holiday images and wistful memories involve snow, cold temperatures and sleigh rides, it starts to feel like a deliberate dis-respecting of places like Gulf Shores. “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”…. “In the Meadow we can build a snowman”….”Jack Frost Nipping at your nose”. You get the idea.
In the canon of songs that celebrate the holidays, we tend to favor those that embrace the images that are different from those of Currier and Ives. We like more sand than snow and we prefer balmy breezes to howling winter storms.
Whatever is your ideal, there are plenty of holiday activities to enjoy in and around Gulf Shores. You can take the family holiday ice-skating (without frostbite!) at the ice-skating rink at the Orange Beach Wharf Or, see the big holiday light display at Bellingrath Gardens. http://bellingrath.org. Finally, you could take the little ones to visit the North Pole at OWA.
For some that help you embraces you inner beach-bum this holiday, Bing Crosby had some success with two of our favorite warm-climate carols. The first is more Hawaiian than Alabaman – but, it seems to apply:
Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say
On a bright Hawaiian Christmas day
That’s the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
And, just to make one final point for warm weather Holidays; maybe you know that WHITE CHRISTMAS is one of THEE most recorded, purchased and listened-to songs of all time. Not just Christmas Songs – but, any songs of any genre. It is a melancholy remembrance, however there is a first verse that rarely gets performed. Irving Berlin wrote this song while living in California while trying to reconcile the scene outside his window with the idyllic memories of the holiday season.
“The Sun is shining, the grass is green – the orange and palm trees sway.
There’s never been such a day – – in Beverly Hills L.A.
But it’s December the 24th – – and, I am longing to be up North”
Regardless of the temperature outside – May your Days be Merry and Bright!
We hope you will spend a holiday, or at least a getaway with us in Gulf Shores very soon.
Mele Kalikimaka – -and, Merry Christmas.
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