Once we arrive at the market, like we always do, we start our shopping with a cuppa joe.  Plenty of milk in mine, please…

Then we buy some fresh eggs … Oh, yes, we’ll take tomatoes, too …

Our purchase is rung up by young women who are today, just a week before Christmas, especially festive .. Honey, aren’t they cute?

She takes our money. She gives us back a beaming smile … Thank you, Georgie. Happy holidays to you, too!

All of a sudden, we hear a gasp.  We turn and look.  It’s Allison, the woman who runs the Farmers Market.

What’s wrong, Allison? What do you see?

I look in the direction Allison’s looking. I look once, then twice.

I rub my eyes. The third time I focus hard …. What do I see but a fat man in a red suit and white beard …

Is it?? Could it be????  And what’s that he’s got slung over his shoulder??

Yes, it’s him, it’s him!!

He rings a bell announcing his arrival fresh from the North Pole.

Santa’s come to Barbados!

Instinctively, the delighted children know what to do: they queue.

Santa greets each child with a hug and a warm Santa smile.

Then he reaches into his big white sack.  Hmmmmm, Who’s been naughty and who’s been nice?

The children await verdict in anticipation.

This little girl’s been good — and she receives a gift from Santa.

In fact, all of the children of Barbados have been very, very good this year.  Every child receives a gaily wrapped present!

(Some have dressed extra specially for the occasion ….)

After receiving a gift and a hug from Santa, the children run to Santa’s special Caribbean sleigh.

Hearts filled with the wonders of Christmas, the children pile into the back of the sleigh and wait for Santa to come fly them across the sky.

Will someone please warm up the sleigh’s engine? Ahh, yes, here’s a special helper, a local hot-shot race car driver.

Until mom comes along and spoils the vroom-vroom image (awwwww, mommmmmmmm!)

Santa loves visiting the good children of Barbados. Barbados is one of Santa’s very favorite places to visit children, in fact. (Indeed, Santa wishes he could stay the winter in Barbados.)

But go he must, for Santa has many stops to make.

Bye, Santa!!!

Thanks for the presents!

We promise to be good again this year ……….

And so, with a jolly ho ho ho, Santa takes flight. As he flies off into the warm morning sky, Santa drops his hat.

The hat is a reminder that, yes, Santa really and truly visited the children of Barbados.

]]> http://planetbarbadosblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=1537 4 http://planetbarbadosblog.com/?p=1512 http://planetbarbadosblog.com/?p=1512#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:30:51 +0000 Jane Shattuck Hoyos http://onelovebarbados.com/?p=1512

A Caribbean Christmas

When I was a kid growing up in Colorado, my father and brothers would go into the mountains and cut down a charmingly misshapen pine tree, tie it with rope to the top of the family station wagon, and haul it home.  In snowy, mountainous Colorado it makes sense to have a fresh pine Christmas tree.

The ideal winter wonderland at Mama Mia restaurant: "snowy" in appearance only; leave your snow boots at home.

But what if you grow up in Barbados? What sort of Christmas tree would you have if you lived in the tropics?  Before I moved to Barbados, I guess I would have imagined kids decorating a palm with lights and Christmas bulbs. I mean, isn’t it the idea of a tree that makes the holiday festive? Does a tree actually have to be pine to be a Christmas tree?

I guess it does. Because everywhere I go, I see fresh pine Christmas trees. I’m suffering sensory confusion. I mean,

sea breeze + blue sea + 80 degrees + …. fresh pine scent …. ??

My next door neighbor, who dragged a huge pine up the steps to her apartment leaving a wake of small green needles, told me her tree was from Canada.  She gets a live pine tree each Christmas, she said, because she loves the pine scent wafting through her home. The cargo cult is also fueled by live pines imported from the U.S.

Barbados isn’t the only island with a winter-wonderland fantasy. In the past few weeks I’ve been to Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Puerto Rico. Decorated live pines are ubiquitous … just like my Colorado childhood, only with more perfectly formed trees and a decidedly strange context.

I suppose I’ll get used to seeing live pine trees in Barbados. Right now, though, I just want to hoist my skis on my shoulder and hunt for snow.