I love Hawaii. And I love Christmas. But Christmas IN Hawaii is, well, weird. Ok, maybe not weird, but it’s definitely different when you grew up somewhere like, oh let’s say CANADA. I can never seem to get that feeling here. You know – that warm fuzzy holiday feeling that suddenly creeps up on you and you can’t help but bask in all of its giddiness. I think the feeling only comes when the temperature drops below 70 degrees. So it looks like I’m outta luck. I can hear my dad saying about now, “Oh, shall I get my violin?” If it counts for anything, it’s been raining a lot lately.
So I do my best to embrace Christmas here in all its tropical glory. Last year some friends and I got drunk on mai tai’s at Dukes on Christmas Eve and skinny dipped in the ocean at midnight. Definitely one I won’t forget. Spending Christmas day on the beach isn’t so bad and I find great joy in the assortment of Christmas blow-up paraphernalia that locals love to decorate their yards with. That must be a warm weather thing because I remember the same thing in Florida during the holidays.
Last night I enjoyed a tradition a few girlfriends and I started a couple years ago. We get yummy coffees and hot cocoa’s from Starbucks, spike them with Bailey’s, then walk around Waikiki looking at all the hotels’ Christmas trees and decorations. Here’s a few photos from our evening. I used my phone so the quality isn’t that great.
The Halekulani's Tree
Halekulani Lobby
Santa Sand Sculpture at the Sheraton
Royal Hawaiian's Tree - My favorite
Gingerbread Village at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel
This year's feature - Aloha Tower
With that, I bid you Mele Kalikimaka wherever you find yourself this Christmas! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to decorate a palm tree.
So glad we do our annual “Wassailing” 🙂 I did like the pink tree, but loved the plethora of balls at the Parc 😉
Me too! Parc definitely had the best ornaments 🙂
I know just how you feel! I’m glad we’ve got to make some fun Hawaiian Christmas memories together, though. xoxo
Nice tradition. One of my favorite Christmas preps in Hawaii was to go pick out the real tree. I’d wear shorts, a long sleeve shirt and scarf and walk through the trees and the MCBH. I had way more ornaments than you’d think a single 20something girl would have. Next year I am giving myself the right to two trees 🙂 People here have done a good job collecting decorations from care packages or being creative. My coworkers love when I play my Christmas list in the EMT. There is a night of Christmas carols at the chapel some time this week. That’s about it. Looking forward to next year. First time home for Christmas in four years.
Roz! We are coming to Oahu at the end of January! We want to stay on the north shore, can you recommend a place to stay? Sorry I have written this here, but I tried to find you on FB but I can’t find you! I hope you are doing awesome! When we are there, we should meet for a drink! xox
Hey Lindsay! I just sent an email to your hotmail. Hope you got it!
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