A New Orleans Christmas is just what the doctor ordered. There are many things to be said about New Orleans, but first and foremost, they how to throw a party with style and flair. The city comes alive with enough Christmas spirit to carry you over into the New Year and Mardi Gras. So grab your beads. and a sprig of mistletoe and get ready for one foot stomping Cajun Christmas that will have you singing and dancing in the streets until the saints come marching home.
Cajun country is not exactly snowball throwing country, and Santa makes his home at the frozen snow and ice covered land of the North Pole. Cajun initiative created their own version of the North Poles most notable resident. He's called Papa Noel and hangs his swampers in the bayou's of Louisiana. Swamps are great for swamp people, but, as anyone can tell you, they are not conducive to sleds with a full load of toys, and reindeer have a tough time of trying to navigate the highways of the back country. Let me introduce the bayou version of Santa Claus...Papa Noel!
He's a true child of the swamp. He has a boat powered by eight alligators, of which there are plenty to choose from, but these are magical gators, including one named Nicollette. She is the "Rudolph" of the group and has fiery green eyes that glow in the dark and light the way as Papa Noel journeys to deliver toys and presents to children throughout the bayou's and backwaters. Mercifully Christmas comes after the 30-day Louisiana alligator hunting season comes to a close, so they won't end up tagged and bagged in a hunters bayou bateau.
Check into your holiday room at the hotel of your choice, and if you have a craving for gumbo or jambalaya, you won't have far to go, as New Orleans is known throughout the gastronomical universe for some of the finest cuisine in the world prepared by world class chefs. Bring your appetites and enjoy an elegant holiday feast, served with a perfectly paired wine.
In New Orleans a Christmas Tree is not the classic conifer, instead they adorn oak trees in the city park with a dazzling display of over 2,000,000 lights. You can hike it, bike it or travel through the display in a horse drawn carriage, southern style with southern class. Music to herald the holidays is also abundant. One thing for certain in New Orleans, music and musicians are as much a part of the landscape as is the Cajun cuisine, so make sure you take in one of the concerts or singa-longs held throughout the city.
If Menorah's are more in line than Merry Christmas, then head to the Riverwalk for the lighting of Louisiana's largest menorah, enjoy traditional Jewish music and load up on a plate of latkes! There are many other Chanukah ceremonies that are also held throughout the city during the holiday season.
A Southern Fried Christmas has to include a Santa Cruise and if you set a course, you can set sail for Santa-friendly Savannah, Georgia. Situated on the banks of the Savannah River where it empties into the vast Atlantic Ocean, it's the perfect holiday location as beautiful and delightful as a big, juicy Georgia peach.
The Santa Cruise is ideal for families, or those of us young at heart, where you and the kids (and the child in you!) can enjoy a one hour sightseeing cruise on the Savannah River while getting up-close and personal with the Jolly Old Elf himself. It's a great way to meet and greet Santa, not to mention a photo op for the kids that they will treasure for a long time to come. Among some of the many events and holiday happenings, try your hand at Irish Dance as a dance academy gives lessons for kids and adults. Soon you'll be "river dancing" like a true Irish lad or lass, and you don't have to bring your own bagpipes! They have plenty of those.
The Tree Lighting Ceremony fires up in Ellis Square, followed by two holiday films. Both events are absolutely free of charge..a present from Savannah Santa and Company. There's entertainment galore on River Street while you sit back and enjoy the southern night air. Get a taste of the British Invasion with a dose of Beatlemania with a Beatles Tribute Band..yeah, yeah, yeah. Art and aesthetics are rampant in the city at this time of the year, inlcuding holiday productions and entertainment at the Savannah Theater which is in close proximity to the finer hotels and restaurants in the city.
The Crown Jewel of events is the annual Boat Parade of Lights on the river. The sparkling display is set in motion by the firing of a cannon to start the parade followed by a spectacular fireworks display lighting up the holiday skies like so much celestial mistletoe. Christmas in Savannah is scene right out of Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life" and it certainly is a wonderful festival.
If the flavor of a small town holidayis more to your liking then why not pick the Christmas Festival that A & E Television network named "The Best Small Town Christmas Spirit" a few years ago. Canton, Mississippi may be small, but it is a giant when it comes to Holiday Festivities. Canton bills itself for the holidays as the "City of Lights" and for good reason. The Courthouse Square is not only the center of the towns daily legal and governmental activities, but for the festival it becomes Santa Central throughout the duration of the Christmas season.
Visitors flock to Canton for the holidays from all 50 states in the Union, and has it's fair share of international visitors as well from around the world. The square becomes a beacon to help guide Santa during his annual journey of good will, plush dolls, GI Joe's, bicycles, puppies and Tonka trucks, as the square is ablaze with the illumination of 200,000 lights that when fired up are every bit as bright as a royal tiara of Christmas bulbs.
The Courthouse Square is transformed into a childrens wonderand during the Holidays complete with miniature train and fire engine rides, and a carousel with colorful horses and carriages to bring back memories of times long gone and forgotten from our own childhood. You can have a Merry Mechanical Christmas as well at one of the animation museums with over 135 automatons that move with clockwork precision depicting local history, Christmas themes and some of the worlds favorite fairy tale characters who come to "mechanical" life as if by magic at a most magical time of the year.
Christmas just isn't Christmas without a parade, and Canton pulls out all the stops for the Santa Procession/Parade at night when the local streets come alive with lights and music to add to the ambience of one of America's favorite "small town Christmas towns"
Whether you choose New Orleans, Savannah or Canton you can't miss. Throughout the south there are Christmas Festivals in every town and city in every southern state. Each is not only a festive affair but also unique. It is the South after all, and we do things a little different down here. So have a very Merry Christmas, but at the same time make it a very Merry Southern Fried Christmas.