Christmas in Florida

Christmas is a worldwide celebration, but it’s celebrated in different ways across the world and the U.S. Learn how this holiday is celebrated in various parts of Florida and about early, modern, and ethnic festivities. From the back cover: From Santa on the beach to Christmas palm trees, Florida incorporates its sunny Southern style into its Christmas festivities. Although Florida is known for sun and beaches rather than picturesque white Christmases, the state has had its own special ways of celebrating the holiday: - In Hypoluxo in the 1870s, one of the early settlers invited his neighbors for a Christmas feast of possum, which he had fattened on sweet potatoes for over a month - On Christmas in 1925, at the height of Prohibition, the sea sent Daytona Beach residents a holiday present: hundreds of boxes of contraband whiskey washed ashore from a two-masted schooner, Fulshem, which sank in a strong winter storm. - In Jacksonville in 1992, shoppers who allowed their parking meters to run out around Christmas returned to a Christmas poem instead of a ticket. - Officials at the Kennedy Space Center near Melbourne have made the Shuttle Landing Facility available for emergency landings by Santa Claus since it opened in the 1970s. You will also discover the holiday celebrations of Florida's many ethnic communities, including African Americans, Czechs, Finns, Germans, Greeks, Hispanics, Italians, Minorcans, and Scots, as well as a traditional Christmas recipe from each.