As a person who was born in Canada and lived in the Midwest, winter always meant cold and snowy. So experiencing the holidays on a warm, tropical island was very unusual.
It took a bit to realize it was December, let alone Christmas time. Very few people decorate with Christmas lights since electricity rates in the USVI are one of the highest in the world at between 36 –43 cents per kilowatt hour compared to 10 cents per K hour on the US mainland. Also, many people live part-time on island in small apartments so decorations are not a priority when it comes to storage.
Many tourists are in town at this time so the atmosphere is bustling with activity. Locals have Christmas parties….some lavish , some pot-luck but everyone seems to look out for one another so no one is left out. Just met you yesterday? Hey, would you like to come to our Christmas party? Serious. The sense of community never ceases to amaze me!
Christmas Eve, we are all invited by a friend of Michelle’s to a pretty fancy Christmas party so we do our best to dress up which is atypical on island. ( Most everyone wears sundresses, shorts and tank tops on the day-to-day). We pull it together, fixed hair and makeup….again atypical….and start to walk down many flights of stone steps to reach the front door. But as we are traversing our way, a sudden rain shower hits and we are soaked through and through! Here we are meeting so many new people and looked like drowned rats as we ran in😂😂😂. So much for our runway entrance ! Everyone was so kind and helped us dry off , found us seating and gave us food. You would think we were family!
Christmas Day, we are invited by another friend whose parents are on island and are Greek so we’re talking really great food!!! Then on our way home, we stop to listen and dance to a reggae band playing at the International Dock in Cruz Bay. Christmas on St. John is a blast!
The following weekend is New Years Eve. New Years Eve has always been a letdown for me. Years ago, I imagined NYE as formal attire in a ballroom, a fabulous band with champagne toasts at midnight. Then, as years went by (kids in tow) I would have been content with a gathering of good friends, good food and music playing from a stereo but that rarely happened. So I wasn’t getting too excited when I heard about a band on the beach.
I was wrong! We had such a super time! A beautiful warm night, so many people on the beach dancing to a pretty popular band from the East Coast (mainland) and kids climbing the nearby beach trees since babysitting is seldom an option on island.
At midnight, there’s the countdown then we see a few small fireworks shot from a nearby boat out over the water. Spectacular! At least, to me. 🎆 It’s not the size, it’s the creativity.
This particular New Year’s Eve made up for all the bad ones. And even though I didn’t have a midnight kiss with someone special, I didn’t care! I was on a Caribbean island with my girls drinking and dancing the night away with newfound friends. 💃 Marvelous!!
***Next week’s blog, our trip to Tortola in the BVI (British Virgin Islands)
Traveling Rose in St. John 