By Starr Munro Riverbend News
Florida is a unique state in many ways. Perhaps its most glaring difference to the rest of the nation is the amount of people who live here seasonally, or moved here from somewhere else. The "snowbirds are coming" is a common expression most generational Floridians grew up hearing.
But a lot of the people who originally fell in love with the Florida dream, besides the developers, were certain groups of young men who are WWII Veterans today. Many of the young men recruited for WWII were sent to Florida to train and the concept of their own American dream turned into a Florida dream. Most who visited from places vastly different couldn't wait to take the Orange Blossom Special back to that place of warmth and youth again one day. When they did come back, they brought their families with them and gloried in a place where the sun doesn't hide and oranges can grow in ones backyard.
One result of this enthusiastic response to having somewhere to hide from the bitter cold were the new Christmas traditions. If you look at them the right way, they clearly indicate just how much some Floridians in the 1940's and 1950's loved their new home- especially during the holidays. Today it's no different. Southern Florida has sand sculpture decorating on Christmas morning, with Santas in kayak parades and riding on surfboards on Christmas Eve. The Shell Factory has an entire part of their shop dedicated to all things Christmas year-round. Central Florida has Christmas events in Orlando at places like Disney World. People from all over the world spend their holidays visiting Florida attractions such as this. Nearly every single small town in North Florida has multiple parade and light festivals in their county that everyone looks forward to all year long. There's even a city called Christmas, with streets called Nicholas Avenue, Cupid and Blitzen, along with Rudolph and Dasher Streets, of course. But those Christmas years in the 1940's and 1950's were something else entirely. Thanks to archives, there are countless interesting looks into how people celebrated Christmas in their new home away from home.