Christmas in Florida [Paperback]

Kevin M McCarthy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

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.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

From Santa on the beach to Christmas palm trees, Florida incorporates its sunny Southern style in its Christmas festivities. Although Florida is known for sun and beaches rather than pcituresque 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 Prohobition, 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.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From the Introduction:

What follows are stories of what Christmas has been like in the Sunshine State over the past four centuries, based on reports of missionaries, explorers, historians, and reporters. Also included are Christmas recipes native to a state better known for its alligators than its pheasants and for its citrus than its eggnog. The book begins by describing Christmas in the South: how Southerners celebrate the season differently than Northerners do and how the observance of Christmas this century has changed over the decades. The final section includes eight Christmas stories set in Florida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Pineapple Press (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561642088
• ISBN-13: 978-1561642083
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,211,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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