Nov 4, 2008, 13:08 GMT
Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Celebrating Christmas in Florida is tricky. Americans' love of kitsch calls for elaborate decorations, red-and-green garlands and blinking Santa Clauses with reindeer teams on front lawns.
Special radio stations play blizzards of carols starting around Advent: Gospel choirs, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, etc., croon tunes like 'Let It Snow!'
The problem is that snow does not fall in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and Floridians are bent on enjoying the splendour of traditional Christmas festivities. And their efforts are a sight to see for tourists as well as the locals.
'The warmth and sun don't keep us from celebrating the pre-Christmas period to the full,' remarked Dana Fisher, a Fort Lauderdale university student and self-described 'beach girl.'
No matter that chocolate Santas melt away in the sun and hot apple punch fails to hit the spot in the south. Residents of Fort Lauderdale, on the Atlantic coast north of Miami, have come up with something different.
In the 'Venice of America,' as the city is known because of its extensive network of waterways and canals, dozens of boat owners decorate their vessels and glide around town.
'We call it the 'Winterfest Boat Parade,'' said Elly Smithe as she watched preparations for the world's largest illuminated boat parade from Fort Lauderdale's historic Stranahan House.
This year's after-dark parade is set for December 13, when dozens of yachts, sailboats and small fishing vessels will be decorated as brightly as front lawns in other parts of the United States. Most of the multitude of blinking lights will form images in the black tropical night.
Popular images include reindeer and Santa Claus, Christmas trees and presents, and candy canes - all the things that go with Christmas. Other boats are decorated in more Floridian fashion: with leaping dolphins, not reindeer or elves. And some boats are simply floating advertising platforms - with illuminated logos - and the scenes of sumptuous parties.
There are also celebrations along the New River, which winds through Fort Lauderdale. Hotels with waterfront access hold discos or elegant balls. And the yards of some multimillion-dollar waterfront villas are decorated with enormous Christmas figures that glow and blink at night.
The villas' owners hold parties, too. Their Advent barbecues, with front-row seats for the more than 100 boats in the parade, get partygoers in a festive mood for Christmas. The parade route, about 16 kilometres long, follows the New River and Intracoastal Waterway, a kind of maritime highway along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
The Winterfest Boat Parade has been managed for the past several years by members of the Seminole Indian tribe, which inhabited Florida, known as the Sunshine State today, before it became part of the US. Seminoles also take active roles in many other areas of Florida's culture and economy.
The aim of the boat parade, which dates from 1971, is to have the community come together and to promote tourism to Broward County, whose seat is Fort Lauderdale and which includes part of the Everglades, a large tract of marshland.
To keep the parade from being a spectacle mainly for the wealthy owners of yachts and waterfront property, the route was changed in 2007, allowing more people to watch from public places. A grandstand viewing area was built along River Walk, a promenade that abuts the water.
Many people watch the parade from spots around Stranahan House, an approximately century-old wooden house on River Walk that is regarded as the site of Fort Lauderdale's founding.
Built as a trading post for settlers and Seminole Indians by a man named Frank Stranahan, it quickly became a combination of post office, community centre, and town hall. Stranahan was the postmaster, a banker and businessman all in one.
He married a fellow pioneer, Ivy Cromartie, and after her death the house was entered on the National Register of Historic Places. Today it is a museum and one of Fort Lauderdale's top attractions.
Every Advent, volunteers throng to Stranahan House to deck its wide white porches for Christmas. Artificial Christmas trees, covered with ornaments and lights, are put up on both floors. Christmas stockings are hung at the fireplace. The old building fairly groans under all the tinsel and blinking bulbs.
And from hidden loudspeakers, in an endless loop, comes 'Let it Snow!'
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