I’ve never in my life not spent the holidays in New York. In my mind, aside from an Alpine holiday, nothing is more quintessential and classic Christmas than old New York City. I love the month of December there and we have a lot of family traditions built into the season. It wasn’t planned, but we’ve loved our time here in Hawaii so much, that my husband and I decided to spend Christmas in Honolulu. I love tradition and hold on to it pretty tightly. However, it’s funny that when presented with the opportunity for something new, it just takes getting over that hump, to allow yourself to feel that it might actually be ok to do something different. And I would have said that a tropical holiday season seemed totally foreign to me but that’s not completely true; I did get a little glimmer of the potential once before.
The first time I visited the Hawaiian Islands was early on in my relationship with my husband. He’s from the west coast and had grown up coming here. Being from the east coast, we usually traveled further east or south, not west — am I right? He and I went to the island of Lanai to stay with friends, which is an unusual introduction to Hawaii, as relatively few people live there or travel to visit. We landed at the tiny airport a few days after Thanksgiving so the holiday season was already underway. I remember getting in the car and driving and being struck by two things. First, the only trees I saw were the gigantic Norfolk pines, no palms in sight. And second, the mid-morning light gave the grass an almost surreal neon green quality I had never seen before. We turned on the radio and “Christmas in the Islands” started playing, a rainbow in view up ahead and the island of Maui in the distance. In that moment, it occured to me that spending the holidays in Hawaii might have its own kind of je ne sais quois.
About 6 years later, here we are in Hawaii again, with our own Norfolk pine Christmas tree. We decorated it with dried citrus slices strung on red ribbon from the orange trees in our backyard and some special keepsake ornaments we picked up while here. The sparkly papaya and lime ornaments will remind me of all the times my daughter and I sat on the lanai eating them fresh from the yard. My favorite though, is Honu, the hawaiian green sea turtle with little pearl eggs on it’s back. Honu is a recurring character in the children’s books we read our daughter. Recently we stayed somewhere on Maui and right out back there were huge sea turtles all over the beach. The other day here, one dove right in front of me as I was heading back to shore after my flagpole swim.
Hawaii really embraces the Christmas season in it’s own unique way. At the old-school club down the street, Santa paddles in to see the kids in a red canoe. Colored lights are wound up the trunks of coconut trees. Holiday ukulele music drifts out from homes and shops. Christmas Eve was at a friend's house where we dined outside, aloha shirts and cocktail dresses and everyone barefoot. Island traditions blend with classic holiday cheer.
For me to feel festive, I knew I had to shift the way I dressed once December rolled around. I took a look at my previously self-lauded wardrobe and pulled out whites, reds, textured fabrics, and more elevated pieces to create that shift for myself.
The last few weeks here have been a bit bittersweet, with the anxiety of having to leave hanging over us. I’ve fallen so in love with our time in Hawaii that I found myself wondering if we ever should have come, just to avoid the heartbreak of leaving. We’ll be back to Hawaii, of course, but it will never be the same. We’ll be older, circumstances will be different, and so everything will be. As is life! Happy New Year to all.
The jean jacket!!! 💕💕
I want the crochet cardigan !