release

Growing up in Florida, we never had white Christmases, so we had to find or make our beauty elsewhere. Our neighborhood found it in the luminaria, a tradition from the Southwest that founds its warm to other warm climates.

Every Christmas Eve, we would get a bucketful of sand, a stack of paper bags, and some plain taper candles. Each bag got a one-inch cuff at the top, a couple of inches of sand at the bottom, and one candle. We lined the streetfront and sometimes the driveway with bags spaced about three feet apart.

At 7pm, the streetlights went dark and the candles came to life. Every street and home, on this one night, glowed as if by magic.

This year, for the first time in many years, I’m going to be doing this myself. My new neighborhood north of Tampa doesn’t yet seem to be aware of the tradition, but I’ve got years of experience as a kid and even better, I’ve got a corner lot.

It’s going to look fantastic. I’m hoping that within two years, this entire neighborhood will glow.