Fa la la la la

Spike and I are trying to keep as many of his mother's traditions going at Christmas as we can. We already participated in the Gingerbread House Competition, which is still a touchy subject, so we thought we'd try a different one. When Spike was little, he and his mom would take a day off from school/work and walk around downtown Boston to see all the Christmas decorations. Spike and I decided that we would do the same thing this year, but as we are good, hard-working, employees, we would have our adventure on a Saturday. It just so happened that we picked the coldest Saturday of the year to do so. I wore two pairs of pants, a long sleeve shirt, sweater, puffy vest, and jacket, along with scarf, hat, and gloves, and I was still freezing!

We started out from our apartment around 10 am and went over to Fenway to do some Christmas shopping. The decorations there were not so spectacular, but it was fun to walk by Fenway Park and imagine them inside building the ice rink for the Winter Classic hockey game. We continued on to Kenmore Square and were met by a bitter wind, whipping off the river. After some time at the Post Office and Barnes & Noble, we walked down Newbury Street and checked out the festive storefronts. Then we crossed over the Public Gardens and Boston Common. The greenery was hung in the Gardens and the tree was lit in the Common, both looking very festive. We decided not to rent skates for a turn around the Frog Pond... it was way too cold.

Spike remembers Downtown Crossing having great decorations and window displays, but now that Filene's is closed, the Christmas spirit is a little harder to find. We saw the story of how a letter gets to Santa Claus in the windows of Macy's. We also saw a Santa DJ spinning some carol jams. Yes, I just said carol jams. We saw the tree on top of Macy's and some cool lights strung across the streets. But that was pretty much it. To get out of the cold, we went to the movies and saw "A Christmas Carol" in 3D. It was no "Muppet Christmas Carol," but it did have Colin Firth so I was happy. After the movie, we chickened out and took the T home. Despite this, I'm happy the tradition lives on even with the freezing temperatures and the lackluster decorations. Tonight it's even colder and we'll be walking to Harvard Square. I have a feeling that I'll be wishing for the warm temperatures of Saturday...