Celebrating Christmas on South Florida Waters

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It may seem strange for newcomers to our state to celebrate Christmas by fishing in the warm waters of the Gulf or chasing sailfish in the Atlantic or boating through the Everglades. It is fun, though, to read South Florida newspapers that gloatingly announce the freezing December temperatures in Buffalo or Chicago or International Falls.

At least one Christmas-time incident in our state’s history involved our largest lake. Lake Okeechobee was the scene on December 25, 1837, when federal troops completely defeated Seminole Indians in what turned out to be the largest and one of the most important battles of the Second Seminole War. Colonel (later President) Zachary Taylor led his troops to a decisive victory over four hundred Seminoles.

Because good roads did not exist in southern Florida until the 20th century, people traveled by boat from place to place, including those times when they wanted to visit others during Christmas time. For example, in the 1870s, according to Charles Pierce in his Pioneer Life in Southeast Florida, a resident of Hypoluxo halfway between Boca Raton and West Palm Beach had prepared for Christmas visitors by spending a month fattening a captive possum with sweet potatoes. His visitors sailed over by boat to enjoy the meal, to bake some biscuits with a Dutch oven they brought with them, and to enjoy a nice holiday with friends.

As was customary in those days, the visitors also brought along bedding and something to ward off mosquitoes. One of those attending, Captain Burnham, the keeper at Cape Canaveral Lighthouse, prepared a delicious cane syrup, and – for dessert – everyone enjoyed prickly pear pie.

Further south, in Lemon City on Biscayne Bay during the 1890s, the few non-Indian families there would cut their own Christmas tree from the nearby woods and decorate it with such “ornaments” as Spanish moss, wildflowers, palmettos, and palms. The families would then often go by boat to the beach for a Christmas picnic.

During World War I, The Miami Herald used its Christmas edition to tell readers how the weather was elsewhere: “If the weather man’s promise holds good, Christmas will dawn in Miami with the skies partly overcast with clouds and the weather warm, while a large part of the country is wrapt in a sheet of snow and ice and chilled by the breath of a howling blizzard which is sweeping down from the northwest carrying with it temperatures of ten to twenty-five degrees below zero in some sections of the northwest.” And then for good measure, the editor invited his readers to enjoy a nice swim in the surf.

Finally, in Key Largo on Christmas Day, 1926, the weather was mild, warm, sunny, and breezy – as usual. The next day, Santa Claus arrived by boat to give gifts to the children in the Florida Keys. The photo here shows Santa arriving in Sarasota at Christmas in 1965.

No doubt, many Floridians then and now have adjusted nicely to living in this wonderful state. How nice it is to be near a Florida waterway.

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