Christmas ‘06 - Island Style

Christmas in Antigua is pleasantly low key when compared to the frenzied three month build-up to the holidays in the U.S. There are decorations here, but not too many. There is shopping, but not that you would notice. Actually, the whole thing seems to run about three days. Our merry little Christmas on Crossroads was laid back and easy with good friends and good food.

We started our holiday celebration with a cookout on the beach with six other boats. Burgers and dogs were savored and then out came the guitars for caroling. We sang as the sunset and the beach gradually emptied. “Silent Night” sounded pretty with the gentle waves lapping on the beach for background.

Christmas eve brought more traditional activities - cooking and last minute trips to the grocery store. Michele and Una worked all day preparing a full-on Christmas feast with all the trimmings. We had a whole turkey, Michele’s Mom’s cornbread dressing, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, corn pudding, and Grandma Phillips’ spice gumdrop cookies - yum! After the feast we leaned back and watched “White Christmas” on Dragonfly’s wide screen laptop. The movie woke us up enough to leave the boats and head ashore to catch a choral group caroling over at Nelson’s Dockyard. Then it was off to our beds as visions of sugarcane danced in our heads.

On Christmas morning we awoke to find that Mr. Claus had again found and delivered presents to Crossroads (he must read the blog). Michele and I made a quiche and home fries for breakfast, since we couldn’t find pork tenderloin. Mid-day found us back at the dockyard for a fundraiser champagne party and cook out. Hundreds of locals and sailors
toasted the season among the 300-year-old dockyard buildings and the mega yachts.

Well, that may have sounded like a busy couple of days, but that was it. A quick, busy, fun island Christmas.

Glenn