Christmas in Curaçao

This is our third Christmas since we moved aboard Sava, and again we are in a new location, this time the biggest of the ABC islands, Curaçao. As an island with rich history and many cultural influences, of course it’s an interesting place to spend the holiday season! Curaçao got into the Christmas spirit early, with stores displaying holiday cheer in October, and early celebrations at the beginning of December. As we are enjoying Christmas in Curaçao and all the decorations that come with it, I thought I’d share some stories and photos of what the celebrations are like in the Leeward Antilles.

Interested in Christmas in other places? Read about spending Christmas in the Caribbean , Panama and in Florida

Christmas in Curaçao Starts Early

The decorations have been up since Halloween but that’s not even what I am talking about. One of the holidays has already happened.

St. Nicholas Day is the traditional day for presents from Santa and people get excited! Men dress in colorful costumes, paint their faces and jump into cars and drive around yelling out the windows and honking. At least that’s what we’ve seen. So many of them get into one car it’s like a clown car, more noticeable in the days of social distancing.

St Nicholas costumes
St Nicholas celebrations
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Christmas in the Caribbean

Are you a Christmas fanatic who shops all year round for decorations and gifts or more of a Scrooge? If you are the first, then visit the Caribbean anytime after October. Christmas in the Caribbean starts early: all the malls in St. Lucia were decorated and Christmas carols blasted from the speakers when we were there in November.

Since readers liked last year’s photo blog from Florida, here’s one from the Caribbean, mostly Martinique, where Santa and other holiday decor is the norm. The majority of the festive ornamentation is traditional and (fake) evergreen and wreaths abound, but I prefer the original and surprising celebrations, like the relaxed Santa in the display in Sainte Anne, Martinique.

Caribbean Christmas display
Christmas display in Sainte Anne
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Christmastime in Florida

Hope everyone had a great holiday! In between getting accustomed to our new home, we enjoyed spending the holiday season in Florida this year. In this post, I share some of the holiday decorations for Christmastime in Florida.

Holiday Decorations

People really get into the Christmas decorations: houses, cars, even boats are decorated for the holidays. They even host a few boat parades along the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW): one had Huey Lewis as the Grand Marshal. We missed the boat on that one (sorry!) but got some photos anyway.

See how Christmas is celebrated in Curaçao and Martinique!


Here is a snapshot of some of the stylish, funny, interesting and just plain weird holiday decorations in our travels on land and water in Southern Florida.

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