Point of View

Christmas In The Dessert

The Sunday morning crowd of my third place is quiet; everyone busy flipping through the morning paper. The line for a warm coffee grows and shrinks and grows again while the barista’s smile and greet and brew…as they do. It’s overcast days like today that remind me of the changing seasons of Chicago. All the signs of winter are here with folks dressed in sweaters and boots, scarves and ear-muffs, and the cold-crisp air on your face. Those still wearing shorts and flip-flops are clearly new arrivals or out-of-towners, this being warm to them. After living in the desert for so many years, any time the temperature falls below 70 degrees we all reach for the nearest jacket and switch on the heater. It’s an odd transformation that takes place when you first move here from an eastern part of the country. The thought of no snow is a key factor of course; no more shoveling all that white powder and scraping car windows is a thing of the past. Us desert-dwellers normally use this time of year to make the mocking phone calls back to our eastern-living friends and relatives and rub in the fact that its 70 degrees and sunny. This little act of weather-rivalry does not always work out in our best interests as the temperature is a matter of location. We may call back east and ask how the weather is and get in response that’s its wonderful and 65 degrees. When posed with the same question by our eastern-living friends our response may be that its awful and 65 degrees. But, in the end, there is no snow and for that we rejoice.
The dessert-dweller takes the Christmas season very serious making every effort to replicate a winter wonder-land in their front yard. It’s the lack of what we all escaped from that seemingly motivates our passion. Snow-scapes and winter-like scenes start to pop up across the valley shortly after Thanksgiving in an almost “Griswold-like” attempt to out do the next door neighbor. Some actually have snow shipped in to add to the winter atmosphere while others use lights to achieve the effect of snow and ice. Some choose to put a musical accompaniment to their lights and turn their neighborhood into a little Vegas strip complete with passers-by and congested streets, all eagerly awaiting the next performance of Trans Siberian Orchestra. One cheerful Scottsdale resident found himself in a lawsuit last season by his grinch-of-a-neighbor for having such an elaborate display of holiday cheer. Of course the court ruled against our “hero.” Grinch: one, Scottsdale cheer-giver: zero.
Adding to the dessert Christmas are the festive parades and holiday events put together by the cities and towns across the valley. The Phoenix zoo decorates the grounds with lights and animated winter scenes while the City of Phoenix hosts the annual parade of lights. Each year the city closes off Central Avenue and all street lights, traffic lights and business lights are turned off for this electric parade. Colorful dancing lights adorn floats, cars and trucks. Not even the high school marching band is left out as each band member is fitted with dazzling lights on their instruments and uniforms. Not to be out done, Tempe hosts a boat parade of lights each year at Tempe Town Lake, while the local radio station airs their version of the classic Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” performed before a live studio audience in the tradition of the days before television. Local news personalities along with local celebrities from Alice Cooper to Walter Cronkite have volunteered their time to this valley tradition. Although the desert may lack the most common ingredient related to Christmas, I have never felt the spirit of the holidays quite as much as I do living Christmas in the desert.