Holidays in New Orleans, we do it a little differently

The rink that comes to the Convention Center every winter season because we southerners of course like to ice skate and then heat up outside. (Photo by: Sarah Isabelle Prevot)

If you live in New Orleans, or you’re visiting the city, you’ve probably noticed that the holidays look a little different around here. For one thing, the climate isn’t conducive to ugly Christmas sweaters — our shoppers are more apt to be wearing shorts and t-shirts. And our ho ho ho signs more apt to be spelled H-e-a-u-x!

In New Orleans, tradition can be  a little idiosyncratic. Here are seven ways that holiday time in the Big Easy looks different from just about any place else.

One. We’re a city that never sleeps, so we like to light up the night. Celebration in the Oaks alone has more than half a million LED bulbs. The new Audubon Zoo lights include a 20-foot-tall illuminated peacock. That’s about the same height as the dozens of bonfires that will burn along the Mississippi River levee on Christmas Eve, lighting the way for Santa’s sleigh. We literally like to burn the midnight oil.

Celebration in the Oaks. (Photo: Renee Peck)

Two. Speaking of Santa, New Orleans has unique holiday icons. Mr. Bingle is a snowman assistant to Santa who was born in the old Maison Blanche Department Store. Our Rudolph is not a reindeer, but Gaston the Green-Nosed Gator. In A Cajun Night Before Christmas, Santa falls with a clatter, making a sound like old Boudreaux falling off a ladder. Our gift tower is dictated by the Twelve Yats of Christmas, crowned by three French breads, Tujaque’s recipe and a crawfish caught in old Arabi. Our New Year’s ball drop is, of course, a fleur de lis. We view the fireworks from the deck of a steamboat.

Mr. Bingle, born in the late 1940s from the Maison Blance Department Store. (Photo: Dsnowdy, Wiki Commons)

Three. In New Orleans, we turn every tradition into a party. With costumes. We have a Reindeer Run and a Running of the Santas, and a Very Bad Santa Pub Crawl. The Krewe of Krampus in Bywater celebrates a legendary Alpine holiday goat-demon, while the Krewe of Kringle is not a parade but another pub crawl. The price of entry is a beer.

Celebration in the Oaks Run/Walk (photos by: Brandon Robert)

Four. New Orleans has its own food and drink for the season. We put booze in the hot chocolate, brandy in the milk punch. Our eggnog is tucked into a frozen daiquiri, acquired in the drive-through lane. Our Kringle Cakes are king-cake shaped, and laced with pralines and pecans.

Always an adult beverage option in New Orleans (photos by: Sarah Isabelle Prevot)

Five. New Orleans may be a dog city come Mardi Gras – think Barkus or Krewe de Paws. But right now it trends feline. The trained Acro-Cats perform a celebrated annual “Catmas Christmas Show” at the Allways Lounge.

Dogs may not be able to learn new tricks, but cats can — and do — in Acrocats, which comes to the AllWays Lounge every winter. (Photo: Itherina, Wiki Commons)

Six. In New Orleans, we like to think that we’re French. We have Reveillon menus throughout the month, celebrating the classic Creole Christmas meal. We call our Yule log-themed cakes Bouche de Noel. Here, Santa is Papa Noel.

The Roosevelt at Christmastime, when we hang icicles and lights to guide our way to the bar. (Photo: Wuinn Dombrowski, Wiki Commons)

Seven. New Orleanians like to pretend. No, we don’t have drifting snowflakes or ice-covered ponds. Instead, we hang fairy tale icicles in the Roosevelt Hotel lobby. We bring sledding and skating indoors to the Convention Center for Christmas Fest. We produce hourly machine-made “snow” storms in Fulton Alley.

And that is perhaps the secret to the season in New Orleans. Our magic lies not in what we have, or what we don’t have, but in what we conjure with our creativity and our very active imaginations. Any holiday in this city is a state of mind.