and so this is Christmas

Aliyah and I are heading to the beaches of Florida in a few days. I was thinking a warm, sunny beachy Christmas would be fantastic this year. She, on the other hand, once she thought it through, was a little concerned. “Mommy, there’s no snow in Florida. How can it be Christmas without snow?”

Now, mind you, in all her years on this planet she has lived through more Christmases of color than white, but in her head is the idea that Christmas always means snow, and the possibility of that in Florida is remote to none. It’s interesting how expectations work their ways into our heads. Generalities and stereotypes invade our thinking without our even noticing, so that we expect something to be or behave in a certain prescribed way, even if it doesn’t fit our general experience.

It could be all the classic Christmas movies we watch: Miracle on 34^th Street, White Christmas, Christmas in Connecticut. For some reason, northeastern United States has become our standard for appropriate Christmas weather. I wonder about the cultural dominance of that area of the country.

So, we will not have a white Christmas, dear, unless you count the whitecaps on the waves.