In a year like 2020, we could all use a little sparkle in our lives.
Many of the homes, businesses and roundabouts in Grand Cayman are lit up to celebrate the season, so pile everyone into the car and take a tour around the island. (Singing carols is optional, but encouraged.)
The Bodden sisters’ home – always an annual favourite – has scaled back this year, but the Crighton property on Shamrock Road, opposite Ocean Club, is ablaze with lights as usual.
A drive through George Town and South Sound is also recommended, as you’ll see houses along the way displaying their festive cheer.
Companies that sponsor roundabouts, like Cayman National Bank, Butterfield Bank and Island Heritage, take their decorating seriously every year. From the Esterley Tibbetts to the Linford Pierson Highway, each roundabout has its own design theme.
Of course, no Christmas tour is complete without a walk around Camana Bay. With its family of gingerbread characters on the Paseo, perfect for a group photo, to the magnificent Christmas tree on the Crescent, Camana Bay is definitely in the spirit.
Last year, we published stories from members of the Old Cayman Facebook group, who spoke about what Christmas was like in the islands many years ago.
Here are just some of those memories, to remind us of those wonderful days.
“Going to South Sound to cut down our Christmas tree. It was our tradition. There was a little spot of land in the seaside between the dock and South Sound.” – Sheila Woods
“I remember going and picking our Christmas tree, decorating it with paper ornaments we made and coloured, in different shapes. We would join together dyed popcorn on thread and string them around the tree in different colours (eating the popcorn while doing that task and getting a good slap for eating it [laughs]). [We would even use] newspaper to wrap the gifts when one set of the Christmas paper was finished. Oh, the fireworks out in town on Christmas Eve, and the smell of apples would be so strong. Such sweet memories of a simpler life but we had lots of fun. So much we used to do those days, preparing for Christmas.” – Rina Ebanks
“Christmas was, for me, a pine limb decorated with whatever we could find. No popcorn, a little tinsel, no gifts, but a wonderful time decorating the yard with white sand and conch shells and the living room walls with Sears catalogues (Christmas wallpaper) which made the roaches happy, because they used wet flour as glue [laughs].” – Evart Jackson
“Our father used to pack all my siblings and cousins in back of his truck and drive to Seven Mile Beach. We would use old paint cans to load up the truck with sand to dump and spread in our front yard for Christmas morning – it was always so exciting. I guess it was our version of ‘snow’, but for us as children it just added to the excitement of Christmas and was the most beautiful sight on Christmas morning.” – Shirley Jackson
“In central George Town, I remember Charles Barnes’ bus would take us to the airport to see Santa arrive by plane. He would then drive around the districts, throwing out candies for the kids.” – El Rey
“I would work in my grandfather’s store (Bodden’s Dept. Store) until all hours on Christmas Eve. Everyone would be in town shopping and the kids would be lighting fireworks.” – Selma Lee Arch
“I remember backing sand for our yard, spreading it and making sure every spot was covered, and the smell of apples, and the heavy cakes cooked on the caboose with heaps of coals on the cover … Lord have mercy [smiles].” – Uldeen Evans
“We cleaned our home top to bottom and mama brought out the chenille bedspread and the lacy tablecloth. Shoes were checked and repaired and new laces were bought, if needed. We were blessed if we each got a new dress or shirt and just perhaps too there would be the addition of some ribbon for our hair and a new dress hat or handbag for mama.” – Velma Powery-Hewitt
“I [remember] my dad Graham driving us to South Sound to get that perfect tree, standing it in a bucket of sand, and decorating it with anything we could find. Also, the group who walked the streets playing harmonicas and anything that made music.” – Merrell McCann
“One of my favourite memories was the ‘marching road band’. The men would come walking down School House Road with a wheelbarrow in tow, collecting any and all alcoholic beverages. James Thomas on the saxophone and Nooksie on the drums. Other instruments I remember were the harmonica and grater. I can remember a few of the men: Mr. Coolidge, Mr. Rudel, Mr. Murray. They would stop in front of our house to play for my grandfather Lorraine. Everybody in the neighbourhood would come out to listen and give them a little something in the wheelbarrow.” – Siri D. Jones-Russell
“We called them the ‘Marchers’ and as kids we would be awoken in the wee hours of the morning by the beat of their drums. As they got closer and closer, we glued our faces to the window in anticipation of their arrival. We would hear them at my Uncle John’s singing out, ‘Three cheers for John Franklin! Hip, hip, hurray!’ when he gave them rum. And then it was on to my grandfather’s (Willie Bodden), then finally to our house. My dad gave them money and they would repeat the ‘Three cheers for Bunny Bodden!’ After they left, we went back to bed, falling asleep to the sounds of the drums fading in the distance and anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus.” – Andrea Bodden
“That is exactly how I remember it too…the sound in the distance of those marchers drumming and getting closer and closer to our house was the most exciting sound on earth for us. Well, it was a tie between that and the early morning banging of pots and pans as our parents would start making Christmas cakes and all the delicious food for Christmas Day. “Daddy would always have a little bottle hidden away from us children to give the drummers. They would sing the ‘Hip, hip, hooray, for he’s a jolly good fellow’ song over and over and we’d be peeping through the window behind the curtains. It’s a memory that we talk about every Christmas.” – Shirley Jackson
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