Little toy store.

It's that shop you can't walk by without further investigation.

This community calls itself a town, and in most ways it is. There's a Walmart (a sure sign of commercial critical-mass in North America), two dedicated supermarkets and an equal number of pharmacies. The Salvation Army runs a high-turnover thrift shop and parking meters get converted into free Holiday gifts.

A lone McDonald's duels with two vibrant Tim Horton's, and a similar number of Chinese restaurants offer prosaic Asian comfort food. There's a cosmo-style sushi joint, a branch of most leading Canadian Banks, and main street has at least one of every other establishment typical of such locales.

But in other ways the town is more like a bigger village. You get that sense coming to the occluded streetfront window. Fresh. Innocent. Exciting. The little toy store represents everything that's charming about a place with a population of 16,000 and the magic only gets more palpable at Christmas time.














Where there are children there should be beehive destinations like this. Inside, a honeycomb of busybees doing what comes naturally. Wide-eyed and laughing. Playing. Praying at Santa.

Maybe my sentimentality this Xmas has been keened by the prominent portents of impending apocalypse we see around us. Gunned down six-year-olds is not only good for the hyperbole business, but also for the business of dreams.

Y'see, adults now have added reason to contemplate the blessing of dreams as motivation in young lives. How much doesn't happen if lives end at six Christmasses?

Magnetic slime. Themed Jigsaws. Dolls. Trinkets. Games, and children to verify their gravitas. For me, that's this Christmas, and my wish for all who read here. May everyone look around through the eyes of a child these holidays. And hug a lot.

... not like the ones I used to know ...

... if you've never heard the song White Christmas recorded in 1965 by The Wailers, with a fresh-out-of-his-teens Bob Marley wailing the lead vocal, I recommend you add it to your holiday programming the next time this season rolls around ... at the very least you'll get to hear the youthful legend adapt the lyrics to suit his tropical experience of the holiest Christian festival ...

... "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
not like the ones I used to know"...

... but my 2011 Xmas pictured Irving Berlin's original dream ...

... despite a paucity of real snow in my formative years, there was often plenty of the aerosol variety, and, even as the best-wishes remain the same, the parameters of enjoyment may shift ... to quote another modern Jamaican Christmas offering ...

"I wish for all mankind,

a Warm Jamaican Christmas time,

where there is no snow,

where the good sensimilla grow" ...

... celestial Christmas ...

... wherever you look in the night sky, if the elements co-operate, you can see stars ... it's little wonder then, that humanity has embraced, as iconography, these mysterious distant twinkles ... the pentagram is a universally accepted symbol which achieves ubiquity at Christmas time, partly due to that biblical example of star-as-beacon and partly due to it's graphic design utility ...

... St Paul's Hospital on Burrard St. in Vancouver is festooned with stars for the season supporting the laudable theme of hope ...

... meanwhile, seasonal lighting choices in Toronto's Eaton Centre feature larger-than-life reindeer assemblies, looking for all they're worth like stylized constellations, against the backdrop of a bright-night skyroof, complete with astral streaks ...














... much of the incandescent radiance on St Paul's prominent wall, normally more modest outside the festive season, celebrates corporate donors ... and beneath the mod-vaulted ceiling of      Mr. Eaton's grand mall sits some very seductive merchandising ...

... stars are married to Christmas mythology and stellar marketing is a lovechild of that union ... still, wonderment is our default setting when it comes to the heavens, and in light there is a sense of hope, so we should forgive ourselves if we are given to gape ...

... Happy Holidays from Ackeelover Chronicles! ...

... have a tart this Christmas ...

..."Christmas kinda creeps up on ya,"... next time I catch somebody (or myself) saying that, I goin' clap dem! ... in the Jamaican sense this indicates a sharp, non-injurious slap to the headback, others may interpret "clap" as sarcastic applause ... whichever, Christmas is never a secret, in fact, diplomatic cables from the North-Pole wikileak earlier every year ...

... there were already glittering clues at Montmartre intersections a couple of days before St. Nicholas snowed on Paris, making it really seem like Christmas, and chaos (travel) ... bedazzled sidewalks, lit tableaux and animated shop-window displays co-ordinated by teams of marketers or elves, combine in themes of wonder and sophistication ...

... there's a certain egalite in the very concept of public-space adornment, aimed as it is toward every eye, entirely consistent here with the lingering aura of revolution ... this year's effort outside the exclusive Ritz is a statement of elegant minimalism ...

... interestingly enough though, when Christmas approaches most people would rather be at home, even considering those who might have been tempted to stay in France eating Brie-de-Meaux and Raisins de Provence at whim ... and, lest you think a Caribbean Christmas is somehow anachronistic, think again ...

... to do Christmas right you must see it coming, it's extra stressful if it creeps up on ya, as it seems to every year despite all the wiki-warnings ... in the Caribbean, like in France, planned preparation of indulgent food is one way to enhance your own holiday experience, and home is still the best place to eat ...

... since I can only be with some of the people I love this year, these homemade guava tarts will be my offering of best wishes ... to one and all wherever you are ...

... Happy Holidays!

... blessings for the Xmas ...

... feeling humbled enough to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em ... the Christmas juggernaut just gets more demanding every year ... some folks thrive on this quickening of time, and to be honest, December has traditionally been a happy time of year for me ... but this year is my first Xmas as a blogger ...

... surprise, surprise ... many drafts half-baked in the think-tank ... the first thing to get elbowed aside is the routine, the ability to keep all the non-festive stuff running as normal ... so, I'll simply share with you a snap I took last week .... downtown St. John's, Antigua lit up ...















... "take whatever joy you have in your experience my son ... put it up there for all to behold ... for if every eye sees beauty and wonderment ... then that's all there is, truth be told ...."

... so sez my sentient voice, antidote to the inner grinch ...

... Happy Holidays and Blessings for the New Year to one and all ... especially readers of ... Ackeelover Chronicles ....