Special Report: A Final Look at Holiday Decorations
With December 25 behind us, holiday decorations will soon disappear from Alameda yards. While I tried to cover as much of the city as I could, there were a few locations I could not fit into my regular Sunday reports. The obvious omission was Thompson Avenue—otherwise known as Alameda’s Christmas Tree Lane. If you haven’t seen it yet, this weekend would be a good time to stroll by before the decorations are gone for the year.
One of Alameda’s festive sites that often goes unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping is South Shore Shopping Center. When you stroll around, see if you can find all the fanciful reindeer, including Rudolph and the surfer dude reindeer. Be sure you check out the window at Pagano’s Hardware, too. Lots of cute miniature mechanical rides. I liked the popcorn factory.
I realized that I had omitted traditional Santa in his sleigh with the reindeer from all my reports so far. So, for all the traditionalists, the video has the one I walk by four or five times a day on Central Avenue. I also followed up on a tip from my good friends Barbara and Frankie and checked out an interpretation of the traditional Christmas tree over on Paru Street.
Talk about being at the right place at the right time! The planets aligned perfectly (and the light turned red requiring this car that was fully wrapped in holiday lights to stop) which gave me time to get the video clip for this report.
Finally, a quick shoutout to the folks over at Alameda Island Rocks for dropping some holiday spirit along the planting strip on Alameda Avenue, and the family that puts out the Christmas shark and unicorn in their yard every year.
For this special report, I decided to put all the images into one video and add a traditional holiday soundtrack. I hope you enjoy listening to “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson. There are many versions—this one is my favorite, performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Don’t forget to read my Year in Review report coming this Sunday.
Onward into 2024,
Mouf, Roving Reporter
Bear’s-Eye View of Alameda
Mouf and his human companion can be reached via [email protected]. Their stories are collected at AlamedaPost.com/Jeff-Cambra/. All photos by Jeff Cambra.
