Everyone is familiar with how things work around the Cincinnati area for Christmas. There’s usually snow and everyone’s outside for about an hour or two until they get too cold and run inside for the rest of the day. All that good stuff.

Things work a little different down by the equator.

I had the opportunity to be in Florida during the holiday season and wanted to find out what some of the traditions and hobbies for Christmas were in Florida.

As I took a morning walk on the beach, to watch the sunrise obviously, I came across some people that frequented the beach.

They refused to give me their names because they thought it was a little weird, and kind of “stupid” they said, that I was writing about this for a school paper.

I asked Beach Boy 1 what his favorite thing to do during the Christmas season in Florida was. He replied, “We usually just…come to the beach, I mean there isn’t much else to do down here.”

Beach Boy 2 was a little more helpful. He told me that their families usually build Christmas-like objects in the sand, instead of the usual sand castle.

Sure enough, hours later while on the beach, there were Christmas Trees and tiny snowmen on the beach, built out of sand.

Things aren’t entirely different down there though. One thing that’s really big, is Christmas lights, another local told me.

All up and down the streets every single house and condo had a ton of lights. People put up big trees and decorate their houses. It’s just like Christmas in Cincinnati, except for the fact that it’s 30 to 50 degrees warmer and there’s never any snow.

Almost all the palm trees down there were covered in lights and had presents at the bottom of them, but people still put up the traditional Christmas tree.

I came across another local who looked like he was about 80 years old and told me he moved down to Florida 20 years ago after he retired apparently. He told me back at home, New York City to be exact, Christmas seems the exact same. So clearly people down in Florida don’t notice any difference.

To be totally honest, Christmas in Florida is not different at all. I was pretty bummed about it.

I was kind of expecting a bunch of weird and random traditions people did. When I come to think of it now, there really isn’t much more people could do differently down there.

Florida is a great time and all, but Christmas is pretty much the same down there.

So if you plan on getting some different traditions for Christmas and want to go someplace where you think things will be different, don’t go to Florida.