Walk the Woods, Deck the Halls

St. Michaels MARYLAND

CELEBRATE “Christmas in St Michaels” celebrates its 35th year in 2021, with a slew of events that raise money for local charities including Habitat for Humanity, Christ Church Food Pantry, Bay Hundred Community Volunteers, and educational efforts. The Talbot Street Parade is the Eastern Shore’s largest holiday parade, with marching bands, antique cars and boats, fi re trucks, horses, and more. Get there early to join the Santa Dash, where red-andwhite clad participants run or walk the one-mile route before the big shebang. That evening, watch the Lighted Boat Parade cruise through the harbor, or tour around on your own to see the beautiful displays on homes and businesses throughout the town. Christmasinstmichaels.org SHOP Downtown is packed with wonderful shops, many of them tucked into Victorian-era buildings that make browsing a pleasure. Pemberton Pharmacy & Gifts is an old-fashioned drug store-meets-gift shop, with a great selection of gifts from

housewares to soaps, bags, and toys. Ophiuroidea, aka “The O,” is a well-curated, catch-all boutique that refl ects the Eastern Shore in décor and clothing, some of it locally made. Iron Will & Woodworks and sister shop, Reclaimed, are a treat for the eyes; owners Mark and Tracy Miller scour the country for salvage materials and antiques from neon to gas pumps, which they restore and/or repurpose into custom furniture, light fi xtures, and more. Nancy Hammond’s colorful prints and paintings will cheer up any room, while Guilford & Company’s beautifully curated collection of antique and estate jewelry is a star in the midAtlantic. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s gift store is a must for regional books and artwork. STAY St. Michaels’ newest hotel is the Wildset, a 34-room boutique hotel spread across four 19th-century buildings on the north end of Talbot Street. Each room is unique, some with perks like gas fi replaces, soaking tubs, and private balconies. Or spread out at Inn at Perry Cabin, the Eastern Shore’s preeminent luxury stay. For winter, it has added private waterfront greenhouses, ideal for romantic private dinners to get a respite from holiday stress. Thewildset. com; Innatperrycabin.com

From far left: A tugboat keeping watch at the Lighted Boat Parade; celebrities at the Talbot Street Parade, the biggest on the Shore; the Wildset Inn is a new addition; a winning entry in the gingerbread contest.

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STORY AND PHOTOS

BY KATE LIVIE

There’s a version of the holiday narrative that goes like this:

Sitting by a glowing fire, blanket over your lap. The tree with all the trimmings sparkles with lights and ornaments, mementos from childhood, delicate glass globes reflecting light. Carols on the radio, drifts of boxes wrapped in cheerful paper spilling into the room.

I understand the appeal of this scene; I’ve lived it myself. It is absurdly cozy and domestic. But there’s something a bit … close about it, something a little manufactured. In this version of deep midwinter, festivity is a wary guest that you lure in with glitter and consumer goods.

There is another way, an older way. The oldest songs of the season remember it well: “The holly and the ivy, when they are both full-grown,” “Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green,” “Deck the halls with boughs of holly.” We hang mistletoe and wreaths and decorate with swags of greenery in honor of this old tradition, without really understanding why. Even your trip to the cuttree place to pick out your perfect Frasier fir or spruce is a holdover from this ancient ritual—the celebration of the winter solstice. To the druids, evergreens were the symbols of life everlasting. Christianity assimilated those traditional swags of fresh greens of wintertime into the culture of the church, keeping the balsam and yew.

Each winter as the holidays approach, I have a little solstice tradition I’ve created for myself. I’m no New Ager, but I am a little misanthropic, and I like the idea of finding the original holiday spirit in the woods and the iced-over marsh bottoms along the Chester River. With wellies on, a pickup truck nearby, and some shears in my hand, I set off in the cold to gather greens. The woods are wide open with the leaves thick on the ground, and it is easy to spot the massed white cedar, hollies full of berries, low loblollies, and rhododendron. Sweetbay With wellies on, magnolia is a prized find, and I mix in the seed heads and a pickup truck soft, dun-colored senesced grasses from my wintertime nearby, and some garden for balance. With luck, I’ll find mistletoe, or shears in my coax some from a friend who knows a good spot to find it. hand, I set off My solitary walk in the woods to hunt evergreens in the cold to might seem antithetical to the togetherness encouraged this time of year. The true spirit of gather greens. these holidays are family and friends, as we are reminded by every song, card, and advertisement directed our way starting just after Halloween. And I love my own friends and family, I really do. But there’s a point where that charming, warm glow of twinkle lights and all the happy conversation and questions about your life and eggnog and more questions about your life—and somebody breaks into Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” and shoot, that’s red wine on the carpet and now it’s time for Stealing Santa and Christmas poppers and paper crowns!!!!—just