December 26, 2004

Christmas day - Midnight Walk

Yesterday was a Saturday like any other with the exception that it was Christmas. In traditional lazy Saturday fashion, I played on the computer, watched TV, slept for most of the afternoon and then made dinner. I never left the house.

Around midnight, I just had to get out of the house. I walked around the neighborhood, looking for photos, looking for Santas to shoot. Later, after my walk, I came home to get Jon and our neighbor/friend to walk with me. We walked quite a bit more and then stopped to get ice cream at a diner on Broadway and 21st Street.

Here are the Santas, I found:
This is my favorite of the neighborhood Santas. I found it in the window of the pediatric clinic. At night, he looks very serene in this soft blue light, holding a candle to light the way for the little ones.

I've taken several pictures through this flower shop window, because it is one of the nicer ones on 30th Avenue. I finally found a picture that I want to share with you. Here, Santa is hiding among the different plants available in the shop.

This naughty Santa looks like he's bound and gagged with the decorative lights that the owner is probably using to hold him up. Look at how he's biting down on that wire. Go Santa, go. He really is enjoying it.

Inflatable Santa strikes again. He really gets around. When last scene, he was standing guard in front of a local supermarket. In the early morning hours of the day after Christmas, he was waving goodbye to us from the driveway of a local residence. Perhaps his reindeer are parked in the nearby garage.

I want to end this Santa photo essay with one of the first images that I took in Astoria. It is the image that sparked the idea of showing you neighborhood displays of Christmas cheer. I thought I would find many more images like it but I only found the one. I shot it because it was different. It's a Santa with Greek writing under his visage; presumably it says something about the holidays.

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