December 2011 @ Downtown Santa Barbara

In previous years, I traveled over Christmas, but this year I chose to stay home and rest. On Christmas Eve, I ventured into downtown Santa Barbara to soak in the holiday spirit. True to its small-town charm, the city center was unusually quiet. Aside from a few bars with scattered patrons, it seemed most people had chosen to stay inside, warming themselves by the fire. The silence, though peaceful, also echoed a sense of unfamiliarity.

As a foreigner in this land, it’s not easy to adjust to a new culture overnight. Still, I strapped on my camera, carried my tripod, and joined a handful of other out-of-towners walking the empty streets, capturing a very different kind of Christmas.

Red gift boxes hung above shuttered shops. A bicycle rental store prepared to close. The streets were eerily still, broken only by the flicker of string lights wrapped around tree trunks and the occasional passing car paused by a traffic light. The mall downtown, once a bustling holiday destination, stood empty, its Christmas trees—tall and small—scattered across the center promenade in quiet dignity.

Even the street lamps wore festive scarves of light. In one spot, a “family” of Christmas trees stood together—a tall one, a medium one, and a little one—like a quiet tableau of seasonal warmth. Shop windows glowed with their own solitary trees, while a towering giant tree, wrapped simply in white light, stood as a reminder of the effort someone once gave to make the city shine.

Groups of two or three strolled in hushed conversation, but mostly, it was stillness that filled the night. A peaceful, if a bit lonely, kind of Christmas.