All Dressed Up For Christmas

The State Botanical Gardens of Georgia in Athens. Photo by me, December 2022.

Christmas in Georgia is rarely white, but it can be cold as it was last year with lows at my house in the single digits and afternoon highs in the twenties for several days. The cold was refreshing and it made wandering through the state botanical garden light displays in Athens a more festive experience. More commonly it is a cool and cloudy holiday here. This year it will be a wet Christmas with rain expected from late Christmas Eve through the day after Christmas. I would have hated that forecast as a kid, but as an adult I am quite okay with the cozy weather.

 

Dahlonega, Georgia. December 2023.

 

People would likely disagree with me, but last Saturday the 16th in Dahlonega, Georgia the weather was near perfect with heavy drizzle falling and a temperature in the middle forties. I was there to see the lights and browse the shops on the square and so were many others from the crowds and traffic I encountered.

 

Dahlonega, Georgia. December 2023.

Dahlonega, Georgia. December 2023.

Dahlonega, Georgia. December 2023.

Dahlonega, Georgia. December 2023.

Dahlonega, Georgia. December 2023.

The lights were pretty, but not overwhelming. I saw prettier houses on the drive over through the city Gainesville than I did in Dahlonega. The mountain town north of Atlanta and just out of reach from its exurbs has been in the spotlight this year after being mentioned in Southern Living Magazine for the Christmas decorations and events. The mention was picked up by Atlanta television stations and the crowds flocked up Georgia 400. After going, I speculated if it was not some type of paid promotion to drum up tourism in the slowest of all seasons in the Georgia mountains. Had I not seen the stories on the Atlanta news websites, I probably would not have gone. I enjoyed myself, had a good lobster roll from a food truck vendor, but I was not impressed with the lights. Dahlonega is not my favorite mountain town anyway and the shops there are not on par with another mountain town, Blue Ridge.

Dahlonega has an interesting history besides being a former gold mining town, there was a bit of a scandal there in 2017. This story, in the U.K.'s Independent newspaper is quite kooky and worth the read.

Also last weekend I visited one of my favorite towns, Madison, on Sunday.

Madison, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

Madison, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

 

 

Madison, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

Madison is a small town I would feel comfortable living in. It has a charming and refined beauty about its downtown with several good shops and many fine old homes. The people have been friendly on every visit. A shopkeeper remembered me from my previous visits and finally asked if lived there or if I had family that did.

 

Madison, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

Madison, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

Madison, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

Madison, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

 

Some of the shop windows were wonderfully decorated for Christmas.

Madison, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

Madison, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

These are a couple of the many grand homes in Madison decorated for the holidays. The town has the appearance of what people would consider the Old South or antebellum style. 

I have been busy, like most people, dashing to and fro this month. I have been down to Atlanta two or three times during this period.

Phipps Plaza in Atlanta. Photo by me, December 2023.

Santa taking requests at Phipps Plaza in the city.

Sometimes the best way to see Christmas lights and enjoy the sights is to loaf around in the evenings and at night between the planned activities.

Dusk in Bethlehem, Georgia. Photo by me, December 2023.

I pass through the small town of Bethlehem, Georgia once a week. Growing up in Georgia, I remember the annual news story that ran every December on the Atlanta television stations. It was the story of people making the drive to Bethlehem to mail Christmas cards for the Bethlehem postmark. Since mailing cards has declined I suppose people no longer visit the post office there in the numbers as they did decades before.

Photo by me, December 2023.

A nicely decorated home in Monroe, Georgia.

Photo by me, December 2023.

Photo by me, December 2023.

Photo by me, December 2023.

Every small town is all dressed up this time of year with Christmas lights. Monroe, Georgia does a simple but pretty job with their thriving downtown.