Winter in ST. aUGUSTINE

Every winter in St. Augustine, the Old City holds their Night of Lights festival. The event sees the whole of downtown decorated in amazing displays of holiday lights and other festive knickknacks. Each year, St. Augustine’s Night of Lights brings in tens of thousands of tourists, flooding downtown with its own unique blend of chaos and fun. Having lived here for the last few years, I wanted to take a moment and actually capture the joy that I personally take from this time.

You see, there’s a special golden era right before those lights go on. All the shops downtown are dressed up in colorful lights and ribbons and candy canes, but everything is still quiet. No chaos, no tourists—well, no hoards of them at least—It’s still the same Old City, but you can tell something in the air has changed. For that moment, we’re all waiting with baited breath. For the crowds, the aggressive traffic, that mayhem that we love so much. It’s an electrifying feeling as we all sit and wait. Until the minute that those lights go on, we are a city in anticipation.