On the Tenth Day of a Feminine Christmas

This Christmas beauty is Dorothy Malone who played Constance McKenzie on the television show Peyton Place. I recognize her as well as the little town behind her. She played a stalwart but lovely character in Peyton Place.

Small towns seem to  be the norm in Christmas movies. They have so many unusual characters along with a general neighborly atmosphere. I live in a tiny fishing village housed on the edge of a bay that leads to the Atlantic Ocean. We have some nice people here and a lot of colonial homes and white picket fences. But I love a city Christmas too and fortunately, I have been able to experience a few of those.

I commuted to Boston by train for many years and got to experience the city at Christmastime over and over. Every hotel was decked out in such luxurious holiday attire and so many of them offered Christmas tea in the afternoon. My working friends and I took full advantage of this and did it so often after work that we started to bring dressy hats with us so that we could wear them at tea and look like the ladies we saw and not just working girls. What fun that was! I would take a slightly later train home on those nights and was so satisfyingly full, that there was no need to make dinner. But I also got my fill of a gorgeous city at Christmas during those years including shopping for unusual gifts in fancy boutiques.

Now I reside in a tame Peyton Place. I adore all the women who run my local yarn shop and consider them friends. My favorite coffee shop, where they actually sell real French beignets on Saturdays, makes me feel safe and cozy when I linger there. I know the village mailman well because he delivers my mail too and he always gives me a friendly hello whenever I walk past him on the sidewalk. I know which shop carries Bayberry candles and which one has the most sparkly Christmas cards. One of the churches holds a holiday concert every December and there are quiet church vespers at an ancient worship place that was moved here in the 18th century. Santa arrives by boat on Friday nights and there are carriage rides and roving carolers. It is a soft landing kind of place – an un-gossipy Peyton Place that cherishes Christmas traditions and especially loves its residents who are children.

Whether you are a city mouse or a country mouse like the glamorous Dorothy Malone, I hope your activities are bringing you joy.