A VERY MERRY CLEARWATER CHRISTMAS REPORT

Well, it’s Christmas, so it’s a great time to revisit the happiest, most vibrant town on the face of the planet—Lovely Downtown Clearwater…ALIVE with the spirit of the holidays!

The streets were jammed and the sidewalks were overflowing with shoppers and holiday revelry as we entered the magical city: (rev·el·ry ( rĕv ' əl-rē ) n. , pl. -ries . Boisterous merrymaking)

 

Gosh! Look at the traffic jams clogging the main thoroughfare, Cleveland Street! You really get caught up in the Christmas spirit when you see all the hustle and bustle of shoppers making their way towards the endless array of shops brimming over with holiday cheer. We were so glad to see how the city knocked themselves out to festoon the streets with Christmas decorations.

Oh, what’s that on the corner? Aw, too bad, another building up for sale:

Gee, what a shame. Those folks have been there for a very long time. I wonder if they’ll get their price:

http://index.loopnet.com/xNet/MainSite/Listing/Profile/13705857 . I’m sure they’re sorry to leave the extremely hot retail market of downtown Clearwater.

Perhaps they were driven out of business by that group of mover-shakers in the next block, the Sea Org, located in the Coachman Building. Look at that festive shop! As usual, this highly competitive business won the city’s Holiday Spirit Award for “Most Innovative Window Display.” 

 

Wow! We particularly enjoyed the Macy’s-style Christmas window displays ---various animatronic vignettes in the windows. So original and captivating! Don’t be fooled by the paper covering the windows—this is high tech. Due to the latest Christmas Display Tech brought to you by the Church of Scientology, you are left to imagine the show that’s taking place. We saw it---it was amazing!  Life-sized toy soldiers in their uniforms running around or tinkering away at top speed as they surround their boss---a tiny elf! They were so life-like you’d never have guessed they were robots.

Who needs Macy’s Christmas windows? You could spend a whole day staring at the windows of the Coachman Building.

It was apparent to us why the City of Clearwater has embraced this group and their extensive real estate holdings. They add so much to the Holiday spirit of this town. You can almost imagine the joyful carolers who must have been on break when we visited.

The Ft. Harrison Hotel won 2^nd place for their Christmas Display. I’m sure they would have won the best decorated window display if they only had some windows at street level.

 

By the way, we were told that the LATEST hip trend in Christmas trees is a total lack of decoration---and leave it to those hippest of the hipsters, the Scientologists, to lead the trendsetters. Gee, doesn’t it make you all warm and fuzzy to see such a welcoming Holiday display?

Not to be outdone, the building right next door (300 Ft. Harrison—former home of the Salvation Army and now owned by the Church of Scientology) had the Christmas Spirit of Clearwater too!

 

Good Golly---it warms the cockles of your heart to see how the Church of Scientology has invested in the effort to Deck the Halls with boughs of ….uh…let’s see…boughs of…paper. Yeah! That’s the ticket!

Well, in all fairness, the Church did knock itself out with Christmas decorations for the Ft. Harrison. We wouldn’t want to neglect to show the eternal wreath that adorns its façade year after year:

 

I, for one, was glad that the rotting window box air conditioning units had not fallen to the street due to stress from the wreath. So we are joyful. And because of that joy I will not show you yet again another photo of the GAPING HOLE IN THE SIDE OF THE SUPER POWER BUILDING. (At Christmas we must be charitable to those poor souls that are eagerly awaiting the completion of that white elephant.)

So we share with you, instead, the rear view of the Coachman Building---where the windows are decorated to the nines with two wreaths and LOTS of paper! They love decorating their windows with paper---remember the Flag vans zooming around Clearwater a few years ago? They were all decorated for Christmas too! LOTS and LOTS of paper in the windows!

 

And no Holiday Stroll through festive Clearwater would be complete without a look at the infamous OSA Bank Building. You know how those rascals at OSA love a good tree-trimming event! Why Santa himself has often ensconced himself at their front door in his bright red Christmas chair.

 

Rumor has it they borrowed some of those animatronic characters from the Sea Org display across the street because we saw a lot of toy soldiers scurrying to and fro spreading Christmas cheer Sea Org style.

Why, I’ll bet that merry old Elf has filled their stockings with lots of cameras and cell phones! Ho Ho Ho!

We were so caught up in the Holiday Spirit of Clearwater’s downtown that we decided to stop for a bite at the town’s newest restaurant, Akiva’s. We hardly recognized the old Ottavio’s restaurant as it’s now in its third incarnation in as many years.

 

Alas, we save the best for last---the bastion of Christmas Cheer:  THE WINTER WONDERLAND

 

As usual, the residents of Clearwater are lining up to share the Christmas spirit with the Church of Scientology. The yellow tent provides a new updated theme to the Winter Wonderland and we’re quite sure that this new addition will help pack in the crowds.

 

With all the Christmas buildings in Winter Wonderland you might not notice that they have a new neighbor across the street: the white tower behind the Scientology structures belongs to the Albanian Muslim Center. I’m sure they enjoy sharing the view of how the true spirit of Christmas is portrayed by Winter Wonderland….as well as the surveillance video.

The Winter Wonderland is the best place to end our tour of the Very Merry Clearwater Christmas. I hope you enjoyed it. We’d like to thank those sponsors who made it possible:

HO HO HO…and a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, ONE AND ALL!