Santa Visits Honolulu Hale Fountain

That fur suit is a killer in 80F heat. Santa stopped by the fountain at Honolulu Hale to cool off.

Mrs. Santa came along for the ride.
Would you stay at the North Pole if your partner was visiting Hawaii?

Of course, with as much military as there is on this island,
you can't land a flea without folks noticing,
so jeeps rolled and emergency plans were dusted off ...

And Santa proved that rather then being a haole,
he's Kama'aina by greeting them with the traditional Hawaiian shaka,
or aloha wave.

Christmas on Oahu

In the previous posts I'd only just begun to scratch the surface of the Honolulu Hale decorations. You've seen the park and the foyer. Now I present a few of the sights that can be seen on the front and side lawns. (Stay tuned for the fountain tomorrow!)

Mele Kalikimaka -- Merry Christmas to you and yours!
The word mele is actually musically based, so in literal translation
you are being wished a musical Christmas!

Politics and Christmas: Every red ribbon in this display -- 1800 of them -- represents
a Hawaiian who died of aids.

Politics and Christmas: there is a small faction of people in Hawaii who want to make Hawaii a sovereign nation governed by Hawaiians. This display was fashioned by those who disagree.

Religion and politics:
This is at the bottom of the above display. The signs read, Happy Birthday, Jesus.

The Christmas tree in front of Honolulu Hale.

Train beneath the tree.

Religious displays on public property -- with not an outcry to be heard.

Beside the nativity is a PFLAG display.

Elvis is very popular in Hawaii -- be it Christmas or any other time.

Here is a bit of, Blue Hawaii, for you.

My Christmas wish for you and yours.

Deck the Hale

Honolulu Hale decks its halls for Christmas. Local businesses bid for the privilege of providing the decorations. For every photo here there are at least two more I didn't share and twice as many I never even took! The Hale foyer was dressed to dazzle!

Hawaii Christmas Express -- first stop, the bank, then on to the mall!

What's Christmas without a stop at the candy store?

Don't forget to stop by the shipping company to get those packages mailed.

Here's a real snow bird come to Hawaii for some Christmas Cheer.

Not a creature was stirring ...

Ha! Not true! The place was packed!

A Hawaiian Christmas tree.

And Santa in aloha wear. That red suits just a bit too warm here.