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When you take down your Christmas tree on Jan. 6 — the day we transition from red and green to purple, green and gold — set it aside. It can be turned into a gift to Louisiana’s fragile coastline. The city’s solid waste contractors will be collecting the trees for recycling between Jan. 10 and Jan.
Sugar cookie and candy cane martinis top the drinks menu at The Roosevelt. Hot toddies and mulled wine are the beverages of choice in holiday movies. And polls place good old-fashioned egg nog as the most popular drink of the holiday season. I concur that homemade egg nog — spiked with a good whiskey, topped with meringue, and dusted with freshly grated nutmeg — is Christmas personified. That said, I’ve recently spiked gallons of the store-bought variety. However, no matter the amount of Woodford’s, Maker’s Mark or Basil Hayden consumed via la nog, sometimes this gal needs a real cocktail, minus the cream.
Family recipes that date back several generations are being pulled from well-worn recipe files and put back into play for the holidays. One of the favorites is New Orleans Creole bread pudding and whiskey sauce.
We’re a city that holds an unflinchingly tight grip on our family traditions and history. With Louisiana’s unique food culture and some family roots going back 300 years, that history includes old Creole recipes that have been passed down for well over a century. We already know that our tablescape differs from the other 49 states on any given day. But on the holidays, our fare is markedly different from the rest of the nation.
New Orleans’ decadent holiday feast, le Réveillon, is traditionally served on both Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Now it has expanded to include the entire month of December. The Réveillon tradition descends from the French Catholics of the colonial New Orleans period under France’s rule. There were once two Réveillons: le Réveillon de Noël, enjoyed before sunrise on Christmas Day, and le Réveillon du premier de l’an’s, enjoyed early on New Year’s Day. After Creole families strolled home from Midnight Mass or “la Messe de Minuit” at the St.
A wide variety of markets in Uptown neighborhoods give you the chance to find the perfect Christmas gift for family and friends while supporting local artists and businesses. Plus, browsing a market is more fun than shopping online or in the big-box stores. If you want to forget about the shopping and just sit back and enjoy the festive spirit, you can take in a concert inside one of Uptown’s resplendent churches. A list of markets and other holiday events is below. Christmas markets
Nov.
Making shopping local your holiday tradition, beginning with Small Business Saturday on Nov. 27. Shopping small can be a big deal, and not only because you avoid the crowds and frenzy. When consumers make the choice to shop small and support local businesses, purchases have thee times the impact, according to StayLocal.org. That’s because funds recirculate in the local economy longer. Here’s some deals you can find local businesses.
If you drive on St. Charles Avenue any evening between Thanksgiving and Twelfth Night, you are bound to see a small traffic jam in the 4500 block, across from Academy of the Sacred Heart. The reason? An extravagant light display on the majestic live oak trees and the fence at 4534 St. Charles Ave.
There will be no curbside trash collection on Friday, Dec. 25, in honor of Christmas Day, or the following Friday, Jan. 1, in honor of the New Year’s holiday. Curbside trash collection will resume on the next regularly scheduled collection day. For areas with Friday recycling collection, Metro Service Group and Richard’s Disposal will conduct special collection days.
This year — even more than ever — it’s important to shop local for the holidays. Just a 10% shift to local shopping injects millions of dollars into our local economy.
StayLocal, along with its member businesses — independent locally owned shops, restaurants, markets and more — will welcome holiday shoppers across the city and the Greater New Orleans area this Small Business Saturday on Nov. 28 from 7 a.m. – 11 p.m.
During this difficult year for small retailers and restaurants, the #ShopSmall message is essential. Holiday shoppers are encouraged to increase the amount of support they give local businesses by choosing to shop local online and by shopping early this November and December.
A visit to StayLocal’s online directory of certified locally owned businesses provides customers a way to connect to local business. The directory can also be sorted by Black-owned businesses.
Twelfth Night is the official end of the Christmas season, as well as the beginning of the Carnival season. So it’s time to take down the Christmas trees. If you want your tree to be recycled, here’s what you need to do:
• Remove all ornaments, tinsel, lights and the tree stand. • Place the tree at the location of your regular garbage collection before 5 a.m. on your second regularly scheduled second collection day. That’s either Thursday, Jan.
