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This site – and my email list – are dedicated to art that’s inspiring, thought-provoking, skillfully executed, and/or breathtakingly beautiful. Once a year, I stretch that to include fabulous decorations, clothing, and/or jewelry on display during the holiday season. New York City has always had the most fabulous decorations, but New York City is (very literally) not in a good state this year. You can see a couple displays at major department stores here.

Florida, on the other hand, is open for business, with localities and individual shops setting their own rules for mask-wearing and number of people allowed in a particular space. So this year, I’m offering photos of Christmas at the St. Pete Pier (across the bay from Tampa), which opened in July 2020 after a seven-year renovation. HT Deb & Al, who let us know it was worth visiting.

Candy-cane palm trees. They chose a theme and they’re sticking to it.

Below: the building at the end of the pier has several restaurants offering panoramic views east across Tampa Bay toward downtown Tampa, and west over the St. Petersburg peninsula.

This garden of lights is off the St. Pete Pier, heading north along the water toward the Vinoy Hotel.

Santa Claus is in town … wearing a mask. I guess kids have seen so many people wearing them by now that doesn’t seem creepy.

If you have patience to stand in line, you can have your photo taken inside this very pretty ornament.

You know if there’s a sculpture, I’m going to have photos! Below is a monument on the St. Pete Pier to the Benoist XIV, a biplane flying boat. On January 1, 1914, it became the first plane to carry paying passengers in regular service: if you wanted to get to Tampa from St. Pete, didn’t have a boat, and didn’t want to spend 20 hours driving (cars were slow in 1914!), you could pay $5 for a plan ride – about $130 in today’s dollars. You’d be the only passenger, and you’d be sitting right next to the pilot. The idea was a bit ahead of its time for the Tampa area: the service closed down after four months. See the Wikipedia articles here and here.

More

• For Capitalist Christmas albums from 2016 and later, see here. The albums for earlier years are on Facebook: 2015, 2014, 2013 (part 1 and part 2),  2011, and 2010. I somehow missed 2012.
• For more photos from the St. Pete Pier, see my Google album of 12/23/2020.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my free Sunday Recommendations list and rewards for recurring support: details here.