A Special Gift Keeps Outer Banks Christmas Tradition Alive
Twas the night before Christmas on the Outer Banks—which rather mangles the wonderful beginning to Clement Moore's marvelous A Visit from St. Nicholas.
It is, though, Christmas Eve on the Outer Banks, as it is everywhere else and as it is in that classic tale of holiday joy, there is a moment of pause and anticipation for the joy that is to come.
Things have changed a lot over the past few years on the Outer Banks. There is even today, a mad scramble to take care of all those last minute little things. Ten or fifteen years ago? Well, there may have been a last minute scramble, but a lot of those little things had to gotten in Virginia Beach or Norfolk.
Yet if things have changed they have also remained remarkably the same. There is still the Manteo Tree Lighting that seems to officially begin the holidays; there is Winter Lights at Elizabethan Gardens. And there is the spectacular Christmas and holiday lights at the Poulos house in Kill Devil Hills.
This year the lights have taken on a new meaning, or perhaps, as they illuminate the darkness, they tell the true meaning of the holiday.
When Ann Poulos, the mother of the family passed away in August, she asked that the annual gift to the community continue...perhaps more wonderful and filled with meaning than it ever was.
The running around and gathering all those last minute items...it will end soon and then try as they might, the youngest children try to stay awake until midnight, their parents wrap that one or two special gifts and the world pauses for just a moment to hear that fat jolly old elf exclaim, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"
From Joe Lamb, Jr. & Associates to all of our many friends, may your Christmas be filled with joy.
