Story has it, there are Candy Cane Lanes all over the country. They've popped up HERE, HERE and HERE and then some. But word has it that the Candy Cane Lane in Los Angeles is the one that started them all. Feels good to know that, considering the barrage of commentary coming from New York, accusing us of licking their fashion crumbs. For the record, we were never the last to know. Sometimes the 2nd, but never the last. And we don't all wear shorts and flip flops. And Rodarte is from Pasadena. But I digress...
It's undoubtedly a perk to have Candy Cane Lane in Los Angeles. We're close to Disneyland and I swear one of the employees must have built the two-story facade in front of their home, filled with trinkets and characters belting out It's A Small World. Then there's the weather perk. It's not hot outside by any means, but wearing a snuggly sweater and Uggs makes it perfectly cozy. The weather brought out families, who placed chairs in the back of flat-bed trucks, so that their kids could cruise by and interact with the crowds roaming the streets. It sounds white trash, but it isn't. It's like a parade, and they all don cute knitted scarves and thermoses of hot cocoa. Sometimes they carol, as do the kids who have the privilege of popping half their bodies out of the sunroof of their parents car. They don reindeer antlers made of felt and wave to everyone, giggling.
Vendors are on the street selling spiced apple cider and funnel cake. Neighbors are dressed as Santa and pose with visiting kids on gigantic sleighs, three rows deep. Since the barrage of cars and foot traffic on Candy Cane Lane has residents literally trapped on their property, teens take the opportunity to score some money, baking cookies and selling bottles of water. Strangest of all, was a man who biked through Candy Cane Lane over and over, wearing a helmet that dangled mistletoe over his head.
The thing that made it special, was that people were unabashedly enjoying the Christmas spirit. Teens weren't rolling their eyes, they wore blinking red noses. Parents weren't stressed over the commercial aspect of shopping lists, but slowing down to soak up the campy Griswold beauty of it all. It was truly a Holiday Road, if there ever was one!
