Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!

'Etoiles de Noël' / 'Christmas Stars'
Rachel Barrett-Trangmar

We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and super New Year celebrations, full of joy and happiness with your friends and families! 

We thoroughly enjoyed the season of celebrations here on St Barth, welcoming Philip’s Mother to our abode in the Caribbean sunshine and had a fun-packed couple of weeks spending time around the island, on the beaches, plus boutique shopping, restaurants/cafés et al.

St Bartholomew's Anglican Church

Philip and I are used to spending Christmas in various contrasting cultures, so have become very flexible; however, we still like to retain our own childhood/joint traditions such as decorating a tree, albeit it branch of a palm or drift wood which I creatively adorn with mementoes each year! I even make traditional English mince pies, plus my Father’s famous mulled wine, accompanied by the constant repetition of Handel’s Messiah/favourite Christmas compilations – this may all seem rather incongruous in the Tropics (especially when we invite our neighbours to join in our festivities), but it certainly creates a lovely traditional ambiance!
To add to such traditions, St Bartholomew's Anglican Church always hosts a ‘Nine Lesson and Carol Service on Christmas Eve, organised by its v. charming, typically English, priest Charles Vere-Nicolls (Fthr. Charlie).  This is in fact the church’s most popular event of the year, complete with church choir singing all the traditional carols, inc.Handel’s Allelulia Chorus, plus ‘La Cantique de Noël’, to remind us that we are on a French island after all!
I have become quite a key member of the church, over the past year, so was asked by Father Charlie  if I could read a lesson for this particular service……..I naturally agreed, despite the fact that public speaking is not something I enjoy at all........however, after a lot of practice, plus the realisation that I should concentrate more on God's words versus my own nerves and self-consciousness, the reading went extremely well (so much so that several people ironically commented that I must be 'an expert to remain so calm and composed'?!)

Christmas Mega Yachts in Gustavia

In rather sharp contrast to the religious side of Christmas on St Barth, the island actually becomes quite a different place during the two weeks of the Christmas/New Year season, welcoming the rich and famous glitterati, who all look like they just have stepped off the pages of Vogue, Harpers, Vanity Fair et al. Everyone is dressed for the cat-walk, just in case the incognito paparazzi happen to be lurking with their zoom lenses! The port in the capital Gustavia is lined with mega yachts, which are adorned with jacuzzis, pools, luxury suites, the odd helicopter pad, and of course the attentive team of uniformed staff, who diligently meet their clients’ needs from dawn to dusk, plus crowd the local supermarkets with shopping trolleys filled with 'no expense-spared' goodies, from other parts of the globe, which no local resident would ever contemplate buying (from caviar for 2,500 €/50g to fresh figs at 98 €/kg!).

Rachel 'Dressed-up' for St Barth's 'Winter'!

Despite all this abundance of wealth, the one thing that money cannot buy/control is the natural elements. Like many other parts of world, St Barth also suffered inclement conditions over the Christmas period.  We were lucky to still have the warm temperatures, but not the wind, rain and very rough sea conditions! The local government in fact banned swimming, plus all boats had to move from Gustavia's harbour to relatively more sheltered parts of the island.  Many grand parties and restaurant bookings were cancelled, as boat supplies of food, wine etc. could not get to the island! 
This rather unusual situation affected many people on the island, both locals and tourists, and became rather a talking point for Christmas 2009/NY 2010!  However, almost like an act of God, the rain stopped just in time to welcome the New Year 2010, celebrated with St Barth's annual firework display - a spectacular event launched from Gustavia's old hill fort!

 Luckily such 'bad' weather rarely lasts for long in the Tropics, as shown by the contrasting photograph taken just after New Year’s Day, in the glorious familiar sunshine on Saline Beach!

That is all for now, so I will finish by wishing you all the very best of health, happiness, peace and success in the forthcoming year!!!