Business at the hot cocoa stand is lagging, but down the narrow alley of Winter Place in the warren of streets leading from the Common to Downtown Crossing, revelers at Yvonne’s, once home to the storied Locke-Ober restaurant where JFK ate his lobster stew, are tucking into truffle-dusted chateaubriand served by white-jacketed waiters. So, like Dickens’s Scrooge and ferrying ghosts, let’s take to the winds, flying over the hill to the Common, where skaters circle the public Frog Pond rink in hats and light sweaters, thanks to milder-than-normal temperatures. The communal table at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel’s annual Holiday Bacchanal feast. But you’ll find these moments in every corner of the city, particularly those frequented by travelers. The display of holiday abundance is fully concentrated in this monied neighborhood, and walking the streets brings to mind every beloved Christmas cliché: the holly and the ivy, the bearing of gifts, Christmases past and present. Up on West Cedar Street, the display in front of Rouvalis Flowers is so festively done up with wreaths and garlands, pinecones, red berry branches, and paperwhites, it’s as if Charles Dickens, that great lover of London’s holiday markets, time-traveled to 2016 and opened a florist shop. The merchants here know their audience, ornamenting shop windows with swaths of fresh pine garland, twinkle lights, cotton-batting snowdrifts, and hand-blown glass ornaments.
But on a gray December afternoon, these errands bring a special sense of urgency as the clock ticks down the shopping hours until Christmas morning. The well-heeled shoppers on Charles Street look a little precarious as they dodge puddles carrying the sort of long-handled, thick-cardstock shopping bags that whisper, “Money was spent here.” On any day, Beacon Hill’s central business district bustles with society doyennes and young professionals doing their daily rounds of butcher, baker, and party-dress maker. Teams of floral designers and stylists bedeck the mansions on Beacon Hill with ornate displays of lights, berries, garlands, and wreaths.
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