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Christmas Tastes Like Summer

By late July, summer has settled into its sweetest rhythm. Farmers’ markets overflow with fresh produce, grills perfume the neighborhood air, and picnic tables disappear beneath bowls of fruit, pitchers of lemonade and homemade desserts. The rush of Independence Day has passed, leaving behind long evenings that invite us to linger outdoors just a little longer.

It’s the perfect time for one of America’s happiest unofficial traditions: Christmas in July.

Rather than trying to recreate December beneath a blazing sun, Christmas in July celebrates something even better. It borrows the generous heart of Christmas and fills it with the flavors of an American summer. Instead of gingerbread and peppermint, there are juicy peaches and ripe watermelon. Instead of hot cocoa, there are frosted mugs of root beer floats and rainbow sherbet melting into colorful swirls. The menu changes with the season, but the reason for gathering never does.

Christmas has never been about the weather. It’s about welcoming people to the table.

Watermelon & Picnic Tables

🍉 When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat. ~Mark Twain

Every memorable Christmas begins with a table worth gathering around, and in July that table belongs outdoors.

A bright picnic blanket spread beneath a shade tree or a table on the back patio quickly becomes the center of the celebration. The grill hums away with hamburgers and hot dogs while ears of sweet corn wait their turn beside the coals. Bowls of creamy macaroni salad, baked beans and kettle chips invite everyone to help themselves without ceremony.

Then comes the color.

Towering wedges of ruby-red watermelon glisten in the afternoon sun. Platters of strawberries, blueberries and cherries surround bowls of chilled grapes and sliced peaches. Fresh-picked blueberries find their way into pies while peach cobbler cools on the counter, filling the air with the unmistakable aroma of an American July.

The Christmas touches needn’t be elaborate. A few strings of white lights waiting for dusk, cheerful red and green napkins, or a simple evergreen wreath hanging from the garden gate are enough to remind everyone why they’re gathered.

The rest is accomplished by laughter, conversation and one more helping of whatever just came off the grill.

Bomb Pops & Bright Sherbet

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If Christmas in December belongs to cookies and candy canes, Christmas in July belongs to the freezer.

Few treats capture the season better than a cooler packed with classic Red, White & Blue Bomb Pops. Standing upright in crushed ice like a bouquet of edible celebration, their bold stripes promise sticky fingers, bright smiles and welcome relief from the afternoon heat.

Nearby, a tub of rainbow sherbet offers scoops of raspberry, orange and lime that seem almost too colorful to eat. Build an old-fashioned sundae bar with vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream, then scatter the toppings across the table: whipped cream, maraschino cherries, chocolate syrup, chopped peanuts, colorful sprinkles and crushed waffle cones.

Fresh fruit deserves a place of honor, too.

Watermelon becomes the centerpiece instead of an afterthought. Strawberry shortcake rises in generous layers beneath clouds of whipped cream. Blueberry pie sits beside peach cobbler, while bowls of blackberries and raspberries invite guests to nibble between conversations. Lemonade sparkles over ice. Root beer floats foam happily above frosted mugs.

The dessert table becomes its own celebration of midsummer abundance, where every plate looks as bright as the season itself.

Summer Stars & Shared Tables

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. ~J. R. R. Tolkien

Good food has always been one of Christmas’s favorite languages.

It tells guests they are welcome before a single word is spoken. It invites second helpings without apology. It encourages neighbors to stay a little longer and strangers to become friends over one more slice of pie.

As evening settles across the backyard, the heat begins to soften. The dessert plates grow emptier while the conversations grow longer. Someone refills the lemonade. Someone else offers one last scoop of sherbet. Children chase fireflies through the gathering twilight, pausing only long enough to rescue another Bomb Pop before it melts.

By the time the white lights begin to glow overhead, the yard no longer feels like an ordinary cookout. It feels like Christmas, simply dressed for summer.

The menu may be different, but the spirit is wonderfully familiar. Hospitality doesn’t belong to a season. Generosity doesn’t require snow. Joy has never depended upon the calendar.

So set out the watermelon. Fill the cooler with Red, White & Blue Bomb Pops. Scoop the rainbow sherbet into frosted bowls and don’t forget the peach cobbler or the blueberry pie. Invite the neighbors. Pull up another chair. Stay outside until the white lights outshine the sunset.

Because whether the table holds roast turkey or grilled burgers, peppermint bark or strawberry shortcake, Christmas has always been happiest when there’s room for one more.

Sometimes, the sweetest way to celebrate Christmas is to discover that, for one glorious afternoon in July, Christmas tastes like summer.