Naughty and Nice: A New Orleans Christmas Photo Essay
New Orleans won my heart years ago, but it was on my most recent visit that I fully understood why. It’s not only the food. It’s not only the music. It’s not only the people or the parades or the po’boys. It’s because New Orleans is a study in contrasts.
Stately mansions lean up against ramshackle, sideways shacks. Women in hats and shawls brush shoulders with women in glitter paint and beads. Four stars and dive bars share the same block. You can get your fortune told by a tarot card reader on the steps of a Catholic church and we drank on Christmas day with a bunch of Texan Republicans in a pirate bar festooned with pride flags.
It’s a place where contradictions thrive, and tarot feels perfectly at home in the chaos. Sitting down with a deck in this kaleidoscope of cultures and characters, you begin to see how the cards mirror life itself—layered, messy, and brimming with possibilities.
For those curious about exploring deeper, resources like Purple Garden offer a tarot cards meaning list with pictures, making it easier to connect with the symbolism and stories each card holds. Whether it’s the High Priestess urging you to trust your gut or the Lovers presenting a choice, the cards bring an intimate kind of clarity. Here, in a city where fortunes can change on a whim, tarot feels like both a guide and a reflection of the wild, unpredictable world around us.
So of course we spent Christmas in New Orleans this year. With my entire extended family, including my teetotaling mother and her equally alcohol-free brother, my militantly-republican step-father, my practically-a-socialist husband and my best friend slash sister-by-choice who lived in New Orleans for fifteen years and considers more than one dive bar in the quarter to be ‘her living room’ (seriously though, all of the bartenders knew her. It was damn impressive.) Together we formed a small-scale model of the city itself: strikingly diverse yet somehow…it worked.
Scroll on to observe the messed-up beauty that is New Orleans at Christmas. In all of its grand-old-hotel-lobby meets man-in-a-loincloth-playing-the-saxophone glory.
Tasteful Holiday Bunting
Tacky Lights on Bourbon Street
St. Louis Cathedral with Holiday Ribbons
3-for-1 Bud Light Santa
The Lobby of the Historic Roosevelt Hotel
Guy In Santa’s-Naked-Ass Sweater
The Courtyard at the Royal Sonesta with Poinsettias
Dive Bar with Snowflakes
More Festive Bunting
Hot Dog Vendor
Canal Street Streetcar with Wreaths
Drunk Skeletons with Beads
Christmas Day Mass
And my personal favorite (in case you missed it in the header)…
Man in a Santa Hat and a Terry Cloth Loincloth Playing Saxophone Christmas Carols
I’d say you hit the jackpot for diversity with the loin cloth sax player. I’ve only been for very short ‘concert stay’ trips and haven’t seen as much as you , but it is an interesting place. I’m lucky that we get to stay at the Roosevelt. It is a beautiful hotel and the room live up to the lobby. The Sanger Theatre is a great venue for concerts, too. In fact we will be heading to New Orleans to see the Moody Blues next month!!!!
So glad your family got to enjoy Christmas in such an ‘accepting’ place and that you all enjoyed it do well. Maybe that bodes well for 2018 fou all of you… maybe it bodes well for all of us. If only we all could be so accepting of each other all the time.
Happy New Year! 🎊🎉😃
So glad
I aim to be accepting all of the time. I will admit that is sometimes challenging.
And good to know about the rooms at The Roosevelt! I obviously couldn’t see the rooms there, but wondered if they were as grand as the lobby. Good to know! We stayed in the smallest room in the city; I could touch the ceiling and two walls at once, without moving. Ha!
I love this! It’s very interesting to see how diverse New Orleans is, and it’s all beautiful in its own way. Even the loin cloth sax player.
ESPECIALLY the loin cloth sax player!
That final photo really does sum up New Orleans!
I loved New Orleans – probably for all those juxtapositions. Well that and the food! And the coffee!