ST. PETERSBURG – Bah, humbug. At least give us a few moments to digest the turkey. Savor the last sliver of pumpkin pie. Taste a mega-sandwich of leftover fixins from Thursday's feast.

It's not going to happen. Before you can hum – or even recall – a few lines from "The Twelve Days of Christmas," local merchants have decked their shelves with holiday gear, holidays lights are twinkling downtown, and the fake ice pond in North Straub Park beckons folks to don a coat and scarf, and lace up their skates, to take a spin.

That's right it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Forget about Tom Turkey and the Pilgrims for another year. It's time to do some serious shopping, tree trimming, and tinsel tossing.

The city of St. Petersburg announced its holiday schedule of events, and the lineup is sure to delight children as well as the kid in all of us. This may be the Sunshine City, but there will be plenty of evergreen and jingle bells plus 65 tons of the white stuff dumped in North Straub Park. No snowblowers, pease!

A few years ago,  I had the opportunity to stay at the City Club Hotel in NYC when it just opened.   This was one of hotelier Jeff Klein’s first properties that celebrated the idea of less-is-more, the idea a hotel could be a pied-a-terre of sorts and not feel like a giant, old convention center many mega-hotels feel like today.    One of the amenities I remembered staying there was the liberal use of Hermes bath products in the bathroom.  Organic, no.   Luxurious, sure is.    This was one of the few times I remember stocking my suitcase with all the little bottles to take them home.   I think I may have even waited for the housekeeper to leave her cart unattended so I could swipe a few extra bottles.

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