There are a lot of visitors to sunny St. Croix during the winter season. If you are visiting, and hoping to buy a vacation home (or a forever home), contact us! We can show you listings that fit your lifestyle and meet your desired characteristics while you are here. If you are thinking about selling your home on St. Croix, it is a great opportunity to list now as there is small inventory on island at the moment, especially condos. Whether you are interested in buying or selling, we encourage you to take a look at the January Coldwell Banker real estate reports — available below! The sales data will be help you understand the number of listings sold, days on market, the median price listed and sold, and much more. If you have any questions, please give us a call or email us directly.
We always encourage friends and tourists to check the airlines’ websites for the most up to date information on flights to St. Croix. St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures shared their scoop on airline service changes that are coming up for season. Read SCUBA’s original post from October 10 on their Facebook page, but here are some of their highlights:
AMERICAN TO MIAMI
The last day for the morning service is November 3rd.
That flight doesn’t return until March 26, 2023
We’ll have 1 afternoon flight to Miami year round
A second afternoon Miami flight is added from November 30th thru December 14th but oddly enough goes away from then until February 3rd (leaving out the Christmas and New Years Holidays)
The second Miami afternoon flight goes away on March 26th when the morning flight returns
AMERICAN TO CHARLOTTE
This was supposed to come back as a Saturday only flight starting this weekend but it’s now been put off until November 5th.
It operates Daily from December 15th thru the 23rd
Then a few days a week thru January 9th
Saturday only January 14th thru February 11th
Daily from February 16th thru April 1st
Back to Saturday only after that
SPIRIT TO FORT LAUDERDALE
The most consistent one.
Daily flight from now through as far as their schedule goes into the future (May 2nd)
DELTA TO ATLANTA
Their Saturday only flight is with us through 12/10/22
It operates Daily 12/17/22 thru 1/8/23
Then Daily Except Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday thru February 16th
Daily again February 17 thru April 9th
Saturday only April 15th thru October 2023
***** ********* *******
In addition, our friends at GoToStCroix.com has a list of airlines flying to St. Croix, see it here.
Season’s Greetings! This is Christie! Since December 1st, I have been posting Christie’s Crucian Gift Guide on our social media accounts with many of my favorite local places to shop where I’ve bought gifts for others, and some for myself! It’s been really fun traveling around, taking photos, and talking with the owners to create the gift guide. I hope it has been interesting and helpful to you. Chris and I hope you have a wonderful holiday, enjoy the colorful lights, eat yummy food, and connect with your friends and family in the heartfelt warmth of the season. Of course, if you are on St. Croix, you are already warm and surrounded by the smiling faces of those of us who are blessed to live here! Happy holidays!
Here is a list of all the shops, artists, and organizations mentioned in the gift guide. They are great local resources for gift ideas during the holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations!
Reflections of Culture, Music, Mas and Revelry! This vibrant, imaginative theme for the 2022- 2023 Crucian Christmas Festival is the perfect description of what the essence of festival season is all about. After a two-year hiatus, Crucian Christmas Festival returns with in-person events ranging from beauty pageants, a nightly cultural village, parades, a food festival, j’ouvert, street tramps, live musical performances from local and international artists and much more.
Festival events kicked off on December 11th with the highly anticipated Prince & Princess/Duke & Duchess pageants with the Miss St. Croix Pageant to follow on Sunday, December 18th. Pageantry has been a vital piece of Crucian Christmas Festival since its inception in 1952 when the first Miss St. Croix Festival Queen, Jessica Tutein Moolenaar, was crowned. Since then, more than sixty women have held this prominent title with a new queen to be crowned this year.
Another cherished tradition during Crucian Christmas Festival is the cultural village that is held in downtown Frederiksted. This year, the Crucian Christmas Festival 70th Anniversary Village opens on Friday, December 30th with Cultural Night at “Daddy Jones Musical Kingdom,” named in honor of legendary producer Alwyn “Daddy Jones” Baptiste. The full force of Crucian culture will be on display with live musical performances from Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights, Jam Band and other celebrated local talent. With a different theme each night, there’s something for everyone at the festival village including carnival rides and games and several booths serving local foods and drinks like johnny cakes, pates, seasoned rice, conch in butter sauce, coquito, passion fruit juice and more.
For those wanting even more Crucian flavor, the Food, Arts and Crafts Fair takes place on Wednesday, January 4th where the creme de la creme show off their fine culinary skills offering local delicacies like roast pork, stew chicken, fish & fungi, vienna cakes, tamarind stew and other delicious treats. Next up is j’ouvert on January 5th where revelers dance in the streets of Frederiksted from 5am into the late morning hours, ending with a cool dip at Frederiksted Beach. Crucian Christmas Festival culminates with the Children and Adult Parades complete with bright, colorful costumes, lively music, mocko jumbie performances, quadrille dancers and endless energy.
For more information about 2022-2023 Crucian Christmas Festival, visit USVI Festivals Facebook page at www.facebook.com/USVIFestivals.
Article written by Anquanette Gaspard (agaspard@cruzanfoodie.com) for Coldwell Banker, St. Croix Realty
For nearly 50 years, Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights (TSK) have serenaded the St. Croix community with the sweet sounds of Christmas quelbe music during the holidays. Over a two-day period, the band kicks off just after a midnight on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning spreading holiday cheer from one end of the island to the next.
TSK is the leading band in the U.S. Virgin Islands that performs the territory’s official music known as quelbe. Also known as scratch band music, this native grassroots form of folk music originated in the USVI and is a form of oral history. It is used to preserve significant historical events, tell stories and jokes (often with a bit of risque undertone) and relay the day-to-day trials and tribulations of island life. This iconic scratch band consists of ten members playing a variety of instruments including a triangle, squash, flute, guitar, steel bass pan, banjo and a conga drum, to name a few. African rhythms and the sound of Danish and British military bands influenced the sound of quelbe music, which has gained great popularity over the past decades.
Band member Kendell Henry shared that the band carried their instruments and walked from house to house when they started back in the 1970s. Today, the band travels across the island on a flatbed truck outfitted with speakers, weaving in and out of neighborhoods playing the sweet sounds of quelbe music. Typically, the serenade route kicks off in Christiansted on Christmas Eve making its way through the neighborhoods as they head east. A long line of vehicles often trails behind the band as they make stops at designated homes to enjoy traditional Christmas refreshments. On Christmas morning, the band heads west to Frederiksted stopping at designated homes once again with the addition of revelry and dancing in the streets. Crowd participation for the serenade has looked different in recent years due to the pandemic. However, the band expects to see the return of some of these traditions this year.
The serenade remains an important part of St. Croix’s culture because it keeps the tradition of quelbe music alive as it was done years ago. In June 2022, band founder Stanley Jacobs received the National Heritage Fellowship Award. As one of the ten fellows (chosen from 180), Jacobs was awarded a $25,000 one-time honorific grant. The National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship is the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts that celebrates artistic excellence and supports continuing contributions to the traditional arts heritage.
