This week, Tina gave us a holiday present, the choice of our own theme for the week. She writes, “So here we are in December – already! As 2021 draws closer to a close, many of us are busy with things like shopping, wrapping, holiday preparations, or perhaps (hopefully) with traveling and visiting or hosting family. As such, the Lens-Artists team is inviting you to post on a subject of your own choosing.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

I was planning on creating a separate holiday post on Zoolights 2021, the Phoenix Zoo’s holiday light show. Instead, I will incorporate some of those images from my Flickr gallery into a theme that I call “Holiday Magic.” The image above features the lake in the Phoenix Zoo that each year takes on a holiday glow with lights changing in time to holiday-themed music.

In addition to the new Zoolights images, I’ve also included a few photos from the Buckeye Arizona annual parade of lights called “Glow on Monroe” (Monroe is Buckeye’s downtown main street.) Of course, I had to include this well-decorated classic automobile, but you’ll find more in this extra-large holiday gallery on my Flickr site.

Albuquerque New Mexico has its own holiday light show. River of Lights, like many other holiday activities around the country, is back for 2021 after last year’s pandemic cancellations.

I included this shot for no other reason than I like it. This image was captured on a Galaxy S7 Cellphone. That was the first cellphone I had that allowed the ability to change the depth of field in an image.

Every year, homes and businesses put on their own “Holiday Magic” displays. One of my favorites is a local bank in Fargo, North Dakota where every year they “go blue” and the lights stay that way until the snow is gone in the spring. The light reflecting off the white snow is certainly magic.

For this holiday challenge, I posted many more images on my Flickr site for you, dear reader. You can click on any of the images above to take a closer look at the image in 2K HD, or you can click here to navigate to the album page where they are all housed.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, and happy holidays to all of my readers. May the new year bring health and happiness, and a lessening of the tragedy of the pandemic that still is among us.

John Steiner