Jess Colopy is a journalism student Columbia College Chicago and as a class project she produced this photo essay comparing Christmas in her hometown with her college town, Oakfield and Chicago.
Chicago: Millennium Park’s Christmas Tree, viewed by millions of visitors every year. The 64-foot-tall tree was lit during a massive ceremony on Nov. 24, where the cast of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and members of the Chicago Opera performed Christmas carols to the crowd of thousands.
Oakfield: (Photo courtesy of Jan Colopy.) Roughly 50 six- to seven-foot trees border Oakfield’s Triangle Park. The trees were lit on Dec. 5 in a ceremony that about 100 people were expected to attend. The trees were purchased by non-for-profits, family businesses, and families wishing to memorialize a lost loved one.
Chicago: Wreaths and presents adorn The Art Institute of Chicago’s giant bronze lion statues on Michigan Avenue. The lions stand larger than life, towering over visitors who stand next to them for photographs.
Oakfield: (Photo courtesy of Jan Colopy.) Small, lit wreaths adorn the Village of Oakfield Office building on Main Street. The office is conveniently located next to the town’s only traffic light, part of which is visible on the right. “Welcome” banners sporting a Christmas tree also hang off of the old-fashioned streetlights.
Chicago: The Prudential building and other skyscrapers light up red and green for the holiday season. Other buildings such as the Willis Tower and the John Hancock Center are also well known for lighting up the Chicago skyline for Christmas.
Oakfield: (Photo courtesy of Jan Colopy.) A piece of watering equipment on a family farm on the outskirts of Oakfield is decked out in lights for Christmas. This is a recent tradition among farmers in the rural village.
For my photo essay, I have chosen to explore the differences between Christmas in Chicago, an urban metropolis, and Oakfield, New York, my rural hometown of less than 1800 people. I thought this would be an appropriate topic for myself specifically because this year is my first Christmas in the city, and I started noticing the differences as soon as the decorations started going up and the Christmas sales began. After some research, I realized that not much has been done on the topic. An article by the Harris County Public Library cites the movies that explore the difference between small town and big city Christmases -- you know, the ones where the tough, big-city businessman too wrapped up in his work meets the small-town girl who finds a way to break into his tough heart and get him in the holiday spirit -- but those movies are all I can really find on the topic.
Obviously, my photo essay will be different because it shows what Christmas in a real small town is like compared to what Christmas is actually like in a big city. Both places are cold and generally snowy, but the atmosphere is completely different. Articles on the Christmas festivities in each individual place prove that. The City of Chicago’s Web site’s event page for the Millennium Park Christmas Tree lighting lists the big name opera star and musical cast that will be headlining the event, as well as the information about the original home of the massive tree to be lit in the park. Thousands of people attended. On the other hand, an article from the Batavia Daily News discusses the meaning of the small, hand-decorated trees that memorialize lost loved ones and special non-for-profit causes in Oakfield’s Triangle Park. A marching band information Web site states that Chicago’s Magnificent Mile Lights Parade draws more than one million spectators with its elaborate floats and familiar Disney characters. The Batavia Daily News states that a Christmas parade in Batavia - -a small city with a population of less than 7,000 about 15 minutes from Oakfield -- drew just over 1,000 people from surrounding towns with its floats from local family businesses, churches, and non-for-profits.
Everything is bigger in Chicago, while everything in Oakfield is more humbly done, but generally more personal. There are certainly advantages to each way of celebrating Christmas, but maybe the two are not as different as they seem. At heart, both places simply want to make the holiday season a fun, memorable time for its citizens, and each place’s respective celebrations simply reflect the atmosphere they are held in. Chicago is home to more than three million people, so its “bigger is better” attitude about the holiday is nothing but what one would expect. Oakfield is a quiet, conservative town, and its simple, heartfelt festivities that focus on giving back to the community suit it perfectly. And, honestly, neither place is wrong, despite what biased holiday movies might try to say about the impersonal aspects of big city Christmas, or the boringness of small towns. Though they may be different, they both focus on what is important: the spirit of the season.
