Seasonal
Buy and sell seasonal in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica’s calendar has seasonal objects of its own, like the wooden cross draped in purple cloth that many families set by the front door through Semana Santa. The rest come out of their boxes on cue: hearts and plush bears in February, orange and black in October, and the December lights, figures and tableware that last through to the 31st. Most of it is used for a few weeks and stored for eleven months, so a pre-owned set is often in good order. Ask how it was stored and whether every piece is still in the box.
Christmas, Semana Santa and the smaller dates around them:
December carries most of the year. Christmas runs from the first lights in late November until the portal comes down in the new year, and New Year’s takes the 31st: streamers, confetti and the yellow underwear some people put on before midnight for luck. Easter in Costa Rica means Semana Santa first. Baskets and bunny décor have their place, but so do the wooden cross and its purple cloth, and the robes worn in parish re-enactments of the Passion. Valentine’s Day is kept as the Día del Amor y la Amistad, so plush bears and heart-shaped boxes go to friends and classmates as well as partners. Halloween gathers the costumes and props for 31 October, a date it shares with the school mascaradas. Thanksgiving and Hanukkah follow the people who keep them: the Americans who have settled anywhere from Grecia to the Guanacaste beaches, with their turkey roasting pans and autumn tablecloths, and the Jewish community in and around San José, with menorahs and dreidels.
Warm-white lights, a red tablecloth and the pieces that serve more than one date:
some things earn their storage space better than others. Plain warm-white LED strings go up for Christmas and come back out on the patio for a New Year’s party, while a light-up turkey gets one evening a year. A red tablecloth works in December and on 14 February; orange and brown carry over from Halloween to Thanksgiving. If you are buying to keep, the neutral piece is the better buy, and the themed one is the cheaper buy once its date has passed. On anything that lights up, read the label for two things. Indoor-only strings are not built for a balcony rail or a garden, whatever the seller says. And a piece bought in the US or Canada plugs straight in, because the mains here run at the same 120 V; one brought from Europe is most likely made for 230 V and should not go near a socket unless its label says otherwise.
Seasonal boxes after eleven months under a metal roof:
the year in storage does more harm than the weeks on display. Heat under a roof softens glue and makes plastic brittle, so before you travel, ask for a video of the box open and a few pieces in hand. Count everything against the picture on the box: the stand, the tree-top star, the stakes for a garden figure and the small power adapter for a lit village are the pieces that go missing. Plug in every string and look for a dark section, and check glass baubles for loose metal caps. Open any battery compartment left loaded since last year. Anything edible or scented, such as chocolate eggs or candles, should still be sealed and inside its date.
Heart boxes in early February, purple cloth by Ash Wednesday:
the date moves the price more than the condition does. A complete set listed a few weeks before its holiday sells close to what it is worth; the same box a week after waits a year or goes for very little. So list Valentine’s stock in the first days of February, Semana Santa pieces around Ash Wednesday and Christmas well before December. Photograph the whole set together, lit if it lights, with close-ups of anything fragile. Say how many pieces there are, whether the lights are rated for outdoors and where anything with a plug was bought. Thanksgiving roasting pans and autumn tableware tend to come up when an American family is packing to move back, often with every holiday’s boxes at once; list each holiday on its own. Whoever drives over from Curridabat or Liberia to collect a set of lights will want to see every string burn before paying, so keep an extension cord by the door.