IN a Bermuda December, red and green are the colours of hibiscus hedges, and the white roofs inevitably remind visiting Britons less of snow than of the swirled frosting on a holiday cake.Roofline twinkle turns Front Street, Hamilton, into a horizontal Christmas tree at night, a sight that sends Bermudians across the harbour for a prime view looking back. Even the lighthouse on Gibbs Hill is outlined in coloured lights. The “Christmas Tree Ship,” with its load of pines from Nova Scotia, arrives with appropriate fanfare.

Bermuda is Britain’s oldest colony, a 21-mile-long archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, 650 miles east of Cape Hatteras, N.C. It’s an all-year golf getaway (the 52d annual Goodwill Golf Tournament will be Dec. 4-10), a weekender for Northeasterners and semi- rather than totally tropical. For those who leave lowering skies, icy driveways, and barely-above-freezing temperatures, to arrive about two hours later at near-70 and clear seems just about right.

“You doing your Christmas card mailing?” Vince Cannes, taxi driver and tour guide, asks when I wonder aloud if the historic (1840) Perot Post Office will be open Saturday afternoon. “See if they have any of those ‘Old Garden Roses’ stamps left.” I have warned friends and family their gifts will be delivered on Twelfth Night (January. 6), and knowing my penchant for duty-free shopping, they are willing to wait. Due to their special position as a self-governing British crown colony, Bermuda shops have Portmeirion, Spode, and Wedgewood china at about 25 percent less than in London, not to mention men’s lambswool sweaters ($45) and tartan lap robes ($50) cheaper than in Scotland.

You can’t touch Waterford crystal in Ireland for the price in Bermuda, and when a new item is introduced, it reaches Front Street before Dublin.

When Bermuda was on the Treasure Route between the West Indies and Europe, its outlying coral reef was the spider web of the Atlantic. More than 400 known wrecks make this the dive capital of the world. December isn’t diving season, but a promise of future adventure can go under the tree packaged in a Bermuda cedarwood box.

On the west end at the Royal Naval Dockyard, the holiday season begins officially when the decorations are turned on this week. The candlelight procession and surprise events for children are repeated every Sunday until Christmas.

Along with merry and bright, the Dockyard has the Craft Market in the 1831 Cooperage, the Bermuda Arts Centre next door, and Bermuda Clayworks pottery around the corner. Across the way is the 1857 Great Eastern Storehouse, now the Clocktower Centre, a Victorian-style indoor arcade with boutiques and cafes. Here at Trimingham’s you can buy handmade banana-leaf angels to trim your tree for $15, less than a third the price of well-tailored Bermuda shorts that go for $47.50 Golfers do very well on my Christmas shopping spree in Bermuda. Men’s polo shirts in tropical colors with a Bermuda crest are $22 and pro-special golf balls marked with Bermuda symbols are six for $10.50. A golf motif tie is $23. These bargains may be explained as the natural result of shopping where more land is devoted to golf courses per square mile than any country on earth.

Bermuda may be only 21 miles long, but one Santa Claus Parade is not enough. Santa arrives in mid-island Hamilton the first Sunday in December, and children are getting impatient by the time he arrives in east-end St. George’s the Saturday before Christmas.

Never mind. In between comes the annual Christmas Boat Parade, yachts and fishing boats moving in precision with lights ablaze, and the candlelight Christmas Walkabout through St. George’s sponsored by the Bermuda National Trust takes you right by Somers Wharf, the site of boutiques, galleries, and branches of big Hamilton shops.

Holiday musical events follow a flexible schedule usually still evolving at the last minute. Bermudians like to think the holiday is indeed a holiday — that is, let’s not get too fixed on venues, times, or days.

Church choir concerts and traditional observances such as Christmas Eve candlelight services are assured, however. From the mammoth Bermuda Cathedral (also known as Church of the Most Holy Trinity) in Hamilton to tiny St. Peter’s in St. George’s (said to occupy the “oldest Anglican Church site in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere”), Bermuda’s two dozen or more churches are as historic as they are singular. St. Andrew’s Presbyterian is Bermuda pink. St. Theresa’s was built like a Spanish mission.

Old Devonshire Church looks like an old Bermuda cottage. Cobbs Hill Methodist Church (1827) is marked with a plaque: “The church built by slaves in the moonlight.”

No Christmas dinner in Bermuda would be complete without cassava pie, the Bermuda national dish for more than 300 years. It’s a sweetish cake made with butter, eggs, vanilla, and shredded cassava root layered with meat and chicken. The pie is served alone or as a side dish. Dessert, on the other hand, is traditionally British: plum pudding decorated with holly and flaming with brandy.

Thinking ahead to the rest of the year, however, I buy Outerbridge Original Sherry Peppers (the original family came to Bermuda in the 1600s) in the 750-milliliter economy size for $21, and chopping boards emblazoned with recipes for local specialties like fish chowder for $8.95. A Portmeirion two-pint teapot in the Botanic Garden pattern is $67.50 here versus $90 at home.

The British may decry the “North Americanization” of Bermuda (as in “Santa Claus” not “Father Christmas”), but in December the glow is positively Dickensian. Fruitcakes and Bakewell Tarts filled with lemon curd appear then quickly disappear from shop windows (the real Bermuda Black Rum Cake comes in two sizes, $7.10 and $25.50).

Christmas crackers (a.k.a. birthday pull-and-pop) are often given by guesthouses as tokens of the holiday.

“After all, it’s Christmas,” said Ann Smith, owner of The Oxford House, when I saw her in Trimingham’s buying them by the dozen. “In the UK, we have them at Christmas dinner when everyone crosses arms holding the pull end of the cracker. You get a big bang, a paper hat, and a ridiculous gift.” On December 24, Bermuda’s West Indian-African heritage erupts when Gombey dancers snake through the streets, alleys, and hotel lobbies dressed in rainbow-colored capes and peacock-feathered hats. How to find them? Follow the tin whistle, the beer-bottle fife, and the beat of a goatskin drum. The word “Gombey” means “rhythm” in Bantu. Miss them Christmas Eve? Not to worry. They’ll be making surprise reappearances until New Year’s Eve.

In Bermuda, when it’s over, it isn’t quite. December 26, called Boxing Day (historically a day of giving to the poor), is also a public holiday, largely devoted to cold cassava pie and sports. The Gombeys are back, friskier than ever. In England, fox hunting is the day’s classic preoccupation, but Bermudians are more likely to watch soccer or play a round of golf.

In either case, they will wear Bermuda shorts with knee-high socks just as they do every day of the year. (Shorts come in red and green too. Future Santas, take note.)