Christmas Past and Present
Traditions come and go. For many years, it was a tradition that our daughter be the first one up on Christmas morning. She would go downstairs, bring up all the presents under the tree, and open hers while we opened ours, if we had any. Then, along the morning, our bed would have to be emptied of wrapping paper, bows, and useful boxes. Now, she's a grown-up, so she comes down late in the morning and opens them in the kitchen with us. The wonder in her eyes when she was a child was great to see. Now, it's the expectation of seeing if we could buy her what she asked for, almost always books.
I began the tradition of Christmas morning gifts when she was a little girl. The traditional day for gift-giving in Spain is Epiphany, 6 January, which is when the Magi were supposed to have brought their gifts to the infant Jesus. Our daughter was one of the very few in those years who received something from Santa Claus as well as the Magi, or Reyes Magos. Now, just about every kid receives something on both days. Stores go crazy pitching for both.
I started the Santa tradition in our house because that was the tradition I grew up with. Because Epiphany is a regular day in the United States, and only a holiday in the Church's eyes, my parents didn't want me to feel left out when I asked for presents from Santa, just like every other kid then. So, Santa would always bring me presents, and leave a little money in my sock that I would hang from the tree. The only concession we made to the Spanish celebration, was to leave the tree up until January 6th, when Christmas would truly end.
We also conceded to the American tradition of celebrating Christmas dinner. My father received an enormous turkey from his employers every Thanksgiving and Christmas while I was a child and adolescent. Christmas Eve is not a half-day in Boston like it is here, and my parents would have to work. By the time they were both home, my mother was too tired to start cooking a big dinner, so it was easier to follow the American tradition. I still miss that part of it. Eating a lot at night is not conducive to sweet dreams. Still, I try to make a nice Christmas Day dinner. If not as copious as I would have liked, at least different.
Things have changed for us this year, too. Now my father is missing, along with my mother. These last years, I made Christmas Eve supper and we would eat here. When we finished, and my father left for next door to go to bed, my husband, daughter, and I would go join the in-laws at the village. My father never wanted to eat late; he had gotten used to American hours, and complained if supper were much later than eight o'clock. So, by the time we were done here and went to the village, the in-laws would just be getting started. That was my husband's delight. He got to eat twice. This year, we simply went to the village, where we ate once.
In Boston we had a large tree. It was artificial, and I grew to prefer artificial Christmas trees. Apart from spending once and having done with it, it seems wasteful to me to grow trees, just to have them sitting in a house, in the worst possible conditions for an uprooted tree, to most likely have it die in a pot in the next few months. And if you live in a city and don't have a balcony to place a potted fir that will outgrow the pot in a year if it lives? I prefer the trees planted in the woods or a large garden, not mistreated as a decoration for a few weeks and then discarded.
Our tree here is small, and is placed upon a small round table in front of the window, to make it look taller. I had to drill holes in the table and use wires to hold the tree still on the table. Our cats loved the shiny tinsel, the twinkling lights, and the challenge. They would climb it every night. The tree would appear leaning against the wall, or on the floor. So, I devised the wires. They almost knocked down the entire contraption once or twice, but they still haven't succeeded.
When we first arrived, over twenty years ago, it wasn't too common to have a Christmas tree. The custom was just starting. The more common custom was setting up a Nativity scene. I remember coming on vacation when I was a child and finding a small, old one that my parents had had since before I was born. It was of plastic, and supposedly the figures had been glued in their place, but some of them had come unglued, and I played with it as if it were a little dollhouse. Since we moved here, though, it hasn't really caught on in our household. I bought some pieces one year, and my daughter set it up next door on the dining room floor, but I don't think it's been set up since. There's really no room for it. A tree takes up a corner, but a proper Nativity scene takes up much more. Besides, apart from the delight of setting up an entire village at whim, we're not religious, and prefer the lights of the tree that mimic the light of the sun which has waned too much.
The worst part of Christmastime is the lack of sun. But, the solstice having passed, we await the growing of the days, and the colored lights we see everywhere at night now, presage the longer days of spring just ahead. Like tradition, it shall not fail.
I began the tradition of Christmas morning gifts when she was a little girl. The traditional day for gift-giving in Spain is Epiphany, 6 January, which is when the Magi were supposed to have brought their gifts to the infant Jesus. Our daughter was one of the very few in those years who received something from Santa Claus as well as the Magi, or Reyes Magos. Now, just about every kid receives something on both days. Stores go crazy pitching for both.
I started the Santa tradition in our house because that was the tradition I grew up with. Because Epiphany is a regular day in the United States, and only a holiday in the Church's eyes, my parents didn't want me to feel left out when I asked for presents from Santa, just like every other kid then. So, Santa would always bring me presents, and leave a little money in my sock that I would hang from the tree. The only concession we made to the Spanish celebration, was to leave the tree up until January 6th, when Christmas would truly end.
We also conceded to the American tradition of celebrating Christmas dinner. My father received an enormous turkey from his employers every Thanksgiving and Christmas while I was a child and adolescent. Christmas Eve is not a half-day in Boston like it is here, and my parents would have to work. By the time they were both home, my mother was too tired to start cooking a big dinner, so it was easier to follow the American tradition. I still miss that part of it. Eating a lot at night is not conducive to sweet dreams. Still, I try to make a nice Christmas Day dinner. If not as copious as I would have liked, at least different.
Things have changed for us this year, too. Now my father is missing, along with my mother. These last years, I made Christmas Eve supper and we would eat here. When we finished, and my father left for next door to go to bed, my husband, daughter, and I would go join the in-laws at the village. My father never wanted to eat late; he had gotten used to American hours, and complained if supper were much later than eight o'clock. So, by the time we were done here and went to the village, the in-laws would just be getting started. That was my husband's delight. He got to eat twice. This year, we simply went to the village, where we ate once.
In Boston we had a large tree. It was artificial, and I grew to prefer artificial Christmas trees. Apart from spending once and having done with it, it seems wasteful to me to grow trees, just to have them sitting in a house, in the worst possible conditions for an uprooted tree, to most likely have it die in a pot in the next few months. And if you live in a city and don't have a balcony to place a potted fir that will outgrow the pot in a year if it lives? I prefer the trees planted in the woods or a large garden, not mistreated as a decoration for a few weeks and then discarded.
Our tree here is small, and is placed upon a small round table in front of the window, to make it look taller. I had to drill holes in the table and use wires to hold the tree still on the table. Our cats loved the shiny tinsel, the twinkling lights, and the challenge. They would climb it every night. The tree would appear leaning against the wall, or on the floor. So, I devised the wires. They almost knocked down the entire contraption once or twice, but they still haven't succeeded.
When we first arrived, over twenty years ago, it wasn't too common to have a Christmas tree. The custom was just starting. The more common custom was setting up a Nativity scene. I remember coming on vacation when I was a child and finding a small, old one that my parents had had since before I was born. It was of plastic, and supposedly the figures had been glued in their place, but some of them had come unglued, and I played with it as if it were a little dollhouse. Since we moved here, though, it hasn't really caught on in our household. I bought some pieces one year, and my daughter set it up next door on the dining room floor, but I don't think it's been set up since. There's really no room for it. A tree takes up a corner, but a proper Nativity scene takes up much more. Besides, apart from the delight of setting up an entire village at whim, we're not religious, and prefer the lights of the tree that mimic the light of the sun which has waned too much.
The worst part of Christmastime is the lack of sun. But, the solstice having passed, we await the growing of the days, and the colored lights we see everywhere at night now, presage the longer days of spring just ahead. Like tradition, it shall not fail.
Merry Christmas, Maria. In our Franco-American house we do Christmas lunch instead of the Christmas eve late dinner. And I mix French and American cuisine: a capon, mashed potatoes with garlic, cream and butter, a baguette, and salad. Dessert this year came from the bakery. For Christmas Eve we went to the early mass at 18:30 and had a "light" dinner of foie gras, smoked salmon, salmon eggs and blinis with sweet cream.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas! It does sound like the best of both worlds!
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