Keilyn's Life In London

2003-12-15 - 12:32 p.m.

Okay, so we did the decorations and we did the tree. M, I checked and my dad thought it was Baba Yaga too, coming to scare all the bad boys & girls. Go figure.

So now we're up to traditions. Lessee.

Early childhood traditions including much cookie-baking in advance of the day (cut out shapes decorated in colored sugar and the like). Christmas eve there was usually a relatively-festive dinner, and we were allowed to open one present. My sister & I would share quiet time in front of the Christmas tree, lit only by the lights. We would go to the late-evening carol service which was followed by the midnight service (which we referred to as mass even if it wasn't). My sibs and I were frequently involved in some fashion (acolytes, children's pageant thingie, etc.) and staying up late was a treat, plus we all liked the carols. It frequently meant things like a new dress (from the thrift store) or new pantyhose (I remember being delighted by the ones that came in a giant egg...) Afterwards there was a social hour at the church and then we would come home, and my sister & I would sleep together if conditions allowed (ie, if there was room).

The tree was already up, and my parents would put some presents under it as they arrived (from out of town) or as they were wrapped. From very early on, we were involved in buying presents for our parents & siblings, even if they were only token gifts (or paid for with money from our parents). When my mother moved back to Oregon in the late 80's, I think she had a lifetime supply of Jean Nate after bath splash saved up, and a similar collection of bath oil beads....

So, Christmas morning we got to open our stockings as soon as we were up. They usually contained some sorts of candy, candy canes, nuts, fruit (tangerines, kumquats or the like), and small toys or things like pencils imprinted with your name or something. This was not the era of CDs and diamond earrings and the like in one's stocking - stocking stuffers were things like a pencil sharpener, the aforementioned L'Eggs pantyhose, a little address book, bangle bracelets, etc.

If there were large (ie hard to wrap) presents, the parents put them out after we were asleep, and we didn't really sneak out and snoop (much) so there was often a surprise of some sort on Christmas (large stuffed animal, bike, etc.)

Then we had store-bought yogurts, the kind with the fruit on the bottom - this was a treat for some reason (maybe because we normally made our own yogurt). We had to wait for the parents to get up and have coffee before we could tear into the presents. Someone would be appointed Santa's helper, and they would distribute one present to each person. Then everyone would watch while each person opened their gift. It made the Christmas day process quite lengthy, especially since everyone had to write down their gifts for thank-you note purposes.

Thereafter there was playing with the presents and some sort of traditional-ish dinner.

My parents split up when I was about 10, but fortunately they stayed on good terms, so we could all still have Christmas together, which was a real blessing.

At some point in the mid-90's, we started gathering at my grandmother's in Florida (my dad's side of the family) for Christmas, which is a little weird - palm trees and shorts are not Christmasy! But it's good to see the family, and we always (well, almost always!) have a pretty good time playing games or cards, drinking beer, doing family history research together and the like. Due to travel restrictions and other commitments, this often means that Christmas is celebrated a handful of times between, say, the 10th of December and the 3rd of January. [This year we're doing Dec 13, 23, 25 and sometime over New Year's weekend....]

Some random Christmas memories:

* running out of heating oil on Christmas so my mother cooked Christmas dinner in a down vest over her nightgown & bathrobe

* having turkey parts for Christmas dinner because a whole turkey was too expensive

* having goose for dinner and variously a) setting off the smoke detector with burning fat and/or b) finding birdshot in the bird (usually with your teeth!)

* the years my brother had come into money from work so he bought everyone huge numbers of relatively-expensive presents

* the year many of our presents were stolen from the back of my dad's friend's car

* a long and involved argument in our church youth group as to whether the Virgin was a blond or a brunette (this related heavily to who would be cast in the role. It was determined that she was a brunette so Christianne played the Virgin and I ended up as a narrator or something....)

* proposing to my first husband on Christmas night

* spending part of the Christmas holiday trying to fish a dead armadillo or possum out from under my grandmother's house

* going to visit my brother & his partner in Toledo for his last Christmas

All in all, it's a festive holiday and always has been, but this year I'm feeling not very festive so I'm having trouble getting into the mood.... Saturday my stepmother directed the tree decoration while I sat on the sofa and drank a glass of wine and read a catalog....