Ho! Ho! Ho! Ready or not, Christmas is upon us. If you haven’t
already partaken of its jolly fun, all things Christmas
– music, shopping, recipes, poetry and movies – await. A popular
holiday and favorite time of year for most people, Christmas is a
time for traditions – trimming the tree, baking goodies, decorating
the house.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Ready or not, Christmas is upon us. If you haven’t already partaken of its jolly fun, all things Christmas – music, shopping, recipes, poetry and movies – await. A popular holiday and favorite time of year for most people, Christmas is a time for traditions – trimming the tree, baking goodies, decorating the house.
The golden opportunity of Christmas is that of creating family memories. When I was a child, our family’s big event took place round the tree on Christmas Eve. We had the ritual recitation of the Christmas story, with the Good Book passed around for reading aloud, followed by the kids’ racket of gift ripping.
Some years our Christmas tree was freshly cut, some years it was artificial, but always different every season. Mom took great pleasure in elaborate tree theme decorating – everything from a curious pink flocked display to an all blue-bulb, cotton wrapped number. I look at old photos in fond amusement.
The history of the tree is an interesting one. The Christmas tree as we know it is said to have originated in the 16th century in Germany, where fir trees were decorated with apples, roses and colored paper.
It’s widely thought that the Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, was the first to light a Christmas tree with candles. As the story goes, one Christmas season as he walked home in the late evening, he observed starlight shining through branches of a fir tree just outside his home. Luther was inspired to duplicate the starlight by attaching candles to branches of an indoor tree. The Christmas tree was not convention in Britain until the 19th century, and was introduced to America in the 1820s by Pennsylvania Germans.
Food provides another opportunity for Christmas custom. My mom, a quintessential old-fashioned Southern cook, outdid herself year after year with a spread of turkey, dressing, casseroles, vegetables, salads, cookies, candies and pies in a gargantuan feast that lasted for days.
Experience of holiday food, drink and observances are vastly diverse within the U.S. as well as abroad. In Italy, Christmas lunch can extend to seven courses: antipasto, pasta, roasted meat, salads, two sweet puddings followed by cheese, fruit, brandy and chocolates. Australians celebrate Christmas in midsummer and often barbecue prawns, steak and chicken, at the beach no less. Finns have a mixed casserole of carrots, potatoes, ham, turkey, rutabaga and macaroni. After dinner, they take a sauna and then visit the graves of relatives. In Ukraine, children devour meat broths on Christmas Eve, then await “Father Frost” to bring presents.
No matter the ceremonies of Christmas, one thing remains constant: Christmas is about family, friends, sharing and the warmth of human caring and connection. It’s the thread that binds past to present.
I hope this season is wrapped in cheery memories you’ll not want to swap for anything. Have the merriest Christmas ever!
