I wrote the other day about learning the Christmas traditions of my new community. It got me thinking about the rituals and habits of my childhood.
My parents established a pattern for our Christmas celebrations that went unchanged until the children all grew up and left the house. Other neighbors might put up their Christmas trees weeks before the Feast, but in our house the tree was bought a few days before Christmas and kept in the garage until Christmas Eve when we would decorate it together.
The older children were allowed to go to Midnight Mass, but the younger ones (I have three sisters and two brothers) were sent to bed and – preposterously – told to go to sleep so that Santa could come visit. Early in the morning, one of us would wake up and find our Christmas stockings at the ends of our beds. At that point, everyone was up and about. I used to love my Christmas stocking with its bits and bobs… and always with money at the very bottom. How did Santa know that I liked cash so much?
We would then get up and my parents would take us younger ones (I am 5th of the 6) to Mass. We’d race home but had to wait while my mother prepared us breakfast. We’d want to rush into the sitting room to get at our gifts, but my parents seemed to enjoy making us stew. Breakfast would apparently be coming to an end… and then my mother would say, “Bob, would you like some more toast?” “No, Dad, no!,” we’d scream as he would reply, “More toast? That would be lovely…”
By the time we got at our gifts we were like ravening Mongol hordes descending upon a defenseless village!
Memories, memories.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Maura 12.26.08 at 8:18 am
Funny how so many of our traditions are connected with food. As children my Dad would usually take a day or two off before chrismas for holiday baking. Each of us got to help him make a different kind of cookie. My favorite years were the ones when it was my turn to help with the sugar cookies and gingerbread men. It was our special time with Dad during a crazy busy time of year and our chance to help out so that when we went to deliver trays of baked goods to our elderly neighbors on Chrismas morning we could each know that we had a part in making the gift.
Now my son is the one who helps me do my holiday baking. He enjoys measuring out the ingreients for chex mix by himself for his teachers gifts and helping me with my baking ( he is already an expert egg cracker) This year at the grand age of 7 he informed me that he was old enought to deliver the basket of goodies to our neighbor by himself. I heard from the neighbor later in the day that Brian had given him a detailed description of each kind of cookie and how we had made it
As adults each of my siblings and I still put together a variety of baked goods from our kitchens to share with out siblings and parents. Some in the family are traditionalists. ( I always know I will get cranberry date nut bread, oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies from my parents and my brother always makes snack mix) and some of us are more adventurous making different things each year. Oddly a few years ago for some weird reason 4 out of 5 of us gave eachother the same thing. We we then spent New Years compairing notes on whose recipe for chocolate chip cookies and snack mix we thought was best.
I suppose in some way it is appropriate to celebrate the birth of the One who became Our Bread of Life with our gifts of baked goods so long as we remember where our real nourishment comes from.
Peace
Maura
Paul 12.27.08 at 2:43 am
Maura,
How lovely. Thank you for sharing your family’s Christmas traditions with me. I loved how you concluded by reminding us that it is from the Bread of Life that our true nourishment comes. I am also happy that your son is so enthusiastically embracing your family traditions at Christmastime.
Paul
Audrey Rolison 12.31.08 at 7:31 am
I make the 3-Minute Retreat page everyday but yesterday and today the Daily Inspirations did not come up (some sort of error on a line). After doing the Retreat I decided to explore through the blogs and thus found this little space to leave a comment about the problem. I tried the email address for Loyola but got nowhere so I was happy to see this spot. Perhaps you already know ot the “error” or will now look into it Even here on this page it does not work! I am enjoying the Loyola Press site very much. This may not be the comment expected but I found no other place for my concern. I also did not get the morning e-mail to open the Retreat site. Others may be having same problem. It’s good I have a shortcut icon on my desktop!
Paul 01.01.09 at 4:53 pm
Audrey,
Thanks for expressing your concern. I apologize for letting you down. At LP we are all on vacation until January 5th and so the problem you are experiencing probably won’t be addressed until then. I can promise you, however, that I will get our IT team to investigate the problem first thing on Monday morning.
Paul