Christmas Nostalgia
It is the morning of Christmas Eve. I remember as a kid and a teenager opening my eyes that morning and feeling immense joy knowing all of the family traditions we would be doing that day. Wrapping last minute presents, baking cookies for Santa and starting our grand quest of seeing as many family members as possible. Christmas is a huge deal in my family.
Every year, we would go to my aunt and uncle’s that were close by for a few hours starting at 7pm. We would stop by the house and my parents would stuff the back of their Astro Van for all our aunts, uncles and cousins. As my parents would pack the car with presents, my brother and I would grab our blankets and pillows since we would always fall asleep on the drive home. The drive there was about 45 minutes so we always listened to the Muppets Christmas Album and Charlie Brown Christmas.
When you opened the door to my grandparents house, it was warm and bright full of Christmas decorations and lights. The furniture was moved around to fit everyone in the 2 bedroom and 1 bed house. When 10pm came around, each family would take a picture in front of the Christmas Tree. My mom has 4 brothers and sisters so it was a long list of groups to take photos. We would start singing songs at 1130pm and when it was midnight, we would see “Silent Night” followed by “Feliz Navidad.”
Now midnight was when the show would really start-we would hand out the hundreds of presents under the tree. If you were under the age of 14, you were mandated to wear a Christmas hat and to pass out presents that my grandparents would read off. When all of the presents were handed to their rightful owners, the openings would begin. The immense amount of wrapping trash would then be squished into balls that the cousins would throw at each other.
When the room was cleared, the adults would make coffee (yes, caffeinated coffee) and sit at the tables to chat over their cafe and pan. Now as an adult, I realized this was probably due to their exhaustion of the whole Christmas ordeal and having to drive home at 230am. When the cups were emptied, we all packed our cars with our new presents and my brother and I would get snuggled in our blankets and pillows and drift off to sleep. We would awaken from the overhead van light that activates when you open the door. We would sheepishly gather our presents, put them on the floors in our rooms and fall asleep.
After waking from a full 6 hours of sleep, we would then have our own Christmas and open our presents from Santa. And yes, Santa still comes to our house as full grown adults. When we opened out gifts, we would go to my dad’s sisters home to see his side of the family and open more presents. Rolling around to 6pm, I remember feeling exhausted and would usually excuse myself to go home. I also remember falling asleep as early as possible and with ease. Another Christmas had come and gone already.
I’m married now and while my husband is Jewish, his mother’s birthday is on Christmas Eve and we will be spending our time with them. My mother was less than pleased when I shared this news with and I don’t blame her. Change can be uncomfortable because it’s unknown. I’m also sure mother is also trying to keep the Christmas spirit alive as much as she can to remember her family and her parents. They’ve both been gone for 10 years now and while my Christmas this year is said to look different, I still vow to bring as much cheer as I can.
Kindly, Kat