Christmas Eve Around the World…In My Mother's Kitchen

This year we spent Christmas Eve with Aunt Cira’s family. Something I’ve noticed as I get older is that things were easier for our parents when we were kids and simply did what we were told to do – or at least pretended to. Holidays are a prime example of this. There was never any question of whose house we’d spend it at, which of us would be there, what would be served and so on. We went where mom and dad went, period.

Now that the children are all grown (and me with a wife and children of our own) things a little more complicated…and by “little” I mean a lot. This year Christmas Eve was at my parents’ house and, as I said, Aunt Cira and her family came over. The big question this year was what to serve for dinner. With 10 adults and 2 toddlers (who don’t get a vote) planning a meal is a lot more difficult.

The votes were for Chinese, sausage and peppers, and KFC. In the spirit of the peace of Christmas, we went with all 3. We also added to it a spinach pie, antipasto, hummus, baba ghannouj, rum balls, 7 layer taco dip, and a gingerbread house. We also had Bailey’s Mint Chocolate, hot buttered rum and Alka-Seltzer on tap.

My favorite thing to watch during this holiday is the interaction between my daughters and other adults when they talk about Santa Claus. We don’t “do” Santa Claus with our kids. My wife and I decided before they were born that we would pretend with them about it, but there were far more important things about Christmas for them to believe in. If we were going to concentrate our efforts on getting them to believe in something then we rather it was something real, like the birth of Christ, than in a fantasy.

Our girls still have fun with Santa, like they do with fairies and dragons and fraggles and things, but they know he isn’t real. The humorous part of this is that most people don’t know this about my kids and ask them the obligatory Santa questions: “Did you write your letter to Santa?” “Did Santa bring you what you wanted?” “Did he eat the milk and cookies?” They also tend togive them spontaneously constructed rules like: "Santa won't come if you don't eat your beef and broccoli." Carmellina, my 3-year-old, just says yes to everything. Rosemary, who is 5, likes to argue with people about it. I sit back and enjoy the whole scene. Last year, in an attempt to keep the peace, one family member caught herself talking about Santa again and try to cover for it by telling Rosemary that Santa worked for Jesus.

So once again, this Christmas Eve the kids went to sleep on a sugar high and very excited, if not a little confused about why all of these adults still don’t know the truth about Santa.