Christmas Traditions

We had Christmas Dinner along side two enormous tomatoes plants. Had I realized how big they were and how they formed the background for dinner I might have decorated them with silver balls and coloured lights. As it was they were decorated with little round green tomatoes and the insignificant yellow flowers tomatoes produce.

It got me thinking about Christmas traditions. We hear about a ‘Traditional Christmas’ it has become as much of a catch phrase as ‘Working Families”. Both meaningless.

I come from a very small family. In such a family if the members aren’t available tradition falls by the wayside. There is also the fact that in a small family one person’s preference or vote carries a lot of weight. For example I am the only person who likes the traditional English Christmas pudding. There is no point in me sitting in solitary splendor at the Christmas table being watched as I eat it. I’m better to wait until after Christmas and indulge myself when the prices drop.

I have read about Christmases where people converge from near and far. They rush home laughing and smiling in expectation of mince pies, turkey, pork, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, sausage stuffing, Christmas pudding, brandy sauce, truffles etc etc. All this served up with goodwill and joyous reunions.

I remember a Christmas, when my son was young and not long before my father died, when we had Christmas lunch at my home. We sang some carols, mainly because my son had learned some at his church school. My father had a good light tenor and knew the words. My son sang along with him, very pleased to have brought something from school home and to find his Grandfather was up with it all. This could have become a tradition – a few carols with a glass of bubbly. It didn’t, because without my father there was no one to lead them.

Traditions can start with the simplest things. Last year it was cold and we ate inside and one guest volunteered to shell all the prawns. She very kindly and lovingly volunteered again this year. Now, that’s a tradition that I believe should become an unchangeable part of our Christmas !

I am grateful for all the wonderful Christmases I have had in Australia. I have learned a lot over the years and I believe Christmas is what you make of it with the resources available to you on the day.

We should let the spirit of love and contentment seep into us and leave us grateful and relaxed with whatever the day brings. With all this talk of traditions and the building-up of expectations that are often unrealistic the day can fall flat and leave a residue of disappointment and depression.

My recent Christmases have been full of love and happiness but next year – next year is unknown. I will be grateful for whatever comes my way. And I will remember Christmas 2007 as one of the good ones.