Christmasy topics

[GulPlum]

Interesting conversations, folks! Now for my take...

The ever-earlier introduction of Christmas decorations and shopping gets on 
my nerves quite severely. Early September saw the end of redevelopment of a 
huge swathe of central Birmingham and the opening of a new shopping mall. 
All the shops opened for business for the first time on the same day (4th 
September) and several of them already included Christmas decorations 
and/or stock. Considering that I came back from a summer holiday in 
southern France at that time, and Birmingham was sweltering in the heat on 
my return, it all felt particularly crass. Of course, by now everyone else 
has joined in, and the decorations and Christmas music is everywhere. The 
city's festive illuminations were switched on last Sunday with a big fanfare.

Eloise mentioned the new-style "Advent" calendars.... I was really narked 
last year when shopping for some for my nephews, to discover that they were 
all indeed "countdown" calendars, with 31 days, only sometimes with the 
25th day "highlighted" in some way. The HP ones (which are the ones I got - 
the kids had a VERY HP-themed Christmas last year) didn't even have 
anything special for the 25th at all.

Our family traditions (bearing in mind that my parents are very strict 
Catholics) are that apart from a few necessary culinary preparations, 
there's no sign of Christmas as such until the last few days. Like all good 
Catholics, we do, however, take Advent into account. No Advent calendars, 
but a advent wreath in the middle of the table and a candle ceremonially 
lit on each Advent Sunday. We also pull out our traditional Nativity scene 
package (stable, manger, various figures etc) and set it up on the mantle 
on the first day of Advent. Each Advent Sunday, more figures are added, 
until on Christmas Eve, all that's missing is the Baby.

Between the beginning of Advent and Christmas, there is of course the Feast 
of St Nicholas (6th December). Our family "borrowed" a tradition from the 
French for this feast whereby children wake up to find their shoes filled 
with fruit and sweets. Our parents modified that tradition somewhat when 
they got to be able to afford it, and rather than find our shoes filled 
with goodies, we'd simply find a new pair of shoes at the foot of our beds 
on the morning of 6th December - our dad has always preferred giving 
"practical" gifts. Last year, I had one of the shocks of my life when I 
woke up on 6th December to find my dad had put "money for a pair of shoes" 
in my trainers (though I'm not sure if it was a hint that they were a bit 
smelly). :-)

When we were kids, the my dad would set up the Tree on Christmas Eve and 
we'd dress it all together (we are family of seven kids). We grew up and 
moved away from home (and our parents got old), so whoever arrived home 
first would set it up and dress it (usually me). Two years ago, I moved 
back to look after our now quite elderly parents, so I'm here all the time, 
but the idea of having a decorated tree in the house before Christmas Eve 
continues to be distasteful and  I wouldn't dream of getting or dressing it 
before then!

Being Polish, we celebrate Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. This 
has proved handy for my married sisters (all of whose husbands are 
English), so they don't have the otherwise common dilemma of which spouse's 
family to visit - after Christmas Eve celebrations with our family, they 
spend Christmas Day with their respective husbands'!

Traditionally, Christmas Eve celebrations start when the youngest member of 
the household spots the first star in the night sky. Nowadays, with light 
pollution (and the fact that British skies are usually overcast), it's 
difficult to see a star with a telescope, never mind the naked eye, so we 
start at a fixed time (6pm). The youngest child still has a role, though, 
as he (it's currently my 4 year-old nephew) gets to put the Christ-child in 
the manger.

I won't go into detail about what goes on, as it's well covered by web sites -
(neither of these is as comprehensive as I think it should be, but between 
them, they cover all the salient points for those who are interested)
http://www.pgf.cc/religion/Polish_Christmas.htm
http://www.polishworld.com/christmas/
http://www.polartcenter.com/cgi-bin/shop.pl/page=christma.htm#Wafer

There *should* be 12 courses/dishes for dinner, but our family realised a 
LONG time ago that too much food ended up being thrown away, so we limit 
ourselves to six (even that's too much and we need a break after each pair 
of courses!). Apart from that, we stick fairly rigidly to the traditions 
listed on those sites.

Gifts are opened after dinner, and although we usually designate someone as 
"Santa" (or rather, one of my sisters assumes the role - quite forcibly!), 
there's none of the waiting for each person to open a gift and be oohed and 
aahed (I feel sorry for Audrey and that particularly boring family 
tradition). It's just a general free-for-all.

As one of the sites points out, the Polish Christmas lasts a lot longer 
than the "twelve days" in the Anglo-American tradition, as it continues 
until 2nd February (as it does for the Catholic Church). *That* is when the 
decorations come down in a Polish household (including ours). Non-Poles 
have visited our house towards the end of January and asked outright if 
we're just lazy, leaving the tree up that long. :-)

With six weeks to sing carols and other Christmas songs, I see absolutely 
no reason to start on them ahead of schedule, and apart from the fact that 
I've spent this week preparing various compilation CDs for family members, 
I won't be having on in the house until Christmas Eve.

As for Nativity plays, as usual, "things ain't what they used to be". When 
I was a child, we put on a "proper" traditional gig, with Joseph (x1), Mary 
(x1), Baby (i.e. doll) (x1), Herod (x1), Inn-keeper (x1), Inn-keeper's Wife 
(x1), Magi (x3) and sundry Shepherds, Bethlehem Residents and Animals 
(Sheep, Cows, Dogs, though not Crustaceans).

Apart from being a reference to the Monty Python sketch about the painting 
of the Last Supper with 26 Disciples and 3 Jesuses (and kangaroo), the 
"(x1)" refers to the Nativity play at the local primary school (which is 
the one I attended!) which had two sets of the Holy Family...

I myself played Herod two years, and shepherds two others (I was jealous of 
my brother, who got to be Joseph!). I also recall being admonished by the 
school's head teacher not to participate in singing the carols which 
followed the plays due to being unable to sing in tune (in my very powerful 
voice). Things haven't changed in that regard. ;-)

And to finish this rather lengthy message, I worked for/with a charity for 
many years, and for a couple of years I was heavily involved in the 
selection of designs and printing of our Christmas cards. When I contacted 
our regular printers in mid-August, they were wondering why I'd left it so 
late, as most of their regular customers had already got their seasonal 
printing done! Even so, by the end of September, two of our supporters 
(both titled ladies) had written in with their orders for 300 and 250 each...