What Happens on Christmas Day?

Maher asked: “Kinzi, something I always wanted to know. What happens on Christmas day? What activities are done? Do you guys go visit each other? Or stay at one place? What happens in the morning? Care to teach me these stuff? :s”

Well Maher, you gave me a great format to tell you about the best Christmas yet for our fam.

Christmas really starts with the beginning of the Advent season, a month previous. That is when the decorations come out, the Christmas carols start playing, the Advent calendars are opened day-by-day, baking begins, Christmas cards are sent out and plans for the Big day are made. It is not when I shop, btw. The shopping focus is just NOT what it is about for me, I shop sales all year round, and sometimes by sis-in-love shops for me in the US and sends it to a friend coming back here. It’s like Ex-Pat Express, we all carry packages back and forth for one another to insure the postage doesn’t cost more than the gift, and it doesn’t get ‘lost’ along the way. American postal workers are as geographically challenged as Miss Teen America.

All during the month we have cookie exchange parties (where each woman brings a specific kind of cookie, then goes home with a huge plate full of samples of everyone else’s baking), Christmas caroling evenings where we sing together with a guitar or two and drink hot spiced cider (and eat cookies), church ladies have special brunches at hotels with an inspirational speaker, carol singing (in Arabic) and sometimes a raffle to benefit a charity.

We personally have  tradition where we invite our favorite families over for a special brunch every Friday. Also, as a family, we gather in the salon nightly with the only lights being candles and the lights on the tree. We tell the Christmas story from the perspective of different Nativity characters (the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, Mary or Joseph, the inn-keeper) and all the kids participate. Sometimes the kids to a drama, or have their Beanie Babies, Barbies or Max Steele’s do the acting.

But it really all does start in earnest on December 24, Christmas Eve (you heard what happened for our family this Christmas Eve morning! XBox). We usually have a big meal and invite friends over, then we all go to church for the candle-light service at 5pm. This year, the police were there ‘guarding us’ again, but the threat must’ve been pretty low as they were obviously more interested in checking out the chicks than any bad dudes. One officer got in trouble with his boss for making a a yummy-mummy comment to me. The nerve! I say “Kull 3aam oo intu bikhair”, he says something yucky.

Since I grew up without any religious observance, my family 12/24 tradition was to work on a 1,000 piece jig-saw puzzle and try and finish before we went to bed. Our former neighbors would send us a new puzzle every year, as we would send them. This year, our family did a 1,000 piece-er for the first time,  but it took a week. After the kids to go bed, I put all the presents under the tree and fill their stockings. I LOVE that part!

My husband’s family was the opposite, devoutly Catholic. After supper on 12/24, Abu-Skeeter would pile all 8 kids in the station wagon (no seat belt laws then) and go for a drive-through tour of the town’s Christmas lights. Um Skeeter would stay home and wrap and arrange the presents under the tree. Gifts were certainly not the center of the event, as they all usually only received one or two things. With such a large family, they would pick names for one another, and give necessities such as socks, pajamas, underwear. That did not dampen the enthusiasm, though. They would then head to midnight mass, and spend the next day with grandparents.

Christmas morning the kounouz are allowed to wake us up at 7am (it used to be six am). First thing, they have to find the baby Jesus figure for the Nativity scene under the tree. I have hidden him somewhere earlier in the month. This usually gives Skeeter and I time to make coffee, depending on how well I hid Jesus. After Jesus is in his manger, and we have steaming mugs of strong caffeine cemented in hand, the kids can start opening their stocking gifts. Every year, the top gift is an unwrapped Beanie Baby. I strategise and comb garage sales looking for the perfect one for each kid. Otherwise, the contents are usually school supplies, socks, underwear, mittens, hair clips, candy, etc. This year, since I was in the US, there was also Silly Putty. BIG hit.

After stockings, we have a special breakfast.  Last year was cinnamon rolls, this year was apple crisp. Then we return to the tree and take turns opening gifts,  going from the least  wow to most wow gifts saved until the end. They all get books, clothes and one special toy from us. Well, Spikekid is outgrowing toys, so he got a camel-pack for hiking and the Dead-to-Red.  My sister always sends really WOW gifts, so hers are a highlight. This year she gave a brown leather briefcase for her ‘journalist sister’. Ha-hah, fake-it ’til you make-it. Love that gal. (Oh yea, BEAUTIFUL earrings, too, lapis and jade). Hubby gave me some very cool brown boots, that match the briefcase. I picked them out, of course. I’m going to beg for a lap-top to put in my new briefcase. He will laugh at me. It doesn’t hurt to ask, I’ll say. Maybe I’ll start praying for one.

Part Two to follow