Christmas time is a special time. And I don´t mean the Christmas shopping or that we do a lot of baking and decorating. No, I mean the special spirit that comes along during those weeks and days. When you go upstairs to the attic or downstairs to the basement to get all those boxes filled with decoration stuff, window pictures, and Christmas lights and all the memories come up. When you go out to get your tree and the whole house starts to smell after gingerbread, cinnamon, apples, marzipan, and pine.

During those weeks I like to revel in the memories I have from that time when I lived in the US. I still have the pictures and when I see all the snow, and how the kids have grown into grown-ups since then it is always a mix of emotions I go through. Oh yes, that was one very special Christmas time. Here in Europe mean those days, at least for me, a lot of celebrations. My father celebrates a few days before Christmas Eve his birthday and the entire family comes together to have coffee and see each other. It is as much fun as it is exhausting. Pleasure as much as it is kind of stressful *smile*

On Christmas Eve some of us do the cooking and some of us – mostly my father and me - decorate the tree.  Besides the usual decorating we wrap every year little sweet stuff (mostly chocolates) into fine silk paper and hang it with a golden or silver thread all over the tree.  Together with the lights, the bowls, the other silver threads, and the little wood figures it always looks beautiful.


We put our gifts under the tree after we arrived at my parent´s place and you can watch the gift pile grow every time a member of my family arrives. This is actually a very fun time during this day since those, who are already there start to think about what could be in this gift box or the other. And because we are not allowed to touch all those gifts, not before we had dinner, we snack from the tree, eat Christmas cookies, have coffee or tea, and get us up to date about the things that had happened in our lives since we saw us the last time. And believe me, there is a lot of chatter, giggling, and laughter on that day and during the others.

After dinner, we gather in the living room and start our gift-giving. Each gift is given personally to the one it is meant for and every year it is fun to watch how the faces change from anxious expectation into joy and laughter when they finally have unpacked their gifts. During the holidays this tree is the favorite background for my nieces and nephews to take a lot of pictures and since we have our tree in a corner between the living room and dining room - that area is sometimes a bit crowded *smile*

So this is a little insight into the way how we celebrate those days. I don´t know how you spend your holidays, but no matter how you will celebrate – I wish you and your loved ones all a happy and reflective time full of light, laughter, joy, and peace.



Merry Christmas to all of you


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2 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas, Vi! I love your traditions - especially the one where you give the gift personally to each person. Usually we divide the gifts by person and one person opens all of theirs, and then the next, etc. It's fun. We need little ones in the house though - all of us are adults! :D

    Happy holidays! =)

    Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!

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    Replies
    1. Merry Christmas, Alyssa - though it comes very late ... The kids are grown-ups now but we still give the gifts personally *smile* But your tradition sounds great too.

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