After being in Italy for so long, I’m enjoying my time back in the USA. As the holiday festivities wind down, I have some reflections and ramblings to share. Sometimes the cultural differences between the two countries are stark. But more often, they’re merely variations on the same themes, and Christmas is certainly one of those shared traditions.

I understand gift-giving and receiving as one of those important ongoing traditions. After all, we take our cue from some pretty snazzy givers (“We 3 Kings”) and we want to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas. But . . .

They say Christmas is for children. It’s for seeing that sparkle in their eyes as they sit on the floor at the foot of the lighted tree opening a much-wished for gift. For them, it’s a dream come true. As adults, we love seeing their dreams come true, because we imagine that perhaps ours will too. That’s the spiritof Christmas for me.

But Christmas traditions can be something quite different from the idealized images that all of us hold so dear. The fact is, it’s a shopping fiasco! Just going to the grocery store to pick up a few staples brings me face to face with carts piled high—so high that the shopper is sometimes completely hidden behind all of the goodies. As I stood in line a couple of days ago to buy my yogurt and my almond milk, I witnessed the lady ahead of me hoisting (and I chose that word intentionally because that’s exactly what she was doing) the biggest piece of beef I’ve ever seen, onto the conveyor belt. As she stacked her two 12-slice cheesecakes atop one another, she turned to me and said, “It’s always too much food.” But the feasting does serve to enhance the magical tradition, right?

My guess is that most of us still equate love with food. In fact, my mom always baked a pie for each family member. Really. A whole pie! Not that they were designated as belonging to anyone in particular with names cut into the crust, or anything like that—it was just how the numbers came out. Let’s see, there was always a chocolate cream, a lemon meringue, an apple, a cherry, a pumpkin, and maybe a pecan pie too just for good measure. Oh, and don’t forget the butterscotch and coconut cream pies.

My sister loved fried peach pies, so Mom would whip up a batch of those My brother was partial to strawberry-rhubarb, so one of those “least likely to be eaten pies” mysteriously found its place in the line-up. That’s how many? The number really wasn’t important. It was just her way of saying, “I love you and you and you and you and you!” And don’t forget the fudge! She may have loved us too much! I think the sugar industry surely makes most of its profit between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Even as we re-enact the age old traditions, there are new ones being created daily. Recently, I read some pretty interesting things on the internet’s cyber-communities. One was a digital Christmas card, with Santa and his reindeer crooning “White Christmas.” I have to admit that it made me laugh. People are so creative. Then there was the digital Nativity video. It actually was a pretty amusing modern day version of the Christmas story that might just catch on, becoming a “must watch” piece of the new holiday routines.

Em and I were studying Italian last night, using Riccarda Saggese’s Easy Italian Reader. (I’m trying to practice that “good will toward men” sentiment of the season, but actually she’s lying: It is NOT easy.) The story of Saint Francis of Assisi was the story of the evening. As we followed along, we reminisced about our mini-pilgrimage last spring, in which we retraced Francis’ footsteps through Umbria.

One town, Greggio is the birthplace of the first re-enactment of the Nativity. Francis was a lover of animals and so it’s no wonder that he initiated this familiar scene. From 1213, this tradition has been staged around the world—a manger, a few animals sharing their stalls, the Holy Family and the 3 gift-bearing Kings. Then here we come some 800 years later following suit just like it’s part of our DNA.

At any rate, I wish for you, Dear Readers, the holiday season of your dreams. Enjoy your traditions, whatever they are. May your wishes all come true. And may I see that sparkle in your eyes when next we meet.

Posted on December 27, 2010

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