Christmas Traditions

1999

The diet industry has destroyed Christmas.
It really has you know.
When I was young......
No.
Once upon a time.....
That's better.
We had a formal dining room. And it didn't have a computer in it. It had a blond dining room table and chairs. And a sideboard buffet.
And the stereo - a record player for 78 - 45 - 33 1/3 records. Remember those? I still have some. 45s and 33s.
And the back door to the garden and patio. And a window. And special wallpaper.
The buffet held the party dishes. The china - white with green ivy on the edges. Serving pieces. Table cloths. Napkins.
Silver - which I polished on every special holiday. Easter. Thanksgiving. Christmas. This silver service I now own, and I polish it at Thanksgiving and Christmas and sometimes at Easter. Except now, I have that special disk - you put Calgon in the water with it and submerge the silver. It instantly cleans the silver. No more rubbing.
We had special holiday tablecloths. Hand tatted frilly doilies were on the table when it wasn't set for dining. I make special tablecloths too. Mostly I make the Christmas ones. Bright plaid taffeta I have this year.
We had centerpieces. I use candles and lots of them. I burn them for days around Christmas. I used to put them all over the counter with mirrors under them. Turn the lights off. Pretty.
We have small nativity pieces. Every year I add to mine. It's a big set. I am about to set it up. The rule was - set that up first, then the tree. We forget sometimes just what Christmas is.
I make tree skirts. I make quilted covers to put on the couch. We made wreaths one year. We still use them although they will need replacing in another year or so.
I had homemade stockings for years. Now I have store ones - but I put the names on in glitter - leftover from decorating tee shirts. This year I won't put out stockings. We no longer can have the candy I used to put in them. Or the fruit. (It's not on the diet plan.) [Oh yes we will have candy - and Jordon Almonds. I raided the drug store!] [So there!]
Even last year I filled the stockings - and rang the bells that sound like reindeer. Used to do that every year when the kids were young.
The G4 and the joystick and the cameras and lenses don't fit under the tree. Neither do the truck tires. My older son tried to put bows on the tires - he really did. But at 70MPH they kept falling off.
My son's G4 is up and in use. Mine is here and going to have it's drive partitioned and the 6Gig drive loaded. I think. Maybe tomorrow.
So it won't fit under the little leaning tree. I have a small tree - 4' - not a monster like usual - every year the trees got bigger - last year I had a monster at 1/2 price. This is a little tree. Nice stiff branches. And a definite lean. So I propped it against the sliding glass door. Suits me. A tree I can decorate easily and put down easily. I have surgery on the 6th. So I need to be organized. It has (so far) silver bows, big ones, candy canes, 4, and the Christmas angel - a doll I rescued from a discarded bakery cake the day we were driving out of Connecticut on the way to California (my first husband and I). I dressed her in scraps from my wedding dress. She's been on every tree since that first Christmas in 1964. She goes on the tree first or last but she goes at the top.
We always had a nativity set lawn decoration when I was a kid - a big cut out thing painted and on the lawn. And the house was edged with lights. I now have lights - my older son hung icicles across the two peaks. One came down in the Santa Ana-like winds. It is 70 degrees. IN DECEMBER! In Northern California! Southern California has 100 degrees in December. And that's normal. Not Northern California. So I will get on the roof and fix it tomorrow. I always have lights. One year, in San Diego, the lights we had on the new picket fence had their light bulbs stolen. All of them. My small children were aghast. From then on, the lights (I bought new bulbs that same day) were put up on the balcony - steal those! Two stories up! Or on the roof above that. Here, I run them across the house. This year, I bought new ones. With clips. Easy.
Of course, one is currently dangling.
Christmas dinner was always a production.
We always baked pies (always three - apple, pumpkin, mince) and cookies (tons) and fudge and fresh baked bread. Eventually I would bake the bread. Christmas Stollen. Sweet white bread with citron in it. My kids didn't like it - they prefer cinnamon inside and skip the raisins and citron. So I would make both. I would take the Stollen to work. The guys there would decimate it instantly. Worked for me. I had my slice. Tradition preserves.
Now I just do the cinnamon one. Because we keep the baking down.
But my younger son still wants to wake up on Christmas to fresh homemade bread. This year I decided to bake it early - since tomorrow is the only day he isn't working. Let him have the munchies. And I had some too. Spread it out over the week instead of pigging out on one day.
Given all this, I asked for a breadmaker this year.
Of course, when I was young, it was fresh bread served with butter and homemade jelly and jam.
I haven't made jelly in years. Butter has been banished.
Pumpkin pie is a must - except I use nonfat milk. This year I rebelled. I used full milk. But I'm not supposed to. And we are not supposed to eat the piecrust. God forbid I put whipped cream on it.
I used to roll up the scrap pie crust and coat it with butter and cinnamon and sugar - roll it up and slice it into pinwheels and bake. We ate it hot from the oven. Along with the scrap (leftover pumpkin filling) pie. No more.
Mince pie is also long gone as a Christmas staple. I made mine with port wine and cider, raisins and apples and the dry package mince. 10" wide and 2" deep, two crust pie. Ate it myself over the next two weeks. Or stored half in the freezer and ate some at Thanksgiving and some at Christmas. No one else in the family likes it. I've tried the wet mince with brandy and rum in a bottle - tastes good. You can eat a spoon full and put the rest away. Skip the pie crust that way.
Not the same.
Ever smelled a hot mince pie fresh from the oven? Swerved warm with French vanilla ice cream?
To die for.
And apple pie. I always made a deep dish two-crust apple pie with Granny Smith green apples. Every year. My older son likes it. But he is not here. And I haven't made one in a few years now. I love apple pie and ice cream. Also a no-no.
Fudge and candy were only made at Christmas. Deep dark chocolate fudge. Peanut butter fudge. Pralines. Taffy.
And of course, the cookies. Sugar. Candy cane. Peanut Stix. Pferneuse. Hermits. Brownies. Mince tarts. You name it. My mother has made as many as 100 different cookies at Christmas. This year she made 22. I told her to write out the recipes. [She lives back East.] I made 2-3 different ones. I plan on gingerbread men. I am doing an eclectic tree. Country style.
We also always had nuts. A mixed bowl of in-the-shell nuts. We sat around and cracked and munched on them. I have always had nuts. Not this year. Too fattening. Nuts were always harvest time to me. That and squash and corn on the cob.
We also played piano- since my sister and I had piano lessons for 6 years. My mother made my father pay for them (they were divorced). So we classical pianists played Christmas carols and we sort of sang along. My kids and I sang carols. For 11 years we had the carol sing in Scripps Ranch and even walked about with neighbors singing carols. This year, my son bought himself an electric piano and it plays preprogrammed carols. I've threatened to play along on my Wurlitzer spinet - as soon as I have it tuned. I haven't had much time to practice the past few years.
Also in Scripps Ranch, we had the brown bags filled with sand and a votive candle - a Spanish tradition to light the path to your door for the Christ child. We used to do ours and help neighbors up and down the street. At night people would drive from all over to see our neighborhood with all the softly glowing bags. I did it for awhile up here but we are the only house doing it. And my remaining child (the other no longer living at home) lost interest. When my son moves back into the San Diego house, perhaps we will revive that tradition.
Dinner itself was always traditional.
First there was Mandarin oranges mixed into fruit cocktail. Small appetizer dishes.
The condiments were always sweet pickles, dill pickles (homemade), cucumber bread and butter pickles (homemade), cranberry jelly, current jelly (homemade), carrot sticks, celery sticks, olives, and rolls (homemade).
Then we had baked potatoes, salad, and succotash. I used to make sweet potatoes or yams, sliced and cooked in brown sugar and butter. Corn on the cob (from the garden). In my case, from the supermarket.
I have salad. The condiments. A little cranberry - but my sons don't like it.
I always have carrot sticks and celery. And pickles. Just not homemade.
The turkey and stuffing and gobs of gravy.
I don't make gravy anymore. Or not much. And my kids don't eat baked potatoes or sweet potatoes. I am having a yam for me. Rice for him.
And corn has a lot of carbohydrate. So do lima beans. I am having succotash anyway.
I have a 16lb turkey (smallest one that I can remember) and I have the stuffing from Thanksgiving. In the freezer. Good. Just remember to defrost it.
So I am down to simple bread, one pumpkin pie which I will make with crust but which we are to eat out of the shell and discard the crust, a few vegetables and rice, the meat and the stuffing - and, by the way, now my younger son tells me he doesn't like stuffing.
They tell us craving for food masks trauma.
Christmas food evokes memories. Traditions and children.
Is that a bad thing?
Evidently the calories are.

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