Zimagal Monthly Magazine - Volume One, Issue Twelve

lthough the shopping malls would lead us to believe that the holidays were generic festivals full of Santas, reindeer, and mountains of festively wrapped gifts, such is not the case. Those of us who celebrate Christmas have our own traditions which may stem from our ethnic heritages or our family situations. Some tradtions are simple, others are more elaborate. We may give out gifts on Christmas Eve, and solemnly celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas Day, or try to squeeze it all in on the 25th. In Great Britain, Christmas Day is for the family gift-giving; December 26, or Boxing Day, is when one travels around giving gifts to non-family members.

The following is a smattering of responses which I received to an e-mail questioning people about how they spend the holidays. If you would like to add yours, please e-mail it to me, and I will see if I can squeeze it in.

hen I was small, I would spend a sleepless night waiting for Santa to show up, enjoy the cookies and milk which I left for him, and leave so I could run into the living room and create a miniature hurricane of torn paper and ribbons. After the gift feeding frenzy, we would dress and go to Church.

After Church, my relatives would start arriving. My family shared a house with my Grandma and Uncle Frank, and the Christmas meal would be in their first-floor apartment. My mother's two sisters and their families would come, bearing armloads of more gifts, much to my childish delight. I would grab my cousins to play with my booty of toys and wait for the dinner gong to sound.

We always had kapusta i kielbasy, fresh Polish sausage, redolent with garlic, and sauerkraut, plus a baked ham. The traditional accompanyments were plenty of fresh rye bread (I would smear a slice of bread with butter and pile it high with sauerkraut - yummm!) and often mashed potatoes, horseradish for the ham, and whatever else Grandma felt like cooking that year. We did not waste our time on "American food" like turkey and stuffing; we were Polish and proud of it!

As our family has gotten older, and beloved Grandma and Uncle Frank have both passed away, the Christmas tradition in our household has changed a great deal. Now it is just the four of us, Mom, Dad, brother David, and I, plus the family pets (just my parakeet this year). Some years we exchange gifts on Christmas Eve, some years on Christmas Day. Some years we have turkey, some years ham. One year we didn't even have a Christmas tree, so saddened were we over the loss of Grandma just a few months prior. There was a half-hearted exchange of gifts and no special meal at all.

Now I am looking forward to someday having my own family with its own traditions. I will try to incorporate some from my childhood, and I am sure my spouse will contribute his, and together we will have our own special kind of Christmas.
~Kathy, your friendly neighborhood WebGoddess.

come from a large family. There are 9 of us. Most of us still live local so on Christmas we all get together for dinner and exchanging gifts. We trade off on whose house the dinner will be at each year. Up until the last 10 years or so, it was always at my parents house. Now the kids have taken on that job and we all pitch in and make something for dinner. We exchange gifts with all of the kids but with the adults, we do something called a Chinese auction. We used to draw names and buy for that person, but the last few years we have been doing the auction. Each person buys a gift that can be for either a man or woman. And we usually have a price range of $20-$25. Then we all draw numbers and whoever has #1 picks a wrapped gift. Then #2 can either take the gift that the first person has or open a new one. This continues until the last person has choosen a gift. It is kinda fun, but you can end up with something you really don't want either. As far as traditions go, I always go to midnight Mass. Growing up we had alot of traditions we would do - but since I married out of my religion - I married into a Jewish family - I don't have those traditions to carry on. This year will be quite different I am sure. Its the first Christmas since me and my husband split up. So I'm not sure how things will be this year.
~JustMe327

e started a new tradition a few years ago in my family. When we all started having kids and getting married, everyone had too many places to go on Christmas Day, so we started spending Christmas Eve with our parents. We'd meet at my mom and dad's house, exchange presents, eat a big buffet dinner and spend time with each other. We sing Christmas Carols, read a Christmas story, poem or Bible story together. My aunt that lives out of state will call this night because she knows we are all there and she can talk to all of us. This way we are all together as a family and then the next day we all visit the other sides of the family or friends. The kids enjoy it, because it gives them time to see each side of the family and friends. The kids also like it because they get presents Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

Also the day after Christmas, my sister has an open house. Everyone brings a dish and you get to spend a relaxing day, because you are not rushing off to visit many different people. All the people come together in one place and you get to spend time visiting with each other, talking and eating.

Also, this way no one person has to cook for so many people. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister, plus now we have kids so it makes for a lot of people. We all get to make our favorite dishes and share them with each other.

Christmas is a very important holiday in my family, we all like to spend it together.
~Nancy (NC Sparkle)

hristmas eve I usually drop in on friends. No big deal have small family not very close. Ate Christmas dinner alone many years. I usually cook a big meal tho in case friends drop in. Then I deliver presents to friends and family members .... Thrills huh? : )
~MrFixumm (Bobby)

y family Christmas gatherings have become quite interesting. I am the fourth of six kids, and we've begun to scatter a bit. My parents still live in Rockville. But, everyone has pursued their own paths. We are now spread out between southern North Carolina, Richmond, New York, Kensington, Silver Spring, and Columbia (MD). Except for me, everyone else is married and has at least one child. (My little brother and his wife just announced the impending arrival of their second.) Hence, the holidays must be split between gatherings from both families. To further complicate things, there is one divorce in the family. We must shuttle my nephew back and forth, sometimes. (Though, everyone still gets along fine.) Alot of times, he and his mom go out west to spend the holidays with relatives. My oldest brother is a top hotel executive, who still feels the need to be around his major properties on the holidays. Sometimes, he only hits town for a few hours, the day after, or before. It has become a challenge to get everyone in one place, at one time.

We have traditionally had a Christmas "dinner". But, this term hasn't really been accurate for about 20 years. We rarely eat at dinner time, and the meal we have is nothing like a formal, sitdown affair. The size of our extended family surpassed that of the dining room/house many years ago. Thus, our dinner has evolved into a brunch buffet, over the years. The grazing goes on for most of the day. We always have a constant flow of company filing through the house. There is always too much food. Still, we have a good time.

We always meet on Christmas morning to open gifts. Usually, the pile of gifts in front of the tree goes from none to about 100 in the 12 hours before Christmas morning. The kids make off like bandits, at our house. The adults have recently gotten into the habit of exchanging 1 gift apiece. (Which is a good thing since most of us have everything we want, and the others can use the spare cash.) It's kinda silly seeing the little ones wading through the sea of crumpled wrapping paper, but they have a good time. I guess that's all that counts. :)

Finally, a word about food. Traditionally, my mother did all the cooking...and I do mean ALL of it. She would cook from the night before, and through the next day. Even as a kid, I knew this was insane. Years later, when I pressured her to do less, she showed a sort of addiction to all that preparation. Well, in the last few years, the big Christmas dinner has turned into a multiple family affair, and tends to be held the night before, at one of my brother's houses. It becomes a huge buffet deal, since the final attendance is usually between 20-30 people. The selection of food is surreal...but, great. Traditional holiday meats...a turkey, a honey baked ham, and often some large beef thing. Lots of the traditional accompanyments...spuds, veggies, stuffing, etc. Lots of dessert!!! (Home baked yummies, and some fancy store bought stuff.) My father usually manages to jam in some traditional Indian cuisine, as well. We've become used to this, now. (Though, I still don't quite relate to Chicken Tikka on Christmas Eve.) The grazing goes on for hours.

Christmas Day has become a quite affair for me, and my parents. It's hell for my siblings and their families, but that's what parenthood is all about! I actually enjoy the quiet time. The holiday is plenty hectic. You have to grab some peace, whenever possible.

Well...its not your typical Currier and Ives holiday, but that's what Christmas is to me and my family. Oh yeah...I forgot one important person - Lucy [ed. note: Shyam's basset hound]. She is mostly puzzled to see all the visitors come and go. But, she has a great time, and gets lots of yummies. God bless us, everyone!!
~Shyam (Gent30)

y family does the big family thing like the weekend before Xmas cause my sister and brother spend time with inlaws etc around the holidays. We take the kids ice skating every year, then we come back home and mom would have a fire in the fire place, the ham is in the oven cooking. We all sit down to a big feast that mom has prepared. My sister would get the kids together and have them to a little skit for all of us (things that we used to do as kids etc.) then we would sit around the living room floor and open gifts but we are gonna have a new addition to the family this year for Xmas which would be fun to have a new baby around. Then on Xmas we go over to my boyfriend's father's house and spend the day with his family.
~Rocky21140

guess the only tradition that I have with my girls so far, is an Advent Christmas tree. It is a felt Christmas tree, with 24 pockets in it, which we fill with a little piece of candy. From Dec 1 until the 24th, the girls take out a piece of candy for the corresponding day. The 24th day has a little stuffed christmas tree in it. I tell you, it sure helps answer the question "Mom, how many more days till Christmas?"
~Lori (AngelsSoul)

sually spend it with my sister in friggin bitchy cold Chicago. Arrive Xmas Eve day and leave Dec 27th (can't spend TOO much time with the relatives)

My sister and I are both divorced and usually dating losers around the holidays (ya know how they run when guys think that maybe "relatives and shiney gifts might be involved in the celebration?"). So my sister (54 and I [45] and her daughter [27] go downtown on the El to the Ritz Carlton and drink $15 per glass champagne (dressed to the nines) and have appetizers; then go to the Cape Cod room in the Drake Hotel where the Matre D "Patrick" has gotten to know us. We get in PAST all the losers waiting outside in the cold to get in. Finish dinner by 10:30 and take a cab over the Old St. Pat's (the oldest church in downtown Chicago that survived Mrs. O'Leary's fire; I am NOT making this up) and sing and nod our heads (OK, we sleep) and listen to the 2 hour Mass. We then go out for a few more hot toddys and get back to Barrington (my sister's house) about 3 am. We then proceed to call my brother in NC while we are still drunk; after he hangs up on us, we open a few small gifts, then crash.

It is interesting, that we have accumulated alot of my sister's "stray" single/ divorced friends now for this celebration. Two years ago we had a party of ten for Xmas Eve dinner at the Cape Cod room.

Christmas Day we get up about noon (that is why I like going to her house) and stay in our PJs all day and lollygag while opening gifts, drinking Cappachino (I can't spell) and eating garlic Polish sausage I brought from my butcher (Urbaniaks) in Erie. We cook up a prime rib about 7 or 8 pm and either play scrabble (or other board games) or go to the $1.00 show and see a movie that the 3 of never had time to do doing the year......

The day after Xmas it is back downtown for the BIGGEST SHOPPING SALE EVER! We usually have one of my sister's rich male acquaintances meet us for lunch and drinks at "The Palm" (lure them with the hopes of taking my gorgeous niece home) and hopefully they'll end up buying us luch and an afternoon full of drinks. It works!

Now with Jeff in my life, I have no idea what is going to happen. I am torn between driving to Buffalo and seeing my 82/80 year old parents, who won't have much time left in this world; my brother and sister-in-law invited me to NC this year; and my sister and niece want me to come to Chicago. Jeff wants to take me to Aruba! I guess it is nice to have choices......
~Kathy (KCPT)

hhh Christmas...well, generally I do a brunch with my family at my house, and then go to friends for a special dinner. As for Christmas Eve...I like to spend it at home, quiet, reminiscing, and wrapping presents. I don't do anything in particular on December 26th...never heard of Boxing Day--would like to hear more (maybe in your next issue??)

Just a little added note..I generally do a live tree and I put it up a week or so before Christmas and leave it up til the needles fall...once it was still up for Valentine's Day! I collect Christmas ornaments...and each one as it is put on the tree brings a special memory. OKOK enough of traditions for Emily's Christmas.
~Emily (LIFEVIBE)