I was never really religious, but I still like Christmas time. However I must admit, I never liked the Scottish way of celebrating Christmas. The fact that Christmas trees pop-up everywhere around Halloween, and by the time actual Christmas comes, everyone is so fed up with ‘the holiday spirit’, that trees end up in the bin as early as Boxing Day. Then, everybody is plunged into winter darkness and instantly gets depressed. It always seemed weird to me. No wonder, that Blue Monday is a thing here.
When I was growing up in Poland, what I liked the most was the anticipation. Advent was a real thing – although interrupted by 6 December, when Saint Nicolaus brings gifts to Polish children. Traditionally the tree was going up only on Christmas Eve morning, or, at the earliest, a day before. The pinnacle of celebration was the Christmas Eve dinner, known for its traditional, unique dishes. It was still considered a fasting day – hence the fish and meatless dishes like pierogi – but at the same time it was a real feast. You are supposed to at least try a bit of all the 12 courses, one for each month of the year – otherwise you would have bad luck in the corresponding month the following year.
Then, it was the time for Christmas gifts (yes, again!), some dessert and then the family was going out for a walk around the neighbourhood to admire all the Christmas decorations that usually had only gone up that morning. For those who were religious, the walk ended up at the midnight mass. The first day of Christmas was about spending time with your immediate family, and Boxing Day was usually reserved for visiting more distant relatives. The Christmas tree and the colourful lights would stay with us over Hogmanay and well into the New Year, illuminating carnival balls. By the time the tree was taken down – some even kept it up to Candlemas at the beginning of February – the days were already longer and brighter.
I miss those old days when Christmas meant filling our dark, winter days first with anticipation and then with the feast of colourful lights, not being pestered with fat Santas for two consecutive months screaming at us from every direction, “buy, buy, buy!”
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