I'm going to cheat a little and describe not one childhood christmas, but 4. All took place between 1988-1995, about 2 years apart from each other, starting when I was 6 and ending at the age of 13.
What made these particular Chrismas seasons so magical and memorable were the fact that I was in Chile for each of them. Starting when I was about 6 years old, my parents and I would take a month long trip to there every couple of years for the holidays.
Christmas in Chile is wonderfully weird. First of all, it's hot. They're in the middle of summer during that time of year, and for someone who has grown up in the northeast, a Christmas with no cold and snow was strange to say the least. Who goes to the beach a few days before/after christmas? this girl when she's in the motherland.
We would take about 6 pieces of luggage with us...and i'm pretty sure only like 2 of them contained our actual clothing. Everything else was present after present for everyone in the family. Wrapping paper, bows, tape. We were the chilean version of santa claus, but instead of a fat, old, white haired man on a sleigh, you had a family dragging huge suitcases through airports and flying on Lan.
Everything started on christmas eve...to us, christmas IS on the eve. The whole day was spent cleaning the house and getting everything ready. I always had a new dress, full of flowers/colors and a bow. There was always a bow, regardless if it was on the dress itself, in my hair, or on my shoes. But it was there.
People would start to arrive at like 8 or 9. Presents were opened at midnight on the dot so no point in getting to the house any earlier than that. We would eat and drink and talk and catch up. As I write this I'm actually tearing up because it's making me miss my family. Growing up in NY, as an only child, with the only family I had in the states for 20 years being my parents and my grandmother, the only "big" christmases [?] i have ever known have been while in chile. You see, I DO have a decently sized family. More than one grandparent, cousins on each side, aunts, and uncles. And my time there was the only time i ever had to spend these days with them.
Anyway, i digress. After dinner people would mill around and chat. At around 10 to 12, a pre-determined adult would round up all us kids and take us outside to look for santa. Looking for santa in chile doesnt mean just looking up at the sky aimlessly..no you sing for him too:
viejito pasquero, acuerdate de mi
me porto bien en casa y tambien en el jardin...
10 minutes later we would run back into the house and there would be such a ridiculous amount of presents. Like a hill. Clearly the majority of them were for the kids, and out of that majority the majority were really for my cousin Denise [i swear she would walk away with black garbage bags FULL of crap...my older cousins and i are still jealous of this]
So there you have it...my 4 most memorable christmases. Nothing fancy...nothing elaborate. Just food, warmth, and family. lots and lots of family.
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