Of Christmas Past ...

Today is Christmas eve, like as if you didn't know that already ... LOL! But the atmosphere around my neighbourhood sure doesn't seem like it at all. Most of the houses are pretty quiet and I know at least quite a handful of them celebrates the occasion but I can hardly see any decorations at all. I'm guilty as well cos if you came to my  house, you'd think it was just another ordinary day.

Christmas this year isn't exactly what it was the previous years. Quite a few people are not into it for various reasons of their own. I remember the Christmases of my childhood back in the neighbourhood that I grew up in. It was always so merry and you could always tell when Christmas was near, especially in my household.

I come from a family of typical Portuguese Eurasians and Christmas is a big family affair for us back then. Preparations for it would start at least minimum of a month in advance with my grandma being the head in all the Christmas programmes leading up to Christmas day itself.

The first things that would come up was the tree. We'd always have the tree out as early as we can so that we'd get to enjoy it for a longer time. One of the best parts of being a kid was helping out with the decorating the tree. Every year one of the must have decorations on our tree was the Christmas party crackers, the ones that had these little cute toys inside when you pop them.

I can remember me and my cousins would rush to peek inside the tiny holes and fight to 'book' our very own cracker that would be 'cracked' (for want of a better word) on Christmas day. Sometimes we'd get some good toys and it was something I always looked forward too.

The other part that I enjoyed leading up to Christmas was going curtain and clothes shopping. It was a must for us to have new curtains and clothes every year for Christmas. And the shopping place of choice for curtains back then was Globe Silk Store (any of you still remember that place) I always enjoyed that part cos we'd all get to follow grandma and my aunty along and the part that I MOST enjoyed was eating the Briyani rice for lunch. I was a glutton back then ... LOL!

Once all that was out of the way, the next traditional process would start, which was making pineapple tarts and all the cookie along with the family traditional Christmas pickle (which was a must for the whole family to take some home after Christmas). We used to make everything ourselves back then. Everything was homemade, nothing was bought unlike these days where just buy our cookies and stuff to save the hassle of making them. Which is sad actually cos the fun part was n the making.

Now of course I couldn't make cookies, all my cousins and me really did was get in the way, but that was what Christmas was all about, all the shouting, the gaiety, the laughter and of course getting chased away from the kitchen by grandma for making such nuisances of ourselves ... LOL! But it was all part of Christmas.

Then the eve would come and once we were old enough, we'd all get ready for midnight mass and it really started at midnight unlike now when it would start at 10.00pm. The church was just a few minutes walk away and my cousins and me accompanied by grandpa (after he made his famous and absolutely yummy 'after midnight mass' Christmas pie) would walk to church all deck out in our new clothes to usher in the birth of Jesus Christ.

As usual, being the glutton in the family, I looked forward to the pie more and would be wishing for mass to finish quickly so I could rush home and savour some of that yummy Christmas pie. And I must say that no one else in the family has even come close to making the pie the way grandpa used to make it. Unfortunately grandpa is no longer around these days. After the pie eating session we'd all call it a night cos most of us kids would be too sleepy by then and left the present opening for the next morning and hope no one gave us any allergy bedding for a gift ... LOL!

Another tradition that we had back then was to always have a Christmas dinner party where friends, neighbours and relatives would be invited over to share the festivities. It was something that we all looked forward too. As usual, the food would be homemade, every single dish was cooked ourselves. At night the place would be full and we'd be running around playing with all the other kids and it was also a time where us kids get to sample some sips of alcohol ... hehehe ... all in the 'spirit' of Christmas.

And that would be how Christmas was like for me back then. God, I miss those childhood times. Being a kid all you did for Christmas was just have fun, fun and more fun. I've never really carried on that tradition with my own family, which maybe I should. Maybe I should start trying to see if I can make my own version of that Christmas pie (though it will never be as good as grandpa made it) and have a family supper after midnight mass. I remember last year, after mass we went out to have supper. So un-Christmas like!

Anyways, if I don't get the chance to drop by your blogs later, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year. And to those who don't celebrate this festival, Happy Holidays :D
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