Christmas traditions
Here it is September and for whatever reason, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is on TV. It made me reflect on some of my Christmas traditions growing up. So, I give you both Piet and my family Christmas traditions. I can tell this is going to be long, but rich with memories!
Leah: There is so much to say when it comes to Christmas. It was one of my favorite times of year, that’s for sure. Every Christmas growing up was quite similar, but it was always something to look forward to.
Every December 24th, the whole Rush clan, whom we only saw about 3 or 4 times a year, gathered at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in San Jose, CA. We would arrive in the afternoon and visit for a few hours. The first thing we would do was unload the car of all the gifts we had brought for all the others. This was about the time that David and I would begin sorting through the presents and counting how many each of us had. Soon after this, dinner was served. I believe it was usually turkey or ham with delicious sides and salads. My favorite was Grandma’s yams with cranberries. I’m also pretty sure that auntie Joy would also make her very famous pumpkin cheesecake.
After dinner we were anxious to go downstairs and begin the rest of the Christmas celebration. I can picture Grandma’s thin Christmas tree with the same decorations year after year. I can also smell the scent of Grandpa’s wine cellar and hear the hum of the fridge in the garage. Everyone knew that the downstairs fridge would be filled with all kinds of drinks specifically for this occasion.
We began a tradition that we needed to do something Christmasy before we could open the presents, like play a game, or sing a few Christmas carols. Two memories stick out so vividly. One Christmas, I must have been about 11 or 12, we sang “The 12 Days of Christmas” and each person had to find a prop to represent their “day”. Another Christmas a few years later, we began another tradition of singing a rendition of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”; it was titled, “Walking ‘Round in Women’s Underwear”. I’ll leave the rest of the lyrics up to your imagination! ;)
Alas, the moment all the kids were waiting for! Gift opening! One of us, generally David since he was the youngest, played Santa and distributed the gifts to their owners. And then we tore in. The kids generally didn’t have any sense of reservation. Grandma and Grandpa always took their time and just watched the rest of us. You could see the love in their eyes as they so enjoyed having their family around for this momentous occasion. We would spend the next few hours trying out our new toys and modeling our new clothes. It was then that we were exhausted and passed out in our appointed bedrooms. The kids often just laid anywhere on the downstairs living room floor.
In the morning, we would wake up to the lovely smell of breakfast casseroles. In our jammies and robes, we would then gather for “Santa gifts”. Santa had visited and left us more loot! We would then open our stockings to find things like mixed nuts, legos, lotions, and sometimes money.
I’m smiling as I recall all these things. Though Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie Judy have left us, the house in San Jose still stands. How I wish we could go back to those days and all be together again.
Piet: Christmas was a time for family to get together. We always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Day. Since it is hot here on Christmas we would always have a big Christmas lunch. Eating meat during a meal on an average day was very rare because we didn’t have a lot of money growing up. So when we had meat on Christmas it was a treat. Africans refer to a special meal like Christmas lunch as “five colours” because we have a variety of things we don’t often eat. The meal would consist of beetroot (purple), rice (white), pumpkin (orange), cabbage salad (green), and meat (brown).
We would get gifts as kids every year, but it was almost always school clothes or school shoes. Myself, my siblings, cousins, etc would all wear our new Christmas clothes with pride on Christmas Day. I remember the neighborhood kids doing the same and we would compare and show off what we got for Christmas.
The family would be together the whole day. It would take a few hours to cook the food, then we would eat and spend time together, and the older members of the family would talk until very late and drink a lot. Eventually the kids would get bored and we would go and play soccer with whichever of the neighbors that were around. In South Africa, often people have “homelands” or places where the majority of the family lives, usually in a different province. So some of our neighbors would go to their homelands for Christmas, or we would have new neighborhood kids that were visiting from other provinces. Our family was all based in Johannesburg so we never had homelands.
We also never had "Santa: or knew him by that name, but we knew about Father Christmas--the white guy with a long beard; some white missionaries introduced him to us but we were scared. My best memories is our preschool Christmas party, when we would act out the nativity (I’ve got a big smile as I write this). I was the main character, for some reason my teachers thought I was a good actor and confident. We also had cake after the show and gave each other Christmas cards we hand made. Christmas was the best!
Here it is September and for whatever reason, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is on TV. It made me reflect on some of my Christmas traditions growing up. So, I give you both Piet and my family Christmas traditions. I can tell this is going to be long, but rich with memories!
Leah: There is so much to say when it comes to Christmas. It was one of my favorite times of year, that’s for sure. Every Christmas growing up was quite similar, but it was always something to look forward to.
Every December 24th, the whole Rush clan, whom we only saw about 3 or 4 times a year, gathered at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in San Jose, CA. We would arrive in the afternoon and visit for a few hours. The first thing we would do was unload the car of all the gifts we had brought for all the others. This was about the time that David and I would begin sorting through the presents and counting how many each of us had. Soon after this, dinner was served. I believe it was usually turkey or ham with delicious sides and salads. My favorite was Grandma’s yams with cranberries. I’m also pretty sure that auntie Joy would also make her very famous pumpkin cheesecake.
After dinner we were anxious to go downstairs and begin the rest of the Christmas celebration. I can picture Grandma’s thin Christmas tree with the same decorations year after year. I can also smell the scent of Grandpa’s wine cellar and hear the hum of the fridge in the garage. Everyone knew that the downstairs fridge would be filled with all kinds of drinks specifically for this occasion.
We began a tradition that we needed to do something Christmasy before we could open the presents, like play a game, or sing a few Christmas carols. Two memories stick out so vividly. One Christmas, I must have been about 11 or 12, we sang “The 12 Days of Christmas” and each person had to find a prop to represent their “day”. Another Christmas a few years later, we began another tradition of singing a rendition of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”; it was titled, “Walking ‘Round in Women’s Underwear”. I’ll leave the rest of the lyrics up to your imagination! ;)
Alas, the moment all the kids were waiting for! Gift opening! One of us, generally David since he was the youngest, played Santa and distributed the gifts to their owners. And then we tore in. The kids generally didn’t have any sense of reservation. Grandma and Grandpa always took their time and just watched the rest of us. You could see the love in their eyes as they so enjoyed having their family around for this momentous occasion. We would spend the next few hours trying out our new toys and modeling our new clothes. It was then that we were exhausted and passed out in our appointed bedrooms. The kids often just laid anywhere on the downstairs living room floor.
In the morning, we would wake up to the lovely smell of breakfast casseroles. In our jammies and robes, we would then gather for “Santa gifts”. Santa had visited and left us more loot! We would then open our stockings to find things like mixed nuts, legos, lotions, and sometimes money.
I’m smiling as I recall all these things. Though Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie Judy have left us, the house in San Jose still stands. How I wish we could go back to those days and all be together again.
Piet: Christmas was a time for family to get together. We always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Day. Since it is hot here on Christmas we would always have a big Christmas lunch. Eating meat during a meal on an average day was very rare because we didn’t have a lot of money growing up. So when we had meat on Christmas it was a treat. Africans refer to a special meal like Christmas lunch as “five colours” because we have a variety of things we don’t often eat. The meal would consist of beetroot (purple), rice (white), pumpkin (orange), cabbage salad (green), and meat (brown).
We would get gifts as kids every year, but it was almost always school clothes or school shoes. Myself, my siblings, cousins, etc would all wear our new Christmas clothes with pride on Christmas Day. I remember the neighborhood kids doing the same and we would compare and show off what we got for Christmas.
The family would be together the whole day. It would take a few hours to cook the food, then we would eat and spend time together, and the older members of the family would talk until very late and drink a lot. Eventually the kids would get bored and we would go and play soccer with whichever of the neighbors that were around. In South Africa, often people have “homelands” or places where the majority of the family lives, usually in a different province. So some of our neighbors would go to their homelands for Christmas, or we would have new neighborhood kids that were visiting from other provinces. Our family was all based in Johannesburg so we never had homelands.
We also never had "Santa: or knew him by that name, but we knew about Father Christmas--the white guy with a long beard; some white missionaries introduced him to us but we were scared. My best memories is our preschool Christmas party, when we would act out the nativity (I’ve got a big smile as I write this). I was the main character, for some reason my teachers thought I was a good actor and confident. We also had cake after the show and gave each other Christmas cards we hand made. Christmas was the best!