Christmas Memories: Christmas Eve

Tra-di-TION... Tra-DI-tion!!

(think "Fiddler on the Roof"...)

Yes, Christmas Eve has to be the most tradition-filled day of the year on my mom's side of the family. When we celebrated with them every other year we knew exactly what to expect from the moment we walked in the door after our 4:00 PM church service to the time we headed home around midnight - tired, but happy.

The schedule would invariably be:

-Eat supper

-Clean up and wait with much anticipation

-Musical/recitation program in the living room by grandchildren and great-grandchildren

-Move to basement (which feels refreshingly cool for a bit)

-Grandchildren (no matter your age) sing “Away in a Manger” during photo shoot

-Grandpa reads the Christmas story and prays

-All sing “Silent Night”

-Open gifts

-Clear center of room, set up card tables complete with Norwegian table cloth, eat Grandma’s dozens of Christmas cookies, and drink several kinds of pop

And the meal would surely consist of:

Spare Ribs

Lutefisk with Melted Butter

Riced Potatoes

Gravy

Lingenberries

Peas & Carrots

 Christmas Salad

Grandma’s White Buns

Lefse

Flatbread

Rosettes with Whipped Cream and Lingenberries or Strawberries

Christmas baking began many weeks early as Grandma's freezers were stocked with all of these delights.  In the later years she had help with the daunting lefse and flat-bread days.

Lefse team - making enough for at least 40 people on Thanksgiving and Christmas

So much of the tradition has centered around traditional foods that several years ago I picked up Mom's idea of collecting all the Christmas Eve recipes into one place and giving them to each family member. One November afternoon I sat down at the kitchen table with Grandpa while Grandma scurried around finding all the recipes I requested, producing more of her own, and even bringing out some samples from her early baking to go along with coffee.

                   

The most special part - besides just spending time with my last remaining grandparents - was hearing and jotting down the memories that came of Christmases past.

Spare Ribs

Brown on stove. Season with salt and pepper. Bake.

Spare ribs used to be more “spare” with less meat.  Grandpa and Grandma’s families each butchered a hog soon before Christmas, and they likely used all the ribs for Christmas. Grandma said since they were thinner, her mom didn’t brown them first but baked the ribs in an open pan to brown.

Besides the ribs, the winter hog produced hams, shoulders, and bacon to smoke. Grandma enjoyed staying home from school some days to help process all the meat. Her family buried the hams and bacon in oats to keep through the winter, but Grandpa’s hung them in the basement.

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Grandpa: “We had a custom in our family, where we would come over with a pint of cream for several families in [town] on Christmas Eve Day. Mrs. Larson would always send back a can of Italian Prune sauce. It was very good.”

Grandma’s family also brought gifts of cream into town.

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The most memorable gifts Grandpa received as a child were a firetruck and a locomotive. One dollar was also a very special gift viewed as a fortune!

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Changing Traditions

Just as Christmas celebrations have changed from when these memories were made back in the 1920's, so our celebrations must change as well.

First, families grew too large to all meet in Grandpa and Grandma's home. Then last year they had to move to a nursing home. And this year we said goodbye to Grandma. Also, half of my family can no longer eat the traditional baking.

There is sadness in losing many of the memory-laden traditions. There is loss in never again savoring the "flavors of Christmas." There is no place quite like gathering around the fireplace in that basement crowded with family. There is a hole in the family circle without Grandma with her spark and humor and servant's heart and love.

And yet... there is also some excitement in the newness. In finding new ways to celebrate with new people. 

And no matter where we are, what we eat, and who is with us, we are still celebrating the same, changeless Reason. Merry Christmas!

"“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”)." Matthew 1:23