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The world of Christmas

Sara Leach checks out how Whistler families from around the globe maintain their holiday traditions

By Sara Leach

It’s Thursday morning at the Alta Lake School. Amanda Sandahl sings “Santa Lucia” as a group of preschoolers, dressed in capes or gingerbread men costumes, stand in front of their parents, holding candles. For most of the children, this is their first taste of Lucia, a Christmas celebration from Sweden. Sandahl has organized the Lucia breakfast at the school to bring one of her country’s traditions to her new home in Canada.

In Sweden, Saint Lucia symbolizes the return of the light at the darkest time of the year. Her day is celebrated on December 13 th with a procession of children through each town. One girl is chosen in each village to represent Lucia. She is followed by girls with glitter on their dresses and in their hair, boys wearing hats with stars and children dressed as gingerbread men and gnomes.

At the Alta Lake School the students have learned several Lucia songs. They invite their parents to school for a special breakfast of porridge, Lucia buns and gingerbread cookies.

For those of us who live apart from our families and our countries of origin, as so many do in Whistler, how many of our traditions stem from our roots, and how many new traditions do we create?

Traditions can be as steeped in history and religion as the re-enactment of the three wise men delivering gifts to Jesus, and as modern as a board game tournament after present opening around the tree.

Sandahl and her family, who moved to Whistler from Sweden two years ago, will keep many of their Swedish traditions alive when they celebrate their first Christmas here this week. In Sweden, Christmas celebrations start on the 23 rd , when the tree is brought in and decorated. Families get together to eat ham sandwiches and drink glögg , a mulled wine served with raisins and almonds. At 3 p.m., 90 per cent of the country watches a collection of Donald Duck shows on television.

For Sandahl’s family, the 24th begins with ham sandwiches and porridge, followed by skiing. In the afternoon there is a big feast of meatballs, Janssons Temptations (potato gratin with anchovies), herring, salmon, ribs, and ham as the main event.

In Whistler, The Sandahls plan to celebrate on the 24 th with family, and to carry on the tradition of skiing on Christmas day.

“Santa comes in the evening and knocks at the door, and starts handing out presents to the kids,” Sandahl says. “The 25 th and 26 th are also holidays, but just for relaxing, and eating more ham.”

Margo and Gerassimos Vergottis live in Athens, Greece, and spend part of each winter in Whistler. Says Margo, “Orthodox Christians fast for a month leading up to Christmas. On the 24 th children go from house to house singing kalanda , carols, while hitting a triangle to symbolize the ringing of church bells.”

On the 25 th everyone attends church for three hours, followed by the men visiting friends and families to give their best wishes. Then a Christmas lunch is served for the family.

New Year’s is actually the holiday with more significance in Greece. On the 31 st the children once again go from house to house singing carols, this time about Saint Basil who lived in Turkey in the second century, and who loved, cared for and brought presents to the children. The English translation of Saint Basil is Santa Claus.

At midnight the Vasilopita, or cake of Saint Basil, is cut. A coin or pendant with the coming year written onto it is slipped into the cake underneath. The cake is pre-cut into enough slices for the number of people at the table plus key family members who are missing, as well as Mary, Christ, the house, and the father’s work. The person who finds the coin in his or her piece of cake has luck for the year.

On the 1 st after church it is very important that the person who found the coin is the first person to enter the house, and always with the left foot first. This is the day for a big family lunch and the opening of presents. If there are children in the family, Saint Basil arrives New Year’s Eve and leaves presents.

The Vergottises usually spend Christmas in Whistler. Margo is originally from Winnipeg, and the family follows many of the Canadian Christmas traditions. One of the Greek traditions they have brought with them to Canada includes baking the Vasilopita. “I even schlep over home grown almonds brought from my father-in-law’s almond trees,” Vergottis says. “And we sing the kalanda with the triangles, although the only house we visit is that of one neighbor who is Greek. Can you believe we have a Greek neighbour? He must be the only other person from Greece in Whistler!”

Barbary Amaya and Roberto Arenas are visiting for several months from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They say a big difference between Christmas here and at home is that in Mexico people celebrate just with family, not with friends. Families get together and have a huge dinner, including turkey, Romerito (a plant cooked with mole), apple salad, spicy shrimp soup, and pork. There could be up to 50 people at a gathering, all of them family. In some neighbourhoods, they might close the street and celebrate together, because everyone in the area is related. Dinner is held on the 24 th , at 11 p.m., with a celebration and exchange of presents at midnight.

Libby McKeever hails originally from Australia, and has lived in Whistler since 1982. Her Christmases in Oz were quite different than the ones here. With a small family in Australia, spending time with the neighbourhood kids and beach trips filled the afternoons after a Christmas lunch. In Canada, her expanded family of four generations and conflicting schedules means that a large dinner for 18 is held on the 24 th , with a quieter celebration on Christmas day that includes turkey sandwiches, a family Scrabble tournament, and a 1,000-piece puzzle. How much does climate affect Christmas? See the side bar for more of McKeever’s memories of Christmas in Australia.

In the Philippines, Christmas is also celebrated without snow or winter. Traditionally, people attend early morning Mass for nine days prior to Christmas, and celebrate with a dinner late on the 24 th , exchanging gifts at midnight.

A white Christmas is the norm for Brigitte Schonner from Alpbach, Austria. The list of Alpbach Christmas traditions is long and detailed. One tradition is to light a candle on an advent wreath each Saturday in the month leading up to Christmas.

“We would have to pray for hours,” Schonner says. “Each Saturday my father would light another candle, and we’d pray longer each week.” After 12 years in Whistler, Schonner still lights the candles, but forgoes the prayers.

In her hometown, everyone puts up a nativity scene on the 24 th and keeps it up until Feb. 2 nd , a church holiday. On Jan. 6 th , Heilig Drei König , the Three Kings arrive and are added to the nativity scene. Since arriving in Canada, Schonner continues the tradition. However, she puts the scene up a week before Christmas, and takes it down “when I’ve had enough, usually just after Jan. 6 th .”

Austrian children are visited by Christ Kind. On the eve of the 24 th , after a dinner of nudeln , raisin dough cooked in hot oil, a bell rings. The children are told that an angel flew in and deposited the gifts. Before dinner on the 24 th families take gold, incense, and myrrh, walk around all the buildings on the farm and all the rooms of the house and put incense in the rooms. On New Year’s eve they walk around twice and put crosses on the doors, and on Jan. 5 th they repeat this three times.

Every year when she does her Christmas baking Schonner burns incense, as the two smells are inextricably linked in her mind as an integral part of Christmas.

“The incense costs a fortune,” she says, “and I have to buy it at a church supply store in Vancouver, but it’s worth it.”

Celebrating the traditions of two countries, or even two families, can be a challenge, especially when children and in-laws are involved. Santa Claus or Christ Kind ? The 24 th or the 25 th ? Turkey or nudeln ? But, as Vergottis says, “We pick and choose.”

We all choose our traditions to a certain extent. After all, why continue something from year to year if it isn’t meaningful? Maybe those of us who experience Christmas from a different perspective, in a different country, see more clearly what is most important, what is worth continuing, and what should be relegated to another time and place.



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