Christmas for me, as it must be for most people, is a combination of past memories and a routine. In a changing world, particularly this nasty one, routine can be comforting.

For me it is no longer the case as I lived 52 Christmases with Rosemary and have spent the last 3 (and the one to come) without her. Since I can remember, the special day has always been Christmas Eve which is Nochebuena in Spanish.  For Mexican beer aficionados there is indeed a very good ale called Nochebuena that is sold during the Christmas season.

In my Buenos Aires youth Christmas Eve was at 40 degree Celsius. Christmas in Argentina is in their summer. My mother who had access to stuff from the American Embassy would bring fake Noma spray snow and I was given the job of spraying the tree.

In Mexico our trees were always imported from Canada even though a few of us know that Mexico has the greatest variety of pine trees in the world. 

In Vancouver since 1975 Rosemary and I shared the pleasure of decorating our tree.

I will be going to my Burnaby daughter’s house for Christmas Eve. She, her husband Bruce, her two daughter and respective boyfriends will be there plus Bruce’s mother.

For me this is a sad occasion that I would have liked to avoid but I know I have an obligation. One of them was to always take that family Christmas group photo.

This year I am not taking my camera with me. After having done my research with Jeff Gin (Kerrisdale Cameras manager on Lonsdale) I have purchased a Canon Selphy. This is a small printer (it uses paper and ink) that produces 3x4 inch photographs and it communicates with a phone by WiFi. I have given it as a Christmas present, ahead of time, to my youngest granddaughter so she can figure out how to use it. Lauren, 21, is smart with this sort of stuff. She has told me that her phone has a 10-second timer so she can include herself in the shot. I am taking a small tripod with a very nice phone clamp so Lauren can position it at the right distance.

In this day and age, few now have sound systems and they mostly rely on YouTube on their TV.

In my mother’s Christmas tradition we always played the Hungarian pianist George Feyer’s record Echoes of Spain. Hilary will have to play it on YouTube. In our other tradition we had with Rosemary we loved to play the John Denver with the Muppets cassette and then the CD when it became available. Again Hilary will have to play this on her TV.

The playing will instantly join us in a pleasant but melancholy memory of Christmases past.

George Feyer's Echoes of Christmas on YouTube 

John Denver - The Muppets - A Christmas Together - YouTube