Christmas for me was always Christmas with my father and mother. But also with my Spanish grandmother who would tell me stories of Christmas in Spain. In Spanish a Christmas carol is a villancico. She would often sing one that included a part about gently telling a donkey (borriquito) to giddyap, to go faster, that we will be late, that we are going to Bethlehem and that tomorrow is a feast day and the next day, too.

Arre borriquito

Arre burro arre

Anda más deprisa que llegamos tarde

Arre borriquito

Vamos a belén

Que mañana es fiesta

Y el otro también

Thinking about it I realize that the stanza in question is all about the fact that in Latin American countries and in Spain Christmas Eve is almost more important than Christmas Day. That has been the case in our family since I can remember. As a child I was taken to Midnight Mass and presents could not be opened until after. I was told that Santa Claus also went to Midnight Mass.

The custom now with us in Vancouver is that my daughters (one with her husband and two daughters) and my other daughter all partake of a Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) dinner which I prepare with the exception of Rosemary’s stellar Yorkshire Pudding. I will barbecue a roast beef, roast potatoes, carrots and onions and make my special gravy for the pudding. I prepare a cranberry sauce with fresh orange juice and orange zest.

After the leisurely dinner by an open fire I try telling my granddaughters that I am tired and that we should open the presents the next day. They ignore me and so we open presents. Sometime during all this I have to woo them all for our traditional Christmas photograph.  

This year will mark the first one where after 30 years we will not have our Christmas dinner in the old house on Athlone. I can only hope that Rosemary will see Christmas in Kitsilano as one that we will remember by having many more.

The Savior must have been a docile Gentleman (1487)

Emily Dickinson

The Savior must have been

A docile Gentleman —

To come so far so cold a Day

For little Fellowmen —

The Road to Bethlehem

Since He and I were Boys

Was leveled, but for that ‘twould be

A rugged billion Miles —


 

 

 


 



 


 

Fun Christmases in Vancouver

  More Emily Dickinson

'T were blessed to have seen