Christmas is different these days. With a growing family living on different continents, distances get too far to cross to please everybody at the same time. Impossible, even if time differences are ticking in our favor.The last time I spent the holidays with my family in Germany was in 2007. Selina was a year and a half and memorized, to everybody’s surprise, which wrapped gift belonged to whom.
In 2008, I joined the family gift giving remotely from an internet cafe in Vientiane, Laos.
The following year marked a very special exchange of American and German Christmas traditions facilitate through Skype. From the US we watched Selina sing songs and recite poems to “Santa Claus” who sat in my sister’s living room. Unimaginable in the US where Santa Claus (and Santa Mouse) climb through the chimney into the house before Christmas morning, leaving gifts and footprints, and taking cookies in exchange!
This year, the Skype chat on December 24th has already become a tradition among the extended family. Selina sings English songs to (an amazed) Santa who now gets a special seat in front of the Skype camera. He even smiles and waves to us halfway across the world. Samira, my younger niece, observes Santa from a distance. She somehow doesn’t trust the guy in red with the big white beard.
After he left the family unwrapped the gifts that had traveled to them all the way from the Philippines.
A picture or life stream surely does not make up for a big hug, a personal exchange of gifts, or the smell of ginger bread. It is emotional nevertheless. And while I wipe away my tears I’m grateful for modern technology!
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