The true gifts

Stollen, Gluehwein, Raeuchermaennchen—the essentials of the German Festive Season! It’s been four years since I was last home to celebrate the Holiday Season with my family. And although I manage to get my hands on all of the above even in Manila, it’s still not the same. Simply because there is more to the Holiday Season than tastes and smells.

It is spending time with family and friends, baking cookies, wrapping gifts, and strolling over the town’s x-mas markets to find that good old Gluehwein booth again. I did all of the above and loved it, despite the lack of snow and the mild temperatures in Chemnitz.

Christmas Eve was special for various reasons. For one, we celebrated a day early since Glenn and I had a plane ticket for the US on the 24^th. Second, Glenn was there for the first time, experiencing my family’s traditions. Third, this time we were on the broadcasting side of the Skype-chat, sharing our Santa Claus visit with Glenn’s family in the US.

After our traditional potato salad and sausage dinner (the vegetarian seems to miss out on Saxon food traditions…) Santa Claus made his appearance with three loud knocks on the door. Selina (5) was all excited and ready to recite her songs and poems in order to get her gifts. She's got the routine down! Samira (2), on the other hand, just cried and hid! Coming to think of it, Santa Claus is a rather creepy figure…

Once Santa had left Selina and Samira turned into Santa’s helpers and started distributing all the gifts piled up under the (fake) tree. For the next hours, we were busy unwrapping, laughing, thanking, hugging, and gathering our loot. A nice gift indeed, to spend these hours with my family!

S(kype)-Mas

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 24^th 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!