With Christmas right around the corner, I tried to make a serious article about the state of the world. However, as I have tried previously to do something serious and ended up writing humor articles (hopefully those might have been a little bit funny, though?) I'm going to tell you about what my Christmas celebrations look like.
1. It's not Santa Claus that brings the gifts over.
It's Baby Jesus. Seriously. You can ask my parents and they will tell you this. I have some personalized gift cards that say 'From: Baby Jesus'. It's not like Santa Claus is completely absent. There's plenty of Santa Claus stuff laying around my house, like oven mitts that my mom will only use during Christmas. However, Baby Jesus is the one in charge of the gifts and nobody would ever dare change that.
2.We have a Nativity scene in each home and almost everyone prays the Novena.
The Nativity scene is quite interesting in its style. There are pine trees all around the scene, sometimes even an ice skating rink. There are little German-styled houses around the little town and camels walking around them. There is always a sheep figurine that, no matter what you do, will never remain standing and all of the people figurines featured in the Nativity scene are not the same height.
3. There is this one Christmas carol that is just too much.
I wish I could take this song out of my head. I wish I could forget all of the people singing out of tone this carol with no regards for the rest of us. But, of all the Christmas-themed things to do in December, if I haven't listened to this song at least once, I can't say I celebrated Christmas properly.
4. Grandma will cook so much food.
My grandma steps up her cooking game so much, it's unbelievable the things she does for dinner. And we always end up eating too much. Honestly, the fear of missing out some side dish, salad, meat or dessert made by her is too overwhelming. And, even after that, we will always have leftovers that we reheat for lunch. This feeling, I believe, is captured completely in one sentence: No hay nada más rico que recalentado de Navidad y consumido con cuchara (I had to type it in Spanish).
5. The younger you are, the more gifts you'll receive.
However, they will be most likely clothes. It's like for each toy you get, you get a complete outfit from one of your aunts, and there is some kind of limit for giving toys, so enjoy the socks!
I am away, and I am hopefully getting the chance to experience this. Even if I don't, I'll cherish the fact that I have made it on my own for almost six months and I get to share this time with the people I don't get the chance to visit as often as I want.
Feliz Navidad!
PS: Here's another must have Christmas carol of the season. So many cool Latin American Christmas carols. (Oh God, why! Hahahahaha)
