Essay

Making Xmas my own

By Caroline Pover

I write this just a few days before Christmas, and I think the last time I was this excited about Christmas I was a child. This is my first Christmas in Japan for a few years, my first Christmas with a dog, and my first Christmas as part of a married couple! It all feels very cozy! I look forward to doing things that will become part of my new family's Christmas every year.

Christmas for us starts on Christmas Eve (the 24th), continuesthrough Christmas Day (of course!) on the 25th, which is a national holiday in England, and Boxing Day (the 26th), which is also a national holiday. Many companies have vacations from those dates through to the New Year, so it can seem strange for foreigners in Japan to be working on Christmas Day.

We put our Christmas tree up at the beginning of December, and, unlike Japan where many people take down their Christmas tree on Christmas Day, in England you are supposed to take them down on the 12th day after Christmas. So we will keep our tree up until Jan. 6. Meanwhile, we have been playing Christmas songs while we get ready for work in the mornings, so I have been feeling very Christmassy at work, and singing Christmas songs in my office, without even realizing it.

On Christmas Eve, we will spend the day preparing lots of food for our dinner on Christmas Day. It will probably take about five hours! My husband, Richard, will glaze and roast a ham, which is something his uncle does every year. He will also make mulled wine. Mulled wine is a heated mixture of wine, lemons, oranges, cloves, brandy, sugar, water and cinnamon, and is perfect to drink on a cold winter night

We have ordered lots of Christmas movies to watch, so we shall probably snuggle up with our dog, drink a bit too much (!), then perhaps go to a late-night church service. I am not religious, but Richard always enjoyed doing that with his grandfather when he was a child, so it will be something that we will bring to our new family

Then it's Christmas morning! For many children in England, this is the most exciting day of the year! A Japanese friend asked me recently: "Which is more important in England? Birthdays or Christmas?" Most English people will easily say that Christmas is the winner! I know that I will wake up early and be completely overexcited, and have to drag Richard out of bed so that we can see what's in our Christmas stockings

Usually Christmas stocking presents are hidden until Christmas morning but we have had our stockings next to our tree for about two weeks now! Stockings are usually filled with small presents like little games and sweets, and you are supposed to hang up the empty stocking by a fireplace or at the end of your bed on Christmas Eve, so that Santa can fill it up in the night

Christmas breakfast: My family always started the day with a mimosa! We will put our own twist on it by having a bellini, because that drink reminds us of our honeymoon in Italy. Then we will have rolls filled with the ham that Richard will have cooked the day before, and we'll open the presents that are under our tree.

We will then cook a traditional Christmas dinner for six of our friends who will come to our apartment for the afternoon. Richard is going to roast a whole turkey! And I will cook seven kinds of vegetables with individual sauces, and lots of roast potatoes, and we'll start eating about four in the afternoon

Traditionally English people lounge around on the sofa in front of the television after Christmas dinner because they will have eaten too much, but we will open even more presents, then play some games, and drink more mulled wine. So, in the end, Christmas really is rather a lot of eating, drinking, and present-opening, and that's why I love it so much.

Shukan ST: Jan. 6, 2006

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