Am I Missing that Christmas Spirit?

by Anna Urquiola Green

It’s a couple of days before Christmas and yet I still don’t feel that Christmas spirit. Is it because of the dire economic state of the country which reflects our pockets too? In our house I haven’t even bothered putting up our nativity set instead we have on display a minimalist version with only Jesus, Mary and Joseph in it which to me are the three most important characters in the tableau anyway.

Missing that Christmas Spirit

We still use the same Christmas tree we bought five years ago, same baubles and ornaments except for a few missing ones courtesy of Nushy our kleptomaniac cat. Just a few days ago when vacuuming the floors I found two ornaments in different parts of the house and always under a chair or behind a bed. You see she has a penchant for stashing or hiding away things that she fancies, funny character our cat. So what connection is our cat to this article you might ask, not a lot really except for the missing baubles and the missing Christmas spirit. Plus if you happen to visit my house and you have a fluffy thing lying around and it goes missing then you know it wasn’t me who took it.

I digress again but now back to our subject. Asking friends about this missing Christmas spirit, I found out it wasn’t only me. I see Christmas lights outside houses at night all lit up, tacky inflatable Santa Claus(es) and lit up reindeers, people are a bit nicer to each other, even our next door neighbour who is not my favourite person in the world to put it mildly dropped a card in our letter box. Tit for tat I also felt obliged to send her one after all this is what Christmas is all about isn’t it? Trying to be nice and not naughty but so hard when you find a dog doodah outside your front yard and you think it’s their dog that’s responsible for it but you don’t have the evidence.

One thing I do miss are the Filipino foods that I always associate with Christmas such as the smell of puto bumbong when walking out the church after attending Simbang Gabi or the still warm bibingka and piping hot chocolate or taho. Here in England if you happen to invite relatives on Christmas day you got to start slaving in the kitchen in the early hours of the morning to prepare the turkey and get into a manic panic if you have some missing ingredients for the stuffing or you need more mince pies.

Pot luck is still a novel concept here but is starting to gain ground as no party host honestly wants to spend their day sweating it out in the kitchen like Cinderella while other members of the family are busy gobbling up the food you so worked hard for. I’ve been here for five years and have not actually served turkey for Christmas dinner but this year I am feeling brave and bought one a few days ago, it’s in the freezer not in our backyard. So come Christmas Day for the first time in my life I will cook for my family a traditional English Christmas turkey dinner. (Some birdie told me the real traditional English dinner for Christmas is goose but with the credit crunch that’s not in the menu). As a backup though, I got smoked salmon hidden in the fridge in case this dinner turns out to be a turkey.

Ah well, I think I just got back that Christmas vibe. Happy Christmas to you all!