Making Christmas

 " . . . In every winter of the world, Arizona school children fold and snip paper snowflakes to tape around the blackboard.  In October, they cut orange paper leaves, and tulips in spring, just as colonial American and Australian schoolchildren once memorized poems about British skylarks while the blue jays or cockatoos (according to continent) squawked outside, utterly ignored.  The dominant culture has a way of becoming more real than the stuff at hand."

                                        -Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (pg. 296)


      Ms. Kingsolver said it better than I did.  But my question, given my perspective in Mexico, is how the vision of a snowy Christmas got to  be the "dominant culture".  There are very few places in this country that experience real snow.  So why do we see flocked trees, refrigerated ice skating rinks, and snowmen in every park and plaza?  Yes, I agree that the idea of a snowy Christmas is a charming one.  But why are we getting bombarded by these images when they have nothing to do with an authentic, Mexican, Christmas experience?

       Call me crazy, but I´m willing to bet that the Christmas decorations in this country 100 years ago did not celebrate snow.

      I don´t either.

      Now, I´m not one of those bah-humbugs who hates the wetness, coldness, and messiness of snow.  Au contraire, I love it!  When I lived in Indiana in the winter and my coworkers would whine and moan at seeing the snow fall, someone would routinely add, "at least Jill will be happy."  And I was.

     But I believe in being present in my present surroundings.  So Christmas in Saltillo isn´t snowy?  What then, are the things that speak "Christmas" to me here?

• Pointsettias--native to Mexico, the poinsettia is called nochebuena in Spanish.  That literally means that it´s the Christmas Eve plant, as we all know it blooms this time of year.  And if you haven´t been to Mexico before, let me warn you that they can grow to be a good 6 or 7 feet tall!  There isn´t anything like a good nochebuena to help celebrate Christmas, so we´ve got them everywhere.  





Yes, ours is a bit pathetic by Mexican standards.
My idea is to buy a new piece every year.
So, when we´re celebrating our 50th year as a family, we´ll have
a set that will be the envy of any abuelita.  

• Nativity scenes--I´m convinced that there is an unofficial, national competition on who can make the grandest, most elaborate nativity scene.  Mexican nativity scenes not only incorporate the Holy Family, Wise Men, shepherds, and an angel.  No, no--they often include herds of cattle, Satan, washerwomen, nopales, goat roasting on a spit, fish swimming merrily in rivers . . . a tiny town of clay figurines descend on most Mexican homes for two months out of the year, causing significant rearranging of furniture.  I never get tired of checking out others´ nativity scenes.  

• Rosemary--earlier in the month, I wanted to make a wreath for the front door.  But, as we don´t have many pines here, I wanted it made out of something I could easily get.  I have a large rosemary bush in my patio.  A traditional, Mexican Christmas dish is romeritos, which is rosemary covered in a mole sauce.  Thanks to this, I´ve noticed in the last few years that just smelling rosemary reminds me of Christmas.  Furthermore, in a Mexican Christmas carol, Los Peces en el Rio, one of the verses speaks of Mary washing out clothes in a river and hanging them to dry on a rosemary bush.  Furthermore, having cut a branch off a few weeks before this contemplation, the cut branch stayed green for a few weeks.  

         Alas, right before I harvested the rosemary for the wreath, we had a cold spell and the bag I                covered the rosemary with had condensation inside.  Given the freezing temperatures, it just                about killed my rosemary bush.

         *sigh*  Next year, we´ll have a rosemary wreath.

• Advent wreaths.  I had to search long and hard to find an advent wreath that did not incorporate fake pine branches and pine cones.  Granted, that wouldn´t be so bad--there are mountains full of pine forests very close to here, so the pine-theme would be somewhat authentic.  However, during our first year of marriage, we lived in Metepec, just outside of Toluca.  Metepec is famous for clay pottery, and arboles de la vida.  

          While walking around one of the pottery markets one day, I found this.  Not at all Christmas-y,           in the "let´s celebrate snow" sense.  Very Christmas-y in a traditional, Mexican sense.  Makes             for one pleased expat.                

If you also live in a region of the world not blessed with snow, what decorations appeal to you?

More Preschool Dress-Up Days

Mexico celebrated the 104th anniversary of its glorious revolution a few weeks ago.  It´s one of the more important civic holidays on the calendar, so any school in the country would be remiss not to mark the occasion, right?

Right.  However, as the Revolution was a multi-faceted struggle, one that succeeded in some respects and failed in others (and, of course, it depends on one´s point of view exactly where the Revolution succeeded or failed), it´s a complicated story to tell.  Particularly to preschoolers.

So, what should we do?  Gloss over it?  Simply have an extra-long flag ceremony on the 20th?

Nah--let´s reenact it!


Is it just me, or is it true that whenever there´s something to celebrate at the preschool, the teachers ask us to dress up our kids for the occasion.  Independence Day?  Pick a traditional dress from any region in Mexico and sport those colors!  Columbus Day--guess what?  Your little güero gets to be King Ferdinand!  United Nations Day--dress your child up in traditional dress from another country!  Revolution Day--well, let´s all be revolutionaries!

As a mom, part of me is irritated to spend so much time sewing.  (Without a sewing machine, because I did not realize that a sewing machine should be included in a list of school supplies at the beginning of the year.  Those of you with younger kids in Mexico--be warned.)  However, at the preschool stage, history and social studies are tricky concepts to teach.  Given preschoolers´ natural gravitation towards dressing up and pretending, this just might be the perfect way to have them begin to learn about these tricky concepts.

Still, how much solid information are they really pulling out of merely dressing up as a revolutionary?

I have no idea.  But time will tell.

When I was wracking my brain, trying to figure out what clothes we had on hand to turn Joey into a revolutionary, it dawned on me that we had a perfect outfit for him to dress up as Venustiano Carranza, one of the revolutionary leaders.  So I told him he was going to be Carranza.  Fortunately, he jumped on that idea, bouncing around the living room, shouting, "Carranza!  Carranza! Carranza!"
Did he have any real idea who Venustiano Carranza was?

No.

Already being the proper politician and mingling with his constituents.

However, he now can associate the guy with the big white beard (who is NOT Santa Claus) with the 20th of November.  He remembers that he dressed up as that guy.  In the future, when he hears that name mentioned, he might just be a little more prepped to pay a little more attention to find out what that guy did.

Well, it´s worth a shot.

Worst case scenario?  They´re still awfully cute.