Christmases past

My mom started an email thread. What do we remember about Christmas growing up?

And I tell you, I apparently grew up in a completely different house than my siblings did. 

They remember going caroling all the time, with my dad playing the accordion. I think I remember maybe doing that once. The accordion came out for visits with relatives, though.

And at home, they remember piano music all the time. Ok, Tim says that's a yes. He phrases it something like "all the noise, noise, Noise, NOISE". 

But the piano lived in the basement until my teens, so again, I don't think we're talking about my childhood here. We're talking about my youngest siblings' childhood, which happened after I had grown up and moved out of the house. 

The youngest writes, for instance, that it was a nice tradition how we opened presents one at a time, and got to appreciate what each person received. 

Um. That never happened. Santa couldn't even be bothered to wrap presents when I was a child. On Christmas morning, Dad turned the lights on in the living room, and stood poised at the door with the camera, to capture all the magic as we ran inside and found the new toys stacked by our stockings on the couch. 

To change the topic a bit, it has been weird figuring out what Christmas looks like on the other side of the earth. This is, I think, our seventh Christmas season down under. A problem with northern hemisphere Christmas is that it is inextricably entwined with winter, which makes sense. Along with all the religion, it is also at its heart a celebration of the winter solstice. So which parts stay for the summer solstice? The light-in-the-darkness, warmth-in-the-cold, cozy firelight Christmas doesn't work.

I hate to admit it, but this may have been the first of our seven Christmas seasons in Australia that we fully decorated our Christmas tree. And only because Jonathan took charge.

But there is nothing wrong with sitting on the couch by the Christmas tree in shorts and a T-shirt. Summer is a nice time for Christmases too.