Alternative Christmas

aibarr
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:52:07 +0000

Jews spoil a good Christmas party according to them



Count me in with the crowds who are keeling over and dying at this comment…!

In fact, you remind me of another family tradition, discontinued in recent years due to deaths and divorces, but it was fun all the same… We’d bring everyone over for a Christmas Eve party at our house, where we’d have tamales. Eventually, we realized that one of our best family friends, who is Jewish, didn’t really have anywhere to hang out for Christmas, so we invited him along. (He’s quite the character-- he’s from Mexico, he’s fluent in several languages, he’s one of the leading authorities on Frida Kahlo, and in addition to being an art dealer and historian, he’s also a child psychologist. “Always remember, little girl,” he would tell me when I was small and we were looking at Botticelli prints in art books, “that Venus rhymes with–” “THANK YOU, that’s quite enough,” my mom would interrupt…) He and my dad would frequently go out for lunch and have sushi, since they were some of the few in our world who enjoyed sushi. At some point, sushi was added to our annual menu.

Christmas Eve ended up becoming a celebration of sushi, sake, nachos, tamales, and brandy-soaked fruitcake, with “A Christmas Story” playing on endless loop in the background, open to odd, raucously loud, bawdy-humored family and friends of all faiths and persuasions (to which ellebud and her not-so-extended family would of COURSE be welcomed). :)