On Christmas Eve in the United Kingdom, milk and cookies are not laid out beside the Christmas tree; rather, there is a tradition instead that the English partake in, one that I feel is very enlightening to my Christmas experience abroad. In place cookies, mince pies are left for Father Christmas; and, in the place of milk, a wee dram of Sherry is placed by the Christmas tree. In a nation of over 60 million households, it is needless to say that when Santa makes his stops in the UK, he gets loaded. Out of respect for new traditions in new countries, I, in turn, followed suit.
My Christmas day was spent with the Muir’s, family friends of over 15 years and former neighbours from way back in the 90’s; and, along with plenty of food, presents and other festive cheer, the drinks came flowing too. I think it was about 11am when we all started drinking, and throughout the day, this American proceeded to be drunk under the table by his English counterparts.
Back home, at least for me, Christmas has never been much of a drinking holiday. In my family we have mamosas with Christmas brunch, but Christmas has never been the all day fest of drinking that the English make it. Both unaccustomed and unprepared for the alcoholic marathon of Christmas, the day took its toll on me.
During (an excellently cooked) Christmas roast, I was holding my own. Both red and white wine flowed freely around the table along with plenty of conversation, jokes and food. However, after two courses and then Christmas pudding, the traditional English final course of cheese and port wine had me reeling a little bit. And by a little bit, I mean that after dinner I gave easily my poorest performance on the piano on modern record. The songs I played barely contained a discernible melody and wrong notes were rampant. As hard as I tried to fight off the port, I was defeated and my piano mini-concert sounded like shit ... everyone knew this, no one had to mention it.
In continuance and conclusion of my meditation on Christmas in the UK, the holiday abroad is not too unfamiliar. The basic elements are all there, but for a few key differences. Christmas seems to benefit greatly from being the only major holiday of the latter half of the year, and this is reflected in the intensity of Christmas spirit in daily English lives. An example of this can be seen in the nation's obsession with the "Christmas No. 1," or who is number one on the pop charts at Christmas. For some reason or another, and this reason could be nothing other than 'just because it's Christmas', it is a huge deal nevertheless. I still remember both of my Christmas number ones from over a decade ago: "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson and "2 Become 1" by Spice Girls.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Christmas in England is its almost completely secular observance. There is little if any religious elements in a typical English celebration of Christmas, and I can corroborate that there was none in mine. It seems as if the English use Christmas as a vehicle to celebrate the end of the year in style, rather than celebrating the birth of Jesus, whom the English generally think was a nice lad, even if he was not the son of God. So why not celebrate his birthday and get ripped?
Let's get together with family, have a couple drinks ... hell, why not make a day of it? The year is almost over, so let’s spend a bunch of money on presents for our loved ones, and since we’re all in a good mood here, I guess we’ll put up with this drunk American who can’t play the piano ... LW
No comments:
Post a Comment