Christmas traditions run very deep in my family. It all begins shortly after Thanksgiving with gift buying, wrapping presents, planning food for Christmas and for parties... very similar to many people's preparations. In all the years I have celebrated Christmas, and there have been many, I have gathered so many traditions and memories that I carry with me in my heart. Each one is like a gift, and I am so grateful to God, to my grandparents and parents passing down these treasures.
In my family, we have a cookie party where everyone brings bags of homemade cookies and swaps cookies so for the holidays you have a nice assortment of cookies. We also have an ornament
exchange, with stealing of course. It is a lot of fun! It is a tradition that my family has had for about 50 years. I remember being a young girl anxious to go to the cookie party, but I had to wait until I was 13 years old to go. It was like the Noonan Family's version of a debutante ball! The fun thing for me is the preparation for the party was always as fun as the party itself, to say nothing of the fun we had eating all the cookies after it. It was a win-win-win!!
My grandmother has been known for making homemade candies for Christmas. She has done it for as long as I can remember, and probably well before that. She's made peanut clusters, chocolate peanut butter balls, sponge candy, bark, coconut and chocolate (my mouth is salivating right now!!) After my grandfather died, I would go over to her house to help make the candies, and then, when it got to be too much for her, just a few years ago, I took the tradition over. I will forever remember being in her pink and black kitchen, listening to Christmas music from the 30's and 40's and making candies. It is a sweet memory, no pun intended!!
I remember going over to my other grandparents home during Advent. They would display their nativity crib, but Mary and Joseph would be somewhere in the room, journeying to the stable. Every time I went to their home, Mary and Joseph would be a little bit closer to it. I always looked forward to going there to seek out Mary and Joseph. Sometimes I would go over to their house early before a party and they would let me move Mary and Joseph. I remember carrying the statues like too much pressure from my fingertips would break them.
My mother's father would come over to our house before Christmas Eve dresses as Santa Claus. We would sit on his lap, tell him how good we were and what we wanted for Christmas. I'm not sure what was going through our minds then, I mean it was almost Christmas Eve... all the gifts were already made by the elves and wrapped up on Santa's sleigh. But I guess that is the hope and faith of children that the Bible speaks of... believing in the impossible with 100% trust even when the odds are stacked well against you!! One Christmas I remember all of my cousins coming over as well to meet Santa and I believe each of us got a whole package of candy canes!! Years later, I found out that my grandmother was waiting outside in the car, where it was cold and dark, for my grandfather to come back out. That is love!!
Every Christmas Eve we would all go to 7pm mass at St. Aloysius Church in Cheektowaga. My father played with the folk group at that mass, and I will always remember sitting in my pew as a little girl, watching my father lead the group and being so proud to be his daughter!! But how much I paid attention to the mass at that time I couldn't tell you. I think visions of sugar plums were dancing in my head... with Santa Claus, Rudolph and the elves! Each year we would receive an ornament from the church. I still have some of them. Then, we would excitedly head home, have a snack and hang up the stockings at the fireplace. We just used our own socks and we would stretch them out to see whose would be the longest, a.k.a. whose stocking would be filled the most!! My dad would read Twas the Night Before Christmas and we'd leave a snack for Santa and the reindeer. Sometimes someone would write a note to Santa, seeing what he would say and if his handwriting resembled anyone we knew!! Then it was off to bed, but not to sleep. That didn't come for quite a while!
We would celebrate Christmas Eve with a birthday cake for Baby Jesus. In later years, my mother would make a really nice spread of candies and snacks to celebrate after mass. She would light every candle in the house, and there were many and light the Christmas tree but all other lights were off. I remember feeling the peace of Christmas in that small celebration. But having so many children, it was hard to keep good food around, so my mom used to lock up special foods she made. (Please don't be mad at me for telling this story!!) One year after mass, some of my brothers and sisters took the hinges off the door where the Christmas delicacies were kept and moved them, so when my mother went to get them, she found the cupboard empty. I can't even imagine what was going through her mind in those moments... all of her hard work, her plans for the evening, I imagine a bit of anger at us passed through her mind, or a lot, and then we told her the goodies were moved!! Not the nicest trick to play on someone on Christmas Eve... but it was pretty funny. I even think my mom found it funny... after a few years!!
When I was older, I would go to Christmas Eve mass with my parents and my grandmother, then we would have a meal at my grandmother's home. My parents would leave to begin their Christmas Eve preparations, and I would stay with my grandma. We would continue eating and talking. She would tell me stories of her first date with my grandfather, their wedding with the rainbow dresses of her bridesmades, and past Christmases at home with her mother and later with her husband and children. What an indescribably precious time that was for me. Around midnight we would have coffee and some kuken she made for Christmas. She would always say that Christmas Eve was the highlight of Christmas for her, once the morning came and the gifts were opened, it was over. She longed for Christmas Eve to last longer!
One of our special Christmas foods is called Christolen. That was a tradition of my father's mother, and my mother continued the tradition followed by me. I would make a sweet yeast dough and cut it into three pieces that I would roll out, fill with cinnamon, sugar and butter and roll them up as if to make cinnamon rolls. But instead of cutting the dough into rolls, I would braid the three pieces to look like a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and bake it in the morning. The smell of cinnamon and bread baking is one of my favorite smells in the entire world, and it always reminds me of my grandmothers!!
On Christmas morning, no matter what time we got up, we couldn't go downstairs until everyone was up and ready. This was not hard to do when we were all little... each of us were little balls of excitement and were excitedly waiting at the top of the stairs for everyone to get up so we could go downstairs and rip into the presents Santa left for us. I remember some of us would "slip" down a stair, seemingly by accident, to get closer to the festively wrapped treasures. Sort of slinky style, we would slide down a step further than the others until we got too close to the promised land and were told to stop. I think the strict rules came from when my dad was a boy and one Christmas, his little brother Bobby went downstairs while everyone was sleeping and opened up everyone's presents!! Anyways, when my older brothers and sisters got to be teenagers, they anticipated sleeping in more than gifts from Santa, so we had to wait even longer to begin our Christmas morning... sometimes they would even shower before we could go downstairs. It was agony!!
After breakfast my father's family would come over. All of my aunts, uncles, cousins and my father's parents. We would all bring finger foods to eat and would have such a merry and joyful time together... eating, laughing, opening presents, throwing wrapping paper balls at eachother, you know, the traditional Christmas stuff!! As a child, I looked forward to the Noonan Family brunch because it meant more presents and delicious food. As I got older, I treasured the time together as it seemed we saw less and less of eachother throughout the year. Christmas was always magically special, not because of Santa now, but because there was an abounding amount of joy present in the air... it was addictive! Now, with my cousins having families of their own, things change and they are beginning their own Christmas traditions, but I will always, always love and cherish those Christmas mornings with my whole, big beautiful family!! My grandparents would buy a present for every single person in the family. I imagine back then it was about 50 gifts. Now, with my 44 nieces and nephews, in-laws and my cousins families, it must be well over 100, but my 98 year old grandfather still buys and wraps presents for all of us (with some help from his daughters!!) What a Champ he is!!!
We would have maybe one hour between parties, then the next would begin. Our Christmas dinners were spent with my mother's family. We would go to my grandmother's house for dinner. Grandma Burkard has a special gift for entertaining. Her house was always perfect, the food was divine and looked as good as it tasted and she really knew how to take care of her guests. Even as a child I remember her catering to our needs as much as her "real" guests... she has a special touch for making people feel welcome!! A few things stay prominent in my mind as I remember those parties... first, the food of course! The first course was a salad with hot bacon dressing served in individual bowls, then came homemade crepes filled with creamy chicken and last was ice cream with homemade sauces to choose from... chocolate, mint or, my favorite, cinnamon. Even her desserts were festive with the red and green colors of the homemade sauces on the vanilla ice cream... I've had dreams about this meal!! Then, my other big memory was waiting after dinner for the dishes to be done so we could open the presents. It seemed to take the adults for everlasting ever to finish the dishes. I would walk by the kitchen, hear them laughing and telling stories and think, just be quiet and get it done so we can get to the good stuff!!
A new tradition that we have begun is what we call the Brother/Sister party. It is a Christmas party with just my parents, brothers and sisters, with spouses, but no children. To me, even though I love my nieces and nephews to the stars and back, this party is the highlight of my Christmas season. It is not often that I get the chance to be with my core family, all of them, laughing about stories in the past, sharing new stories and drinking in the love that abounds in the room. The air seems thick with it. I look forward to this party all year and treasure the time with them more than any gift I receive. The new memories we make are just as lovely and special as the old ones, and that is the greatest gift of all!
I am blessed indeed to have had such rich and love-filled memories of my Christmases. I have been, completely undeservedly, mind you, given a family that is so amazing no words can describe. But whether we have plentiful beautiful memories of Christmas or not, the most, most, most important thing is the reason why we have all of these memories and traditions. Because 2000 years ago, a Virgin gave birth to the Son of God who was sent to save us all from sin and death. When Love entered the world on that star-filled, blessed night, the world changed forever, never to be the same. These children in the Philippines have great and wonderful traditions of their own that I have written a little about and I am so honored to be able to be here to experience a new way of celebrating the birth of our Lord, and share with them some of my own.
Thank you to my family for providing me with enough memories to let Christmas at home go. And thank you to God for giving me the grace to open my heart to new families and traditions. I've said it before and I will say it again... How lucky am I??
May the love of the Christ Child dwell in your homes and hearts this Christmas!! Merry Christmas!! xxoo
