Lifestyle
Stealing stuffed chicken from the kitchen, sipping on hot chocolate topped with marshmallows and excitedly opening presents, Avril-Ann Braganza shares the joys of celebrating Christmas in a big family
Updated : Dec 18, 2014, 04:31 PM IST
Christmas has always been a big celebration ever since I can remember. Living in a family house (in individual flats) with my family, dad's two brothers and their wives, dad's sister and four cousins always translated to one big Christmas party. When you add that up, it may not sound that big; just 12 of us and my maternal grandmother! Sometimes of course we have a few other relatives–dad's cousin, mum's brother and his family, aunt's cousins, a friend's (who has left the country) grandparents etc.
When we were younger, making sweets would mark the beginning of the season. My grandmother, mum and I would sit around a table and make nankhatais, kulkuls, marzipan and milk cream; sometimes my cousin would join us. I also have vague memories of making marzipan with my aunt in my paternal grandmother's flat of our family home. I admire my parents; mum would make all the sweets at home, stitch a Christmas dress for me, run around with my dad to buy presents for my cousins and me and then wrap them up! Dad took down all the decorations, changed the curtains, run around to buy all the ingredients for Christmas lunch and decorate the house with mum!
What did I do? Take part in Christmas plays in school and write long letters to Santa (and try and be good those last few days)! But as I grew older, we would decorate the house together as I blasted Christmas carols; mum and I would do the Christmas shopping together. Yes, the oldest cousin is 29 and the youngest is 23, but we still get gifts! It's quite a task thinking what to buy for whom, but it's fun trying to recall if anyone mentioned something they really wanted sometime earlier in the year and what we bought for them the previous year. I started making lists to remember, but till date I can never find it when I need it.
We would all meet after mass on Christmas eve, wish each other and then walk home together. But as we grew older, each of us had our own plans. Once we were done with the ceremonial hugs and wishes, I would take off to meet all my friends in the church compound. We would visit the church crib, wish the parish priests and stand around chatting, clicking photos and complaining about aching feet. But this would not last long as phone calls would start pouring in from cousin 1, “Where are you? Get home soon. We're waiting to open the first round of presents.” After 10 minutes, cousin 2, “There's hot chocolate and sweets!” Within 5 minutes of the food call, I was home! We always opened the gifts at my dad's sister's house after mass on Christmas eve. I remember one year, we managed to bully her to warm up some pork vindaloo at midnight; my cousin made steaming cups of hot chocolate with marshmallows floating at the top. I sang and danced to Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, while my other cousins tried to shut me up! All in good cheer!
The next day is the big Christmas lunch. Every year my dad and his siblings take turns to host the lunch. We're four families and every family will make a dish or two, but very often we land up with at least 13 dishes. By 1 pm, the dishes start arriving at the host's house. There have been times when we've opened the gifts before lunch, sometimes its after lunch; when we were kids, one of the youngest would be 'Santa's helper' and give out the gifts. We know it's lunch time when the stuffed chicken is being laid out in the dish; each of us five cousins will creep quietly to the kitchen to steal a piece of chicken. Next up is a small prayer thanking God for our meal and then we cousins look at each other, one of our dads just has to say it, we just wonder whose dad it will be this year and then it comes, “Lord give me plenty, for my belly is empty”. That's our cue to attack. If lunch is in one of the brothers' homes on the ground floor, we cousins take our plates out in the garden. Food is always tastier from someone else's plate and so while our plates are full, we still 'rob' a piece of chicken or a little bit of salad from the cousin sitting nearest to us.
Post lunch, our grandaunt would arrange a treasure hunt in the garden for us, when all five of us had to look our for a bon-bon. Today, all we can think of is a nap. But there's still more presents to open and off we go to the next house. While tea is made, the presents are handed out. After a bit of lazing around, we doze off. While the day is spent with family, the evening is set aside to make our own plans. Some of us go for the Christmas dance, others are invited to terrace parties, while a few of us laze around at home watching Christmassy movies. Another Christmas goes by and we can't wait until next year, when we can do it all over again!