Some of my Christmas memories

How are you beautiful people of Read.cash?

We are less than two weeks away from Christmas, and there are only two days left to participate in my dear friend @gertu13, Hey you! This is the promised "Christmas contest.". So here is my entry to join.

These days I've been reading some of my friends' posts on Read about their Christmas memories. And reading @Jane's Christmas Challenge ft Acrostic and @Eylz2021's Christmas that I used to know posts have inspired me to share Some of my Christmas Memories too.

For me, this season has always been a magical time. A time of sharing and giving. A time to get together with family and friends not only on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve but throughout the month, to see friends you often don't see all year and share. And although the circumstances of the country have stolen some of its magic in recent years because many family and friends have gone to live abroad, it is still a special time of the year.

But let me share with you how my Christmas used to be like in the past.

Christmas in my Childhood

When I was little, Christmas was a very joyful time. My mom loved to fill the house with Christmas decorations. There were many Christmas activities at my school, and we used to make living nativity scenes. There were many Patinatas, a tradition that sadly has been lost over time. In some neighborhoods, they would close some streets so that the children could go skating, there were Christmas caroling (aguinaldos), and everyone who went would bring something of food to share.

Christmas Eve was a long-awaited day. We used to go to lunch that day at my paternal grandfather's house. My uncles and cousins always were there too. We exchanged gifts, and I spent the day playing with my cousins. On Christmas Eve evening, dinner was at our house. My uncles, cousins, my grandmother on my mother's side, and her sisters and some of my mother's cousins came. They used to be large gatherings that often lasted until the early morning of Christmas Day.

On Christmas Day, my sister and I would get up to look for the gifts from Baby Jesus. In Venezuela, the figure of Santa is secondary, and it's the Baby Jesus who brings the presents. We used to go to mass, and then my sister and I would spend the day playing with our gifts.

And one time I dated Santa Claus

When I was in my last years of high school, my grandfather was no longer with us. But by that time, my family had become fond of spending holidays in Merida; I had told before how much my father loved the Andean mountains. So it became a tradition for all of us to spend Christmas in Merida. We used to stay at an inn in the town of Escaguey, on the road from the páramo to the city of Merida. My aunts, uncles, and cousins would go too, and we had a great time.

The second year we spent Christmas in Merida, we started a family tradition of having a party for the people of one of the villages in the páramo, which was quite far from the main road and where the people who lived there had very limited resources. Our family and friends collected money to buy gifts for the children who lived in Gaviria, the name of the town in the paramo of the same name. We also used to bring clothes, and we made a party for them with food, sweets, candies, and treats. One of the men in the family always had to dress up as Santa Claus to hand out the presents.

I was looking in my box of old photos to see if I had pics of that time; I didn't find any of the parties; these photos must be in my mother's house. But I found one from the year I dated Santa.

It was Christmas 1996; it was the first Christmas we spent in the cabin that my parents and uncles bought near the inn where we used to stay.

I had already met my husband that year, but we weren't married. We were dating, and that was the first Christmas we spent together. He came to Merida to spend it with my family.

That year, when it was time to choose who would be Santa Claus at the party for the children of Gaviria, all eyes were on him, hehe.

Our Christmas in Merida was a tradition for many years.

Being Baby Jesus on Christmas Day

When my son was born, Christmas took on a whole new dimension. He was too young to understand about Baby Jesus on his first Christmas, but I remember his excitement as we put up the Christmas tree.

As he grew older came the magic for the gifts from Baby Jesus. The letters asking for presents. He left the cookies with milk on Christmas Eve for Baby Jesus and his friend Santa that we shouldn't forget to eat before going to bed. The excitement of opening the presents on the 25th in the morning. The year that Baby Jesus brought him his first Lego, the three of us spent the whole Christmas day putting it together, and I don't know who enjoyed it more, hehe.

I remember the Christmas that he found out that Baby Jesus was not the one who brought the presents; it was a Christmas that my sister-in-law and my nephews came from Spain to spend with us, the same that I put the Christmas tree of the first pic. One of those Christmas to remember; we all enjoyed it so much.

But in which my nephew told him the truth about the Baby Jesus and the Three Kings, the ones who bring gifts in Spain. However, my son skillfully told his grandmother and pretended he didn't know for a few more years, and we played along.

I have many more memories that will always be with me, but I don't want to make it longer. As I said initially, this is my entry to Gertu's #ChristmasContest2021. If you haven't joined yet, you have until tomorrow, December 15th, to do so.

Don't forget to be tunned on the several Club1BCH events, such as the Christmas card competition. And don't forget to join Christmas Challenge 2021

Thank you to my amazing sponsors. You rock!

To you, my dear readers. Thank you so much for reading!

All images and writing are my own unless otherwise stated.

© CoquiCoin  

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Until next time! ;)

December 14, 2021