Christmas traditions.

In Venezuela, during times of Christmas, it’s a family tradition to place Christmas decorations around our houses, like a tree made of plastic. Some families do it according to the color that is fashionable for the current year, but most people adorn their houses with the motifs they like best for the occasion.

The manger is also placed with baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and animals like a mule, ox and sheep. In some cities they have some different customs in the way of presenting them, for example, in the city of Mérida the houses make a manger of the birth of baby Jesus the size of an entire room and they place enough ornaments to simulate the area of ​​birth of baby Jesus, or sometimes they make the figures real sized of people, then in the month of January they usually remove the manger under another custom called “La paradura del niño”.

“La paradura del niño” is nothing more than a party where someone who the owners of the house already know, “steals” baby Jesus from the manger in the host’s house and then all the invited people leave the house that was “robbed” and go to the house where the stolen child is. They do it through a pilgrimage where everyone sings Christmas melodies with a lit candle. Upon reaching the house where the stolen child is, a ritual follows after the songs, a rosary is prayed to the Virgin Mary and ends with a meal, which can be very opulent with multiple meals or simplistic, such as drinking wine and sweet bread called sponge cake.

In many parts of the country raffles are held where the most peculiar manger wins the prize.

In my house my mother used to prepare the birth or manger a few days in advance. We sow corn and wheat seeds in small pots. These plants grew similar to the landscape around where the baby Jesus was lying down, then we put newspaper all over the place, in an environment made up of big and long tables and on top of it we put the paper that we painted green and brown. We placed the corn and wheat plants and then the characters of the birth and finally the three wise men that go up the road, but are still very far away, are placed.

My mother as usual placed walnuts and hazelnuts simulating stones and rocks on the road, When the Christmas dates arrived, these seeds began to disappear because the guests generally took the souvenir “stones”. Or was it because they liked nuts? I don’t know!

Our typical foods are the “Hallacas” they are a cornmeal dough spread on banana leaves prepared in advance and a prepared meat is placed on the dough, stewed, with the personal touch of each family. The stew generally contains meats minced into very small pieces of beef, pork, and chicken. As well as olives, raisins, capers, pickles and previously parboiled and chopped eggs.

This extended mass with everything inside is closed and the banana leaves are placed as a wrapper. It has a rectangular shape and also wrapped up with a thick thread called "wick".

We also have a homemade alcoholic drink made with milk, eggs, sugar, rum and some spices, it is named cream punch. Again, these have personal recipes for each family group.

Finally, delicious ham bread, chicken salad and a chocolate cake for dessert are prepared to accompany the day's dinner.

These are the meals we prepare both for Christmas Eve or December 24th and for the 31st night before saying goodbye to the year.

For these days of quarantine I don't really know if the families will reunite. I personally prefer to stay home and celebrate together with my son that our best gift is that we continue to be together and healthy.