Taste Christmas!
This is the season to throw diet to the winds and to eat our way through this happy season. Because America truly is the “great melting pot,” the foods of all our various national heritages have marched right onto the Christmas table, bringing our roots together while at the same time, making each family’s celebration unique.
Italian families may add pastas and fabulous sauces to the Christmas menu, while Swedish families insist on including gubböra (an egg and anchovy mixture), vörtbröd (a rye bread), and lutfisk to the traditional ham and potatoes. For the Irish descendents, potatoes are not an option and soda bread will be a staple, as well. A breakfast favorite of the South, having made its way to us via France, is “chocolate gravy” over homemade biscuits.
Whatever our family histories might be, food is a vital part of Christmas and kitchens are bound to be the place to be, while fruit cakes, Christmas cookies, cream pies with meringue, mince tarts, turkeys, hams, roasts, winter vegetables, and special breads are pulled from the ovens or simmer on the stove.
Some of the best gifts of the season are those from the kitchen. Baked goods wrapped in colorful boxes, homemade and canned jellies, jams and chutneys, delicious breads and pies are sure to get grateful responses from neighbors, mail carriers, teachers, and business associates.
Some of my favorite tastes of Christmas are those sipped steaming hot from a mug or cup: hot chocolate, wassail, rich coffees, chai or Christmas teas, and warmed fruit juices and punches. At our house, we have a special golden yellow earthen-ware pitcher and a set of gigantic matching cups and saucers lettered on the sides with the word “chocolat.” This special set is saved for one special purpose: hot chocolate with a melting marshmallow for children that come in half-frozen from sledding on the hillside.
I guess when I think of it, Christmas is, for one thing, a giant season-long tasting party. From home to home, family to family, we find ways to say: “Christmas is love. Taste and see!”
See Christmas!
Ever since the shepherds were overwhelmed by a sky full of singing angels and said to themselves: “Let’s go see this thing that has come to pass”, Christmas has been a wonder we just have to see with our own eyes!
The sight of a baby, born in a stable, resting on a nest of hay made these same shepherds race out into the surrounding villages “glorifying and praising…God for all that they had heard and seen”.
The wonder of Christmas is something we still want those around us to see. “Come over and see the tree,” we say to our friends.
“Would you like to drive around with us to see the lights?” we invite our kids and grandkids.
“Hey, how about going with us to see the celebration in the city square?” we phone our neighbors.
“Have you seen the great display of Gingerbread Houses the county kids have built at the Minnestrista Center?” we mention to someone at church.
“Would you like to go with our family to the Live Nativity Pageant at the country church near Noblesville?” we ask another mom after rehearsal for the Christmas program. “We could stop afterward and see the Christmas tree on the Circle and get some hot chocolate.”
Lights, wreaths, pageants, angel choirs, stars, garlands, sparkling centerpieces, beautiful packages, colorful displays, street decorations, light shows… so much to see at Christmas that the whole world is eye-candy.
What child hasn’t stood in awe to see the lights catching the crystals of freshly fallen snow and in them see “fairies dancing on the night”? Or watched in wonder as the skaters glide like angels over the ice at Rockefeller Center, while magical snowflakes land on his tongue or catch in her eyelashes?
So much to see. Christmas is a carnival for the eyes. Come, look through the Kaleidoscope of Christmas!
Touch Christmas!
What a wild circus of textures Christmas is! Come, let’s “feel our way” around the glories of this tactile celebration!
First feel the soft skin of a baby, who is God-made-most-touchable, most-vulnerable for us who “were afar off.”
Touch a baby; tenderly embrace a child to honor Him who was Love in a baby blanket…. in our arms.
Touch the rough texture of a well-worn wooden manger and the prickly straw that fills it.
Touch the moist noses of the cows and horses that stand, curious, around. Feel the night air.
Then touch the celebration that has gradually come to surround this “most touchable” happening. Feel the needles of the evergreen tree and boughs that announce that because of Jesus we shall always live!
Touch the snow that covers the ground and remember the “covering” – the atonement – that makes us “whiter than snow” in the eyes of God.
Touch the red berries on the branches we gather and put in all sorts of containers, remembering that this child would one day shed his blood, that its life-giving qualities could fill us all no matter the shape, size, or condition of our containers.
Touch the lights as they burn warm, string them everywhere. Light the streets and the houses, the cathedrals, and the back streets with them, for the chill of death has been replaced by warmth and light.
Touch your children, your neighbors, the community with reconciliation. Take someone a warm cake; extend a warm handshake; offer the thawing warmth of forgiveness.
Hold and ring the gold and silver bells. Ring out the news that the Creator of the galaxies has touched us. Yes, ring the bells and pass them on! Touch someone else. We are not alone!
The Incarnation is the most immense mystery we will ever try to wrap our hearts and minds around! Let’s use every avenue we have to say to the children, and to each other, something that transcends our comprehension. Our lives depend on it!
