Hey Everyone, Merry Christmas!
Today's blog is nostalgic one with my Christmas here in Kerala and a few stories from my parents about their childhood Christmas. As a kid I was always busy with balloons and Christmas decors and I love such story times as an adult. I’ll share two such tiny stories or memories my parents here.
A Pedal-Powered Christmas Eve
The plot is more than 60 years old Kerala. Bicycles were all the rage among the teenagers and kids back then. One of my father’s favourite memories is renting bicycles during the Christmas eve.
Usually, the bike rentals were on an hourly rate. However, on Christmas and New year eve, they charge it only for the night.
So, they used to rent the bikes for the night, go for night mass and then to other places to see the lights and cribs.
Talking about cribs or the nativity scenes, my grandfather was in the Indian Army. So, every time he was there for Christmas, it was fun for them. He always comes with creative ways to make things. I'm sure he might have made the trees and cribs a bit stylish. My father also remembers putting paper cuttings instead of the clay statues in the cribs.
(this is our Christmas crib this year)
Vatteppam and Meaty Memories
My mother remembers Christmas very differently. For her, the main focus is food for festivals.
She said, those days cake wasn't that common. It was the Vatteppam-a thick disc shaped steamed fermented rice powder dish- ruled! She only started having cakes and make cribs at home after she started working.
Vatteppam is eaten with a meat curry, mostly chicken or beef. Back in the days, everyone had their own lifestock. Everyone had enough land to grow them and also let them wander here and there.
They always kept one for Christmas, one for Easter and so on for all festivals. Sometimes it wasn't chicken but ducks. So, it was a collective process of cooking. Unlike these days where we serve a lot of different meat at once on Christmas day, they preferred one kind of meat a day.
Children were given to do the full parts and everyone else also involved in making things work. She said it was more communal.
My Christmas 2023
My Christmas memories are very different from my parents. It always had a lot of fun filled holidays, friends and family around and Christmas decor. Since I grew up in a very devotional family, church and services were a huge part as well. Plus a lot of cakes- mostly plum cakes.
Today, I’ve outgrown from the religious set up and Christmas feels very different. I still try to make it home just to be with the family. This year as well it is going to be special because after this holidays everyone might go to different parts of the world.
My nephews make holidays extra special now. The way enjoy little things makes us want to recreate everything we enjoyed. My youngest nephew loves playing with the Christmas decor rings while the middle one loves arranging all the sheep and animals in the crib in a row. The eldest one burst all the balloons and they all love that explosion.
It’s the little things and laughter that brightens these get togethers. And, food! How did I forget that?!!!
Majority of the time on Christmas eve is spent on preparing food for the next day. This is year we prepared food home. So, the main snack was Vatteppam. That is served for breakfast with beef stew. Lunch was again rice, fish curry and beef roast. For dinner, we made Biriyani and chicken curry since my nephews easily eat biriyani.
So, that’s my Christmas this year. I hope you had a good one too!
Merry Christmas everyone 🙂