Christmas Eve

I decided to have a Christmas Eve party and invite everyone I knew. My mentality was, "Well, I'll be here, I'll be alone, and that will be depressing, so why not just bring everyone to me?" For those of you who don't know my family, Christmas is a big deal for us, full of lots of traditions and festivities. Bringing a taste of Strassman-Gutzwiller Christmas spirit to India seemed like the thing to do. No one I know celebrates Christmas, because everyone I know is Hindu. They didn't have plans on Christmas Eve, so I decided I'd give them the chance to have plans. The more I thought about it, the more I liked this idea, because I like throwing parties.

It was to be a potluck. I just thought that if everyone who comes brings something, we won't need to worry about numbers. So I made little hand-drawn invitations, photocopied about 50 of them at school, and set out personally inviting all the teachers I have a relationship with, which are most of them. I think many were a little surprised, and many of them were already going to be out of town Christmas Eve. Many seemed like they would come, but I didn't put on the pressure of RSVPing. Several of my really good friends were 100% enthusiastic and were instantly planning what they would bring. It was such a nice feeling to give people something to be excited about. But really, I was quite clueless of who would actually show up.

I had a great time preparing. I decorated my house with all these amazing star lanterns that are a big part of Christmas in India. I bought a little fake Chrismas tree, and wove some plastic jasmine garlands, put lots of silver stars on it, some tinsel garlands, and homemade white paper cranes. It was a white and silver tree, but it sat on top of a riotously colorful Indian table cloth. It was a nice effect with little twinkling lights. The night of the party I bought some fresh jasmine garlands which are sold on every street corner daily (women wear them in their hair). If my tree wasn't going to smell like pine, well then fresh jasmine is the next best (if not better) thing. All the guests admired my multi-ethnic tree: Indian-Japanese-Euro-American.



Well, pretty much the only guests who came were the colleagues who were 100% enthusiastic from the beginning, plus some neighbors from my building. Everyone brought their kids, and all in all it was over 20 people, which was perfect in my book. I was pleased as punch. My colleagues prepared enough food for an army, which I felt a little bad about, but it was really tasty feasting. I had made cornbread, mung dal with coconut, and cabbage salad. There were some sweet breads and cakes, stuffed idlis with cilantro chutney, homemade veg spring rolls, vegetable pulao, some other Tamil rice and dal dish... We hardly put a dent in it all. Everyone took more home then they brought.

But it was a gay time! I had downloaded some free Christmas music that was all over the board in genres, we all sat and ate and talked, while kids ran around and played. The mosquito net around my bed was popular with the little kids, because it was like a tent-fort that they had never experienced before. People came and went, many stayed. A few people had even brought me little presents that I opened on Christmas morning.

Really it was sooo sweet and nice, I felt very loved. And I felt like had given my share of love and goodness to others as well. After all, you're supposed to spend time with people you love for Christmas. I remember telling my kids that the true meaning of Christmas is "God loves the world, so we should love each other." My quote had sort of come out of nowhere, it surprised me a little. I had given it no forethought. I actually wrote it on the board as one of my impromptu hangman games, and once they guessed all the letters, they read it out load. Many of them took careful note of this wisdom, I don't think they had heard this take on Christmas before. And I was not too far from the mark at all. "And God so loved the world, that He gave to it His only begotten Son." There you have it! It was a lovely Christmas here in Pondy!