A FEW CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

 

 Approaching the longest day

 After having celebrated Christmas for 53 years in the southern hemisphere I still have this quiet longing for a winter Christmas.  As a young mother in the early sixties I was quite homesick until I realised it was up to me to start 'traditions' rather than long for the way I had perceived the festive season of my childhood.  Guided by the Dutch 'Margriet' Cookbook I learnt how to make Weihnachtsstollen and Gevulde Speculaas.  I defied the challenges of working with flaky pastry to make almond rings (Kerstkrans) but sometimes the almond mixture would burst out of the pastry - to great delight of the children who could nibble the sticky sweet mix left on the baking tray.  Later I became more sensible and now I use ready-made pastry to make long 'sticks' which I spread with apricot jam and decorate with red and green dried cherries.   And each year we say: oh, this is good!

Made in Germany, the Christmas Star below (small light bulb inside) was given to us in 1992 by Bart's sister Lien and her husband Piet.   Each year on the first Sunday of Advent we hang it in our window with Flagstaff (see blog 'A Certain Hill') in the background.  A huge Herrnhuter star hangs high up in the renovated Frauenkirche in Dresden. 

Our Herrnhuter Christmas Star

 
Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve

I put candles in the windowsill

For a few hours their shape is safe

Until the sun contorts them.

Midnight is the best

Time to burn candles in a window sill.

Contrasts of hemispheres

come together

In memories and food.

For tea we eat home-made Christmas bread

Thick slices of

Weihnachtsstollen

Covered with brandied butter and icing sugar.

Darkness brings an image of closeness,

A forgetting of bright sunshine and bended wax

But sometimes memories come back of

Walking my dog in thick snow on Christmas Eve

Going home to

A house with a roaring fire and aniseed milk,

And candles in a windowsill.

Huberta Hellendoorn

December 2012

Late summer sun disappearing behind a Dunedin hill