Terenia Taras
I DECIDED I’m going to avoid the C-word for a while because I’m done with it! Don’t you find that your conversations always come around to 2020’s topic of the year – COVID?
What starts out with pleasantries, asking if the kids are enjoying being back in school, or how work is going, conversations soon seem to end up back on COVID. Such as now, but we can’t help ourselves because it’s become such an intrinsic topic in all of our lives.
So, I’ve decided to write about something far more positive, a thing we all generally love for different reasons, and definitely something which needs to happen. The C word I’m referring to is of course Christmas.
I have to say as I was walking through Palma last week, I saw the first of the Christmas lights up, and a smile automatically came, because that unlit star symbolises a time when people all over the world gather to spend time with friends and family.
In a year when this has been restricted for the first time in our lifetimes, I think Christmas this year will be even more special and poignant. It’s not until you cannot do something, that it makes you appreciate it all the more. I for one often bemoaned that I’d much rather go out with friends on Christmas Eve then have to do the usual Roman Catholic and Polish traditions my Mum insists on each year.
Christmas Eve in our family involves eating no meat, so the main meal is beetroot soup with sliced egg and pasta, followed by breaded fish, potatoes and vegetables. The soup is actually nicer than it sounds, but is still an acquired taste!
The main course is rather bland and I’d prefer a Chinese banquet all day long, but this has been our Christmas Eve menu every year since I was a little girl. We also have to do the breaking of the bread with one another and wish each nice things, not like a new car, or LV handbag, but health, happiness and all that schmaltz.
Whatever your family traditions or however you spend Christmas for this one day it would be amazing to have an amnesty and allow people that special day to be able to forget about the other C word for once and just be allowed to have a normal Christmas.
I think Governments globally will not want to be the Grinch who stole Christmas, because that will be taking too much from all of us. I also think it’s highly unlikely if rules are in place, that the majority of people will follow them at Christmas. I’m not talking about hosting all out raves, just to be able to do what each family does normally on Christmas Day.
The rule of six isn’t fair, because can you imagine the family fall-outs if you or your offspring are the seventh – plus off the list!
A friend of mine came up with the solution of booking separate tables for all family members in a restaurant, that’s if restaurants are even going to be open? My mum’s suggestion of hiring a marquee and each having our own table, was resourceful, but impractical.
With six young nieces and nephews there’s no way you could stop them running around in a giant tent. So mum, scrap the marqueE, because as I said to her, if we can’t have a normal Christmas it’s not going to feel like Christmas. It’s either got to happen without the rules and restrictions, or not at all!
