Creating Christmas Traditions

How do you have a “Traditional Christmas” in the Middle East? There are no pork loins to cook for Christmas Eve. We don’t even have eggs this year (due to bird flu in Saudi). As Mom noted, “Have you ever been to a brunch without some sort of egg dish??” I didn’t think so… Yet even with these inconveniences, Christmas in the Middle East provides interesting positives. For one, there aren’t a lot of distractions, so you have more time to do what you want. Plus, since you’ve suddenly moved halfway across the world, it’s a great opportunity to create a whole new “Traditional Christmas.” These are some of our family/friend’s favorite traditions. And yes, we are “tradition people!”

Gingerbread-Housing (Week before Christmas, At the Franklin’s): Yes, you’ve recently seen this one. It marks the beginning of Christmas festivities and is an absolute blast! Besides decorating the houses, we have a special story-time done by none other than the fabulous me. :-) Last year Mollie and I read the Toot & Puddle Christmas Story not forgetting, of course, our own special changes, which included a magical glowing pearl…pretty amazing! After story time, we delve into the food (as if we hadn’t already eaten enough candy during the decorating). Corn Chowder, Chili, and Cornbread are only the beginning of this delicious array of chow. :-) To top off the night, we watch a Christmasy movie, this year the Charlie Brown Christmas collection.

After Gingerbread-housing, there’s a short break for everyone to catch their breath and gear up for the big rush. The craziness begins on December 22nd. There is always a party on this evening. Last year it was the infamous “Bunko Party.” Just ask Mr. Franklin if you want more details on the joys of Bunko. All of our friends threatened not to come if we had the Bunko Party again, so we opted for something a bit less bunko-ish and went to the “Polar Express Party.”

Worker Shopping (Dec. 23rd, morning): Every year we put together bags of goodies for the workers in our compound. These are the people who clean our pools, sweep our streets, drill holes in our walls to hang pictures, landscape our yards, and generally make Al-fardan Gardens II a better place to live. On Dec. 23rd, Mom rushes around the city finding fruit, nuts, blankets, toothbrushes, and everything else she can think of. When she returns, we move on to . . .

Worker Bag Stuffing (Dec. 23rd, early afternoon, Sheehy’s House): The kitchen is stacked from bottom to top with every kind of fruit imaginable. The living room overflows with bags of stuff. Every ounce of dust in the house is stirred up. Everyone runs around madly stuffing things into bags and exclaiming, “We don’t have enough Oranges!!!” only to realize we have five extra… It’s quite a sight.

Caroling Party (Dec. 23rd, evening, Kent’s House): Half of our acquaintances look forward with great anticipation to the caroling party. The other half pray we’ll get sick so they won’t have to come. Just kidding, it’s always a really fun evening. You read about it in one of my recent posts, Karoling with the Kent’s.

Brunch at The Ritz (Dec. 24th, morning): In Doha, we don’t have most of the things we traditionally ate for Christmas Eve dinner. In the wake of this loss, we struggled to find a substitution and eventually came up with eating brunch/breakfast at The Ritz. It’s a little unorthodox (to say the least), but we’ve grown attached to this little tradition, and The Ritz has great breakfast food! Plus, it gets us out of cooking a Christmas Eve dinner…

Handing out Worker’s Gifts (Dec. 24th, afternoon): We head over to the clubhouse with all the bags of gifts and the workers gather together. We sing, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” (since we rehearsed it throughout the caroling) and then hand out the gifts.

Christmas Eve Service (Dec. 24th, evening): Last year we hosted our own Christmas Eve service since our church couldn’t have one, but this year we’ll be heading to church…

Opening Presents! (Dec. 24th, late evening): Yes, we’re one of those weird families who open presents on Christmas Eve. Part of this tradition has to do with celebrating the true meaning of Christmas on Christmas Day instead of presents and part of it has to do with the fact that we always traveled to Houston on Christmas Day. In any case, presents get unwrapped on Christmas Eve!

Stockings (Dec. 25th, early morning): Yes, I believe in Santa . . . don’t you?? ;-)

Christmas Brunch (Dec. 25th, morning, Kent House): After ripping open all their presents and loading themselves full of those red and green m&m’s from their stockings, everyone comes over to our house for brunch. It’s a relaxed get-together, and everyone just chills out. Tomorrow we’re having a group of 25 people. This is also a great chance to show off your new Christmas outfits and toys . . .

Work Out (Dec. 25th, afternoon): Seriously, after all that eating, it’s time for a work-out! Mollie started this tradition. I didn’t want to go to the gym, and I told her “it’s Christmas. So what if we gain a few pounds today.” She didn’t give in, however, so now the gym is a Christmas afternoon tradition.

Packing (Dec. 25th, late afternoon): With Christmas almost a checkmark on the schedule, it’s time to finish packing for the “super amazing after Christmas trip”!

Nap! (Dec. 25th, evening): After a week of parties leading up to a super amazing (albeit sleepless) Christmas, we definitely need a nap before heading to the airport! I insist that everyone lay down for an hour or two.

AIRPORT! (Dec. 25th/26th, around 1:00AM): “We’re leavin’ on a jet plane”!!! Off to another amazing adventure, this year to Greece and Turkey!

That’s our version of a “Traditional Christmas” in Qatar--and those are just not highlights, not the details. Lots of fun. No sleep. Parties, parties, parties. Running around like crazy! It may sound insane, but it really is fun once you try it! With all these activities, I can't even believe I found time to write this post! Until tomorrow, then. :-) Merry Christmas!