This is something I wrote several years ago and shared with an on-line Cuban-American e-zine. Unfortunately, any original photos I have of those days were lost in a fire in July 2000.
In the last few years, I have been reminiscing a lot about the Christmas holidays in Cuba back during the happy times, when I was growing up. I guess that is a sign of old age when you start thinking and remembering that far back. I'm talking about early and mid 1940's….ages ago for some people!
My parents were very much into Christmas and being a mixed culture family (father Cuban, mother American) they would take customs from both cultures and we children benefited as our Christmas was fuller and seemed to last longer than our playmates'.
There are a lot of jumbling remembrances, even from when I was about three and a half years old...my twin brothers were just two years old and always into everything. I remember the Christmas tree being placed inside their playpen on a box covered with a white sheet, so that they could not reach it and grab and pull ornaments and the decorations that were placed at the base of the tree!
I remember all three of us sitting in our little chairs and little rocking chairs lined up in the living room, singing Christmas carols in English and Spanish as our parents put up the tree. Years later, when our little sister arrived, her own little rocker joined ours as the tradition continued.
During those days the trees were usually Australian pines, also called Ironwoods, with the long thin needles and little-bitty pinecones. These trees grew profusely in the areas near the bay in our hometown.
My parents would place thick wads of white cotton along the branches to make it look like snow. The lights were the now-old-fashioned and multi-colored bigger bulbs and we had a beautiful collection of ornaments that had accumulated through the years. We would Oooooh and Aaaahh! as each ornament was unwrapped and hung. Afterwards, we children would help decorate by placing strands of silvery and shimmery ‘icicles’ on the lower branches as our parents would do the same above our heads.
I remember that for a month or so before the holidays, my mom would receive copies of the Atlanta, Georgia newspaper in cardboard cylinders mailed by our aunt who lived there. Inside the pages of the newspaper our aunt would insert sheets of colorful American Christmas wrapping paper.
Walking around the neighborhoods and peering in other people's living rooms to admire their trees was a popular thing to do - all the windows were left wide open during those days so that you could admire the trees!
The specialty grocery stores in our hometown would be teeming with wonderful smells as you walked by. The imported apples, plums and pears in their wooden crates, each loosely wrapped in a dark-blue-almost-purple piece of tissue paper, always showing their blush side up.
There were bags of walnuts and hazelnuts which made their appearance only during the Christmas holidays. The turrones from Spain...one so hard our father would use a little sharp hatchet and tap the hatchet with a hammer to be able to slice it!
Christmas Eve, or Nochebuena is for Latin families, the biggest feast day of the season, when friends and family, young and old alike would sit around a table laden with traditional dishes, telling stories that would grow more colorful each year.
Beautifully set tables, usually covered with white linens, crystal and china, laden with the traditional ‘lechon asado’ or roast pork, black beans and rice, yuca (cassava) boiled with mojo (moe-hoe, a traditional sour orange and garlic sauce) , fresh salad that usually included Boston- type bib lettuce, ripe tomatoes, avocados and watercress’ buñuelos drizzled in syrup, turrones (nougat style almond candy - one soft from Jijona and one hard from Alicante, both imported from Spain), Cidra (alcoholic apple cider) and Spanish wines. Dried figs, fresh apples, plums, pears and nuts (imported from the United States) would show up at the tables.
(Photo: Cuban style roasted pig at the home of friends in Miami a few years ago)
After "la cena" or meal - but it implies more than meal, I guess feast would come closer- everyone would get ready to go to church for the Misa de Gallo (mass of the rooster) or Midnight Mass.
At our house, we kids would get up very early the next morning and sneak into the living room to see what Santa had brought. We would search for three packages, resembling shoe boxes, but heavier and make sure we got our "annual" pair of skates (we would run through a pair every year, saving the spare parts in the seat/chest part of the hat rack by the front door). Once we confirmed they were there, we would run back in our rooms, get dressed, shoes and all, and hop back in bed until time to get up. The only rule on this day was we had to dress, make up our beds and eat breakfast before going in the living room to open packages.
The packages we opened on Christmas day were usually the ones from our parents (as Santa Claus) and from family in the States.
The packages from our Cuban grandparents, aunts and uncles and other relatives were not put under the tree until the eve of January 6th - Three King's Day, the traditional day Cuban children received their gifts.
We were always so excited to know that not only did we receive Santa Claus gifts on Christmas Day, but could also look forward to be visited by The Three King’s on January 6th!
Continues............
