Christmas Eve 2006

Happy Christmas Eve 2006,

I feel as though this Christmas season has been a blend of “the best of both worlds” as an American Christmas comes to Kinsale. One of the goodnesses of our American traditions are the memory driven decorations throughout the house. The Christmas tree is festooned with ornaments gathered and given as presents throughout our lifetime. My first Christmas ornament was a gift from my piano teacher, the set the my ex husband and I painted when we were 18 and poor still look festive, and the many leprechauns and shamrocks given to us by friends in the US remind us about their support even as they celebrated and bemoaned our decision to move to the Emerald Isle.

As a child in the 50’s I delighted in bubble lights – which a person had to hit lightly on the bottom to get the bubbles to rise properly. Thanks to the magic of step down transformers these 110volt beauties still grace our Christmas today. Along with the village of tiny houses, purchased, one every two months for years by my aged mother, now delight the Irish children who come to celebrate our decorations and help us unpack and set up the advent calendar.

On the Irish side there is fabulous craic. This word that means a mixture of fellowship laughter and good cheer available in gatherings of lighthearted people was un known to us before we moved and now has become synonymous for much that we celebrate in Irish life. And craic pervades the season. From the dinner for those on the Tidy Towns committee who help each other pick up tourist rubbish throughout the summer season, to the friendship group from the local Church of Ireland, to the Rotary luncheon where members bring their wives and the gender mix is finally close to 50/50, we have been welcomed and much laughter has pervaded the last weeks.

I got a sewing machine for Christmas and have been happily mending the pile of clothes, grown too big for me and needing to be trimmed inches so that they can be worn once again. As I was finishing the last bits this morning I marked how the Irish state radio station RTE 1 brings the holiday cheer home to everyone, urban or rural dweller. First, “Sunday Morning Miscellany” charmed us with intermittent essays on Christmas eve’s past and music, covering Christmas’s spent abroad and family memories of Christmas emigrations as well as those spent at home in Ireland. Then “Christmas on Grafton street” in Dublin sent out a different kind of good cheer – highlighting two other parts of Irish culture which we treasure, the music and the jokes. Even the Taoiseach (roughly prime minister or president) Bertie Ahern came on making jokes and remembering those who are helping others or away from home during the holidays. Can you imagine a US president being this human or casual?

As the Irish believe in helping the less fortunate there are numerous ways this is accomplished during the holiday. Tomorrow, on Christmas young and foolish people will be throwing themselves into the frigid water off Irish shores in efforts to raise money for charities. My Rotary club partners with the Cork club and we co sponsor and work a remembrance tree outside of one of the stores on Patrick Street in the heart of Cork City. For any size of donation people write messages to loved ones no longer around and the ribbons are then hoisted up the tree. Last year we raised over 12,000 Euro, this year the money going to Enable Ireland, helping the mentally disadvantaged.

As I sit here with my feet up, dogs and cat resting under the Christmas tree, enjoying the turf fire in our fireplace I realize how fortunate we really are. While some days it feels as though I moan and grinch about everything, it is moments like this that remind me that others truly have things to moan about and that our family have health, wealth, and happiness. So on that note, it seems appropriate to send love and prayers to everyone who reads this, hoping that we enjoy 2007’s where we can appreciate what we have and find ways to help those less fortunate.

Lots of love,

Alana