I don’t know about you, but I’ve stumbled into December trying to keep my balance. In many ways, this year is like me being outdoors in a wide open space, standing still, the world whizzing by in big blurry images. So much has happened all around us and all over the world. Therefore, when people ask me what I am doing for Christmas, I am genuinely puzzled and simply shake my head. I am not in the mood to start thinking of Christmas and food.
I know that opening seems like such a downer for a food column, but food is about life and living, and life is what I am talking about. As frequently as I have been asked what I am doing and cooking for the holidays, I have sought answers from those asking, mostly friends and readers of this column. Split almost evenly, half say they plan to go all out making the traditional dishes and beverages. They want this Christmas to be a really big celebration even though they may not be getting together with others.
On the other hand, others are opting for a low-key affair. No big set of cooking, they may make 1 or 2 things that are traditional, like cake and sorrel just to stay in the spirit of the season, but the Christmas meal itself would be something simple; every day, comfort food, as defined by each household.
The reasons for both options are clear. Those who want a big celebration are opting for that because of the kind of year we have had and because we are continuing to live in a pandemic. They need an outlet, they need to be free and to forget, even for a day or two, the sadness, the loneliness, the distance and the uncertainty that this year has brought. They are overjoyed to make it Christmas. Those who want to keep things low key are tired and wary. With social distancing the order of the day, the need to protect the vulnerable, and the inability to travel, there will be no getting together with friends, family or relatives. Keeping the food simple is a mark of quiet celebration.
One of the things about the holidays or any holiday, regardless of the time of the year, is the coming together with loved ones, family, friends. And then there are the food and drinks upon which we feast and be merry. Eating together at the holidays is different, it’s special. Sometimes it is the only time we get to do that, eat with all gathered.
With the restrictions and lockdowns many have been cooking and eating more at home, so they feel full in a variety of ways. They are not hungry for the physical food but for the sharing, fellowship and community that food facilitates at the holidays when we gather.
Many people, (I included) wish to be somewhere else, somewhere quiet to reflect, regroup and recharge. One might say but in lockdown there is a lot of time to be quiet and reflect, it’s not the same; you are confined to a space and there is a different pace, tempo and rhythm to everything.
This is going to be the first Christmas without my mother, and I have been wondering what to do. I think that in honour of her I may engage in some of the rituals we learnt from her or the things she insisted had to be done for the holidays, such as the house being decorated by December 15. That date was important because it signalled the start of the Novenas at Sacred Heart Church. The previous year’s Christmas curtains would be up, waiting to be replaced by this year’s new curtains on Christmas Eve afternoon. New bed linens would have already been bought, laundered and ironed, ready for their Christmas debut. There would be the smell of ham baking in the oven late at night and a pressure cooker, hot, with filled with Cook-up Rice on the stove for late night noshing (in Guyana that would be after coming home from midnight mass). I prefer sorrel alone at Christmas, but Mommy loved homemade ginger beer, so I think I’ll make some.
Of all the traditional Christmas foods, Pepperpot is my favourite, so I’ll definitely be making some to have with homemade bread. Rituals and traditions are how we are our lives so it seems that I will be doing a little bit of both.
What are you doing this year? How are you planning to celebrate the holidays? And which food camp are you in? Are you going to go all out as usual or keep things simple and quiet? Just know there is no right or wrong, only what works and feels right for you and those in your household. If there is one thing we should have learnt this year is that trappings and things do not matter, people do.
This year let’s make food and drinks to drop off for friends and relatives who are vulnerable, those whose families are abroad and those who live alone but would usually get together with others for the holidays but can’t this year.
Effective from next week, Tastes Like Home will be published in the Sunday edition of the newspapers until January 9th, 2021.
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
