One of my
favorite holiday season things to do when I was growing up was to make and
decorate Christmas cookies. So a few days before Christmas, I invited over some
of my students to share one of my favorite aspects of Christmas in the states
with them here. I spent a bit more time making frostings of different colors, trying
to find Christmas-ish sprinkles to
use, and making plastic cookie cutter stencils. But all in all we were able to
successfully make some yummy festive sugar cookies. We listened to Christmas music
while sharing our favorite Christmas stories from our childhood with each other.
And although it was extremely hot, about 101 degrees hot, it made this holiday
season feel a little bit more like home.
Christmas
day is no more than another day, or so it felt to me, in Paraguay. Nochebuena or Christmas Eve is the big
shot here. I spent Nochebuena with my
best friends and their family eating the traditional dinner of Sopa Paraguaya (this is kind of like
corn bread but it’s not sweet and has cheese), BBQ, and a rice salad. We sipped
on a few very cold beers, millers to be exact, chatted about life in Paraguay, Christmas
traditions in the states, and what Christmas meant to them here. Later on in
the evening we crossed the red dirt road to visit my best friend’s aunt who had
put together a nativity scene.
An enormous
amount of care went into her nativity scene, her belief in the meaning behind Christmas
was all there. Candy and cookies dangled above baby Jesus and the rest of those
who gathered to look upon him. This summer’s harvest of fruit all made an
appearance too, from mango, pineapple, melon to squash. The tiny house made out
of straw, grass and other greenery were the backdrop for the festive
celebration. Small colorful lights adorned the whole house and the candles lit
by visitors shined on the faces of the small figurines. Those who come to pray
to the baby Jesus leave behind lit candles that hopefully will help their
message be heard.
There are
no gifts of material things exchanged on Nochebuena
here, with the company of family and friends eating, catching up on gossip, and
occasionally the kids lighting off fireworks is how it’s spent here. When they
do give gifts it is to children brought by the three kings on the 6th
of January. Luckily the materialism of what Christmas has become in the states
has not reached these depths yet, and hopefully never does. 
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