All of us have a vision of the perfect Christmas, starting with beautiful decorations – boughs of evergreen artfully strewn with silver ornaments and red candles; a tree that is a veritable work of art; presents decorated with wrappings and ribbons (colour-coordinated, of course) that cost almost as much as the gift inside.
Most of us end up with something less than perfection that is nevertheless charming. The decorations on the tree include popsicle stick angels and styrofoam cup bells with Q-tip ringers. Candy canes hang from the upper branches only, because the dog has a taste for peppermint, and tinsel has been omitted after last year's incident with the cat. Still, the presents look appealing, even the ones wrapped in aluminum foil, adhesive tape and coloured newsprint.
As for Christmas dinner, it always seems to turn out. The disastrous year the turkey burned to a crisp in the oven and the family became acquainted with the local fire department has become one of those hilarious stories that get told around the table each year, amidst considerable laughter.
Despite our best efforts to make the holiday perfect, it is the imperfections that create the best memories.
Our vision of the traditional Christmas dinner includes turkey that never spontaneously ignites in the oven, potatoes that are steaming hot and gravy that is never lumpy. The turnip is always sweet and the stuffing is always fragrant with seasonings. Cherubic children in velvet dresses play quietly while the final preparations are made, and then the entire family sits down to a spectacular looking meal. No one's grandmother loses her false teeth in the salad, no one tells off-colour jokes, and no child eats so much he throws up.
That Better Homes and Gardens Christmas dinner probably exists only on the pages of a magazine. Each family has its own traditions. Some may be more National Lampoon than Better Homes and Gardens, but all are wonderful in their own way.
There is one family that sits down to a festive Christmas dinner each year at midnight – no longstanding European tradition, just the fact that Mom works the evening shift. Not every occupation allows for time off during the holidays. Nurses, police officers and many others work their regular shifts every day of the year, including Christmas.
Some families keep their dinner plans flexible, knowing a pager could go off . More than one Christmas dinner has been delayed for because of icy roads or a fire. Sometimes dinner has consisted of a slice of roast turkey thrown between two slices of bread and jammed into a pocket as someone heads out the door.
There is another family that plans to have its real Christmas dinner in April, because that is when Dad is due home from Afghanistan. While most of the family gathers for a festive meal this Christmas, one member will be eating turkey in an army mess tent with his cohorts. At home, the tree will stay up and there will be unwrapped presents under it for the next four months, until the family can be together.
Some of the families that sit down to share Christmas dinner are not family in any conventional sense of the word. They may be friends who choose to spend the holiday together, or coworkers who find themselves sharing a meal Christmas day. They may be stranded travellers who get treated to a turkey dinner by volunteers, or patients in a hospital who become members of a make-shift family of fellow patients and staff for the holiday.
Christmas dinner is not about the festive decorations or presents or even turkey roasted to golden perfection. It is about family, whatever the family might be and wherever they might be. It is about unique traditions and shared experiences, about disasters mellowed by time into memories that are filled with humour.
Management and staff of the Arthur Enterprise wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas. May it be filled with laughter and memories. And may your turkey not catch fire.
