A Scotsman Abroad – Special

What have I let myself in for? I don’t even like Christmas.
Kyle McCaig

Close Family, too much food for everyone to eat, rubbish on the television and a few days of mayhem as the younger members of the family boil over with excitement as the day they’ve been waiting “like forever” for finally descends on us. That’s right its Christmas, the commercialised Christian holiday that you either love or hate is rapidly approaching, and for a 23 year old guy like myself, it brings together my small family of five people for 3 or 4 days of festive fun. Or at least it does every year but this.

This year I’m in for a change, instead of the small family Christmas I’m used to I will instead be experiencing a rather different Yule tide tradition, as I pack my bags and head for the bright lights of NYC. Yup I’m jetting off with my better half to experience an American festive season in quite possibly the most Christmassy place known to man.

Now most of us will have seen the classic American Christmas movies, most likely featuring a certain Macaulay Culkin, that shows the over the top decorations, the huge amount of food and the incredible amounts of money spent on presents. All of which tend to show no credence to the biblical figure that started this celebration off, a certain Mr. Christ.

For many this sounds like good fun, a chance to experience the Christmas many of us wished for when we were but infants. To jump into the rigmarole of commercial Christmas, American style. And if you promise not to tell my girlfriend I’ll admit to you I’m also rather looking forward to it as well. However I am apparently in for an experience unlike any I’ve ever had before. For my family in law is rather unique in itself.

Half Italian-American-Catholic and half Jewish, yes I know that Jews don’t celebrate Christmas, but let’s not go there. The Aiuto/Taft family Christmas I’m going to partake in is as described by one family member “MEGA”. It starts as Christmas seems to these days, much too early with Christmas lists sent out by the younger members which apparently include everyone up until they have kids of their own. Then comes the commercials for this year’s must have presents. The organising of which family member’s turn it is to host the many celebrations, and finally, as the day nears, the mad scramble to buy all the presents and wonder quite how you’ve spent so much money.

Then the real Christmas begins. It starts on Christmas Eve when the entire clan (around 25 people) descends upon the Aiuto Grandparents house for the feast of the seven fishes, uh-huh, 7! Now for someone who loves food as much as me this sounds absolutely magic. Lobster, Shrimp (I believe they mean prawns), salmon, crab . . . I’m running out of types of fish that I’ll be offered, who knows maybe shark! This is followed by everyone drinking way too much, a regular occurrence for family gatherings, and everyone being allowed to open their presents from the extended family. Then everyone departs back to their own homes to sleep until Christmas Morning roles around.

This will be a huge culture shock for me as Christmas for my family generally consists of my 4 year old nephew waking us up at an ungodly hour to open presents then a eating a Christmas dinner which could feed double the 5 of us that are there before settling down to watch whatever terrible movie is on TV. This is then followed by a Boxing Day trip to the football for me and my dad before a nightmarish visit to the post Christmas sales. A low key festive period you might call it and pretty much the polar opposite of what lies in store for me this year.

So it seems like I’m in for a bit of a shock this year. An 8 foot Christmas tree, mountains of presents, even more food and celebrating the birth of Jesus with about 40 members of my girlfriend’s family. A real change from the small family Christmas I’m accustomed to and to be honest I’m quite looking forward to it. Sure it could be seen as a bit phoney, even fake but these days it’s often the only time of the year where a whole family can get together and celebrate something for a few days, so maybe its worth putting away the Sinicism hat and get into the spirit of the season. And this year I get to be a part of a ‘real’ Christmas, American style.