Christmas in Chile

Dear Friend,

It was outside on a basketball court on a summer evening that I found my Christmas Spirit. While little kids ran around playing tag in summer dresses and t-shirts, I stood in plain view of the manger and baby Jesus as the Spanish priest delivered “Misa de Gallo,” Chile’s Christmas Eve Mass.

For days and weeks I listened to out-of-place Christmas music as I walked the sidewalks of Santiago and sat in nameless cafés sipping iced coffee to kill the heat. Day by day, Santiago transformed into the merriest version of itself that it could. Christmas trees lit up the windows of hotels, decorations hung from street lamps and street vendors exchanged their watches and nail-clippers for Christmas cards and wrapping paper.

Getting back from the Pirate Journey left me anxious to see friends in the city and to get prepped for Christmas. Three weeks on the road without sleeping in the same bed for more than two nights can do that to you. I probably sound like a coked-out musician on tour, but the truth is that I really did miss Santiago, so to come back to the city as it was preparing to celebrate Navidad was a really good feeling.

I only had a few days alone to recover from my 48-hour bus ride back to Santiago before Nate got into town. I picked him up from the airport on a hot Monday morning. Actually, every morning is hot now. It’s ridiculous. But we had a good time seeing the city, meeting my friends and touring a little bit. Trying to be active in the city during the day is hard though because of the heat. Nate wasn’t used to it… especially having come from the Harbor where it snowed recently… and even I wasn’t used to it having had time to “get used” to it. After a week of catching up, Nate took off, and I was left to prep for the Holidays.

Before I tell you about how I spent Christmas in Chile, let me first tell you, my friend, about how good it is to be in the company of those you love. Having Nate here for a little while was a fresh reminder of my friends back in Washington. Although I feel as though I’ve done an alright job of staying in touch with everyone back home, it is also amazing to find out everything I haven’t heard about over the past few months. Anyways, it was good to see a familiar place from back home.

As for Christmas, well, while Nate was here we hung out with Taylor and Courtney after they got back from their tour of the south. We made cookies and decorated their apartment with a fire place with a mantle and stockings and a menorah. We also made a Christmas tree with decorations and presents and we cut out a few snowflakes as well. Just have to say… I discovered that I am a boss at making snowflakes. In case you were curious. We also watched some of Christmas Vacation but Taylor and I fell asleep in the middle of it and we never did finish the movie. But we made sure to rock out to Christmas music all day and the next day when we made breakfast. Good times.

The 22nd was Patty’s Christmas Party and her surprise party. Not here, but back home. I was luckily able to skype at the Christmas party and talk to everyone and see their brilliant faces. The undoubted highlight of the party was playing Catch Phrase with my friends as we sat in a circle. I got to blurt out answers to my team over the skype connection, and when it was my turn, Mark was kind enough to hold up the catch phrase thingy in front of the screen so I could read it. It was tough, and my team lost. I’ll take that blame, haha. But it really was fun. That same night was Patty’s surprise going-away party. Bummed I missed out, but I’m thankful that the planning team (mostly some amazing Moms) let me record a video for Patty. What I’m not thankful for is the Gateway and their news prioritization. If you’re reading this, Gateway editorial staff, I have issues with what you choose to run in your paper.

Anyways, my own bitching aside, on the 23rd I got invited by Court and Tay to go out to dinner with them and their families that visited them here in Santiago for Christmas. It was a bit awkward but the food was amazing and it was great to talk to their families for a bit. They’re all traveling right now so here’s to hoping that they’re having an amazing time. It was funny because after dinner we had a small desire to go out, so we took Taylor’s and Courtney’s families to a bar in Bellavista and had a few drinks.

Christmas Eve definitely didn’t feel like Christmas Eve. I made it a point to listen to as much Christmas music as I could, but it didn’t exactly make the day feel any different. Later that day I went to my host family’s house to celebrate. Traditionally, Chileans celebrate on Christmas Eve with a late meal and with all the family in the home. Dinner is normally a turkey but a lot of families opt for other dishes. We had a lot of seafood and it was all delicious. The Christmas drink is “Cola de Mono” or Monkey Tail and it reminds me a lot of eggnog minus the egg and with a hint of coffee, and also with a strong hint of alcohol. It’s kind of tasty but it’s hard to drink a lot of it. After dinner the family stays up until midnight; at that time everyone opens presents. Gift-giving is simplified to a tradition of thoughtfulness and need instead of extravagance and competition like I have known. It was actually quite nice. We opened gifts around the Christmas tree decorated in blinking colored lights and decorations that didn’t include any snow themes. My family got me two tech shirts to run in and I got them a hanging decoration for their house; it was of the style that my host mom is very fond of. The real Christmas gift was the kitten that my host sister Andrea found across the street in a gift bag. The cat was dehydrated and fatigued when we found it; it was also absolutely covered with fleas. After some water, milk, and a ton of flea spray, the little cat slept for a long time. It was obviously a Christmas gift gone wrong, as so many pets-as-gifts are; and it also looked like it was too young to be taken away from its mother. I think the family might keep it; if not they have a friend who is looking to adopt a cat.

While we were cooking my host mom dropped everything and says, “Crap! Christmas Eve mass!” and my brother and sister just laughed and said how they weren’t going anyways and blah blah blah. But Mamá seemed really intent on going so she and I washed the vegetable peelings from our hands and walked across the street to where the church is. The doors to the church were closed, but after walking around to the front gate of the school where the church is housed, we saw that mass was outside. It was there that I found a huge crowd of people overflowing from the rows of school chairs that were set up. We got there a few minutes late and the four priests at the front were in mid-sentence; but a lot of people were still arriving and since mass was outside on a spectacularly comfortable summer night, little kids had no hesitation running around the sports court squealing in excitement. It was on that basketball court, with the sunset’s pink lemonade rays shining upon the snowless Andes peaks, that I found my Christmas Spirit. I realized that Christmas isn’t about a nation or a state or a city, or the experiences that I have in those places. No. It’s about love and Jesus and family and those things are more international than the swine flu. I suppose that Christmas can be about an individual place; in my case Gig Harbor; but I’d like to think that, in fact I know and I feel, that Christmas, the celebration of God’s Love and His son, has to be a holiday without borders; it has to be something that can be celebrated anywhere under any circumstances. Without that condition, where would we be as followers of this religion and belief?

Anyways, Christmas Day ended up being very chill; which I was OK with. I would have loved to have had a day full of plans and commitments, but the truth is that by not being able to experience Christmas in the way I wanted to, the most familiar and traditional of ways for me, it made me realize what aspects of Christmas I love and miss. That means, first and foremost, you. In the end, my friend from the exchange program, Kari, and I made Christmas lunch out of homemade Enchiladas (homemade tortillas and sauce) and homemade individual apple pies from Pink Lady apples. So tasty. We ate pie while watching Elf and it made for a great way to spend the day. That night I skyped with my family back home, which means the WHOLE family- aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandma, everyone! It was so great to see them and talk to them.

In the end, it was a very relaxed holiday. Everything was a new experience, and everything was enjoyable. Can’t complain.

Hoping your Christmas was full of love and celebration,

Derek