For Robbie Cheadle’s challenge at #TankaTuesday challenge I’ve written a double tanka about my childhood Christmas Eves.
###
Church bells ring-a-linged
We walked through the candy canes
in the crisp-aired park
Flakes coating our hair and coats
Sliding ourselves to the first house
*
Progressive dinners
Mom’s aunt’s house, then her uncle’s
Grandma baked desserts
Worst part was the oyster stew
Now my fondest memory
###
Eight years ago I decided to investigate this Christmas eve oyster stew phenomenon for my family history blog. My mother’s maternal family were the ones who celebrated with the progressive dinners and the oyster stew (a pan of milk and oysters essentially until my husband joined the family and added spices and seasonings). That family was half Dutch and half Pomeranian (an area on the Baltic that was part of Prussia, although the genetics of the German-speaking people (before WWII when they were kicked out of Poland) was actually Slavic. Anyway, the Pomeranian “half” was through the women, so that’s where I thought the tradition must come from. Here is the link to my post. Keep in mind one of the links within the article is now dead. A Christmas Tradition from the Old Country
To my knowledge nobody in the family carries on this tradition. We have all created new holiday traditions with our children.
Did your family have a tradition that seemed to pull the family together like this that is now nearly forgotten?
