Klaus Jurgens
EVERY year my family is faced with the same recurring dilemma of sorts: shall we celebrate Christmas the way we were used to do back in the UK, that is enjoying a two to three day break, or is it more appropriate to straightaway combine Christmas with New Year’s Eve?
The reason for this balancing act is that here in Turkey Christmas and ringing in another year appear quite identical.
Facts first: Christmas is of course not a date on the Muslim holiday calendar hence it is supposedly an expatriate only affair. However, over the past two decades our good old Christmas tree has become the much adored local symbol for welcoming January 1.
Thus said, visiting any big city in this fascinating country during December resembles exactly what we would encounter Britain-side anywhere between Aberdeen (many trees and decorations) and Zouch (with all due respect to a fine riverside hamlet most probably one tree and just a little decoration yet nevertheless ready to go Christmas).
Shops feature ‘Christmas’ aka New Year’s trees galore. Store windows are filled with goods nicely wrapped and presented in exactly the same gift boxes we are used to back home complete with reindeer stickers.
Even more festive apparel can be found in restaurants and underground stations. If you happen to stay at a three or four star hotel on a pre-Christmas shopping spree your hotel lobby will be nicely laid out in celebrative décor, too.
All in all, one could be forgiven to simply forgetting about where in the world we are at that particular point in time. We are in Turkey but at least to a large extent it all looks so much like Christmas!
Our daughter is already in the right happy mood and wish lists have begun to circulate. Ever more so as this year quite a number of ‘hediye’ – the way the Turkish languages refers to gifts – will be bought along the wintery route from Paris, France, to Austria. But and here comes the big but: when shall we exchange them?
Melisa-Michelle most definitely has adopted the local tradition of expecting gifts on New Year’s Eve instead of on Christmas Day as most of her friends are Turkish! Luckily so, as unfortunately the number of expat families with children, are surprisingly low hence she learned perfectly well how to adapt, integrate and make friends indeed despite her parents ‘various cultural combination background’.
To add to that confusion she still considers a Christmas tree as being the perfect tool for decorating the house albeit it not before one or two days before the end of the year. Dilemma of sorts? Indeed. What we will do this year is the following.
I am not going to shelve my proud tradition of celebrating Christmas fully fledged no matter where I am. Tree, presents right underneath, Sunday best, fine food and beverage, peace and quiet at least for 48 hours.
At the same time we will enjoy the night leading to the next year 2015. We will keep the tree in the living room and we will add presents to those friends and family who only celebrate New Year instead of Christmas or both. Does than imply children get two sets of presents? No way – we simply split them (the total number that is).
The added bonus is that the family will somehow enjoy a Christmas/New Year type of home for an extended period of time. Children have two occasions to look forward to.
Parents although working will simply have no excuse to not to spend quality time at home and to make certain that every one stays happy and in a festive mood! Ever more stories will be read, more Christmas songs played on the internet radio.
The Wizard of Oz in its original black and white version – most definitely, as no festive season would be complete without it.
What we will not do anymore is pretend that there is a ‘live’ Santa Claus – children in the family are simply too grown up. Yet this does not mean that the spirit of Santa Claus should not be feted in all its glory!
And by the way Turkey was his original birthplace, in a village close to today’s Antalya. He was a good man, a Samaritan. Our society has turned his praiseworthy philanthropy into materialism, correct.
But if there would be a job description for a modern Santa Claus he first and foremost should help the poor, than the wider family and only then his inner circle. Giving means sharing, sharing means being happy; long may Santa Claus’s spirit live on!