My fiancé got his first ever Christmas advent calendar this December.
He is 36 years of age.
He's also - as it happens - Jewish, which might be the reason he got into this advent calendar thing somewhat late in the game.
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| Said calendar |
Clearly, as a Jewish man, my fiancé doesn't celebrate Christmas. However, he's not exactly the type to wave around a Hannukah bush either (I'm not even sure if a Hannukah bush is waveable... is it?). To put it bluntly, he doesn't much care for the whole holiday period. Don't get me wrong - he doesn't mind Christmas nor Hannukah, but he's not super excited about them either. He tolerates them, coexists with them, and if someone says, "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah," he mutters back, "Thanks, you too."
To him, the holidays are equivalent to a tired, indifferent shrug.
However, his attitude might have started to change a little bit when he met me (maybe). Not through osmosis unfortunately (even I'm not that charming), but through a conscious effort from my part. Let me explain: I happen to love Christmas, gingerbread cookies, ugly sweaters, chocolate, glögi (mulled wine), and all that jazz. I think it's mostly because I'm Finnish since - although it's true that not every Finn is keen on this specific holiday - in Finland it's just easier to get into the holiday spirit. We have actual snow (or at least we used to), and on top of that Santa Claus lives in Finland (FYI: whenever somebody claims that Santa Claus lives in the North Pole, a little piece of me dies... and if that's not bad enough, somewhere an innocent little elf dies, too, so can we all just from now on agree that Santa Claus lives in Finland? Pretty please?).
So. Since I love the holidays and my significant other thinks that this time of the year is more or less "meh," I've taken it upon myself to introduce a little bit of holiday cheer into his life. And by holiday cheer I don't just mean Christmas cheer, but Hanukkah cheer (is that a thing?) as well. That's why we celebrate Chrismukkah (the marriage between Christmas and Hanukkah, originally introduced by the TV series The O.C.)! However, unfortunately, as I'm not too familiar with Hanukkah, the "Chrism" part of Chrismukkah tends to be just a teeny tiny bit (a lot bit) more emphasized.
Project Ho-Ho-Holiday Cheer
My holiday-cheer-implementation project started off innocently enough: A few years back I simply asked my fiancé to sign some "Happy Holidays" cards to my family and friends (okay, they didn't say "Happy Holidays," they said "Merry Christmas").
The year after that, I decided to up the stakes and play Mariah Carey's All I want for Christmas in the background whenever he entered the room (unfortunately, all the Hanukkah songs I know are in Hebrew, which makes them a little tricky to sing along to.) The results started to manifest relatively quickly, as he began to hum said song as well as various other Christmassy ones to himself every now and again (every department store playing their Christmas CD's from October to January might also have played a part).
Then last year there was a giant leap in regards to our Chrismukkah tradition (but a tiny step for humankind) as I put up Chrismukkah lights in our living room window where they spread holiday cheer not only during Christmas or the eight days of Hanukkah but (wait for it) all year around! (Yep, all part of my evil holiday cheer plan and definitely NOT because I'm too scared to take them down in the fear of taking down half the wallpaper with them.) Incidentally, just like the miracle of the Hanukkah oil, our Chrismukkah lights burned brightly for eight days and eight nights until they finally ran out of battery.
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| Said lights (out of battery) |
However, none of these subtle tactics did much to turn my fiancé into a Chrismukkah fan. But then along came this December and with it a breakthrough - the Chrismukkah calendar!
Chrismukkah Calendar
The Chrismukkah calendar my fiancé received (okay, okay, I admit - it's a plain old Christmas advent calendar) was one that my mom had bought from The Guides and Scouts of Finland a year or two ago. And this December was when it came in handy.
The project started off a little shaky: As Fiancé opened his first ever Chrismukkah calendar door, his reaction was not one of wonderment or Chrismukkah awe. Instead, as the door opened to reveal a picture of a candle, he announced, disappointed, "Oh. No chocolate?"
Seriously? Do you see how thin this thing is?
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| THIS thin!! |
There's no way this calendar could have had chocolate inside. Unless, of course, there was chocolate inside but then, for whatever reason, the insides got flattened by a steamroller. But as the chances of that are pretty slim, I think this one is just a simple picture calendar.
Anyway. The next day after that anticlimactic start, Fiancé seemed to discover the joy of opening the advent calendar doors. In the following few days, whenever he opened a door, he would let out an awe-stricken gasp (which might or might not have had a little bit of a mocking tone to it, but hey, a gasp is a gasp).
Here are some of his reactions:
Door 14: *gasp* "Look! It's a straw dog!"
Ed. Note: That is, in fact, not a "straw dog" (which, according to Wikipedia, is the title of "a song by the Meads of Asphodel from Life is Shit"). Instead, it's a Yule Goat - a Scandinavian symbol of Christmas, and, as it happens, of Chrismukkah.
Door 19: *gasp* "Look! It's a plant!"
Ed. Note: Well, yeah, by a very (very) broad definition, I guess it kind of is a plant. It's also (and more commonly) known as a wreath.
Door 18: *gasp* "Look! It's a sock!"
Ed. Note: A sock, a stocking. Same thing.
Door 5: *gasp* "Look, it's a...a... dead fish?"
Ed. Note: Yep, that's a dead fish, all right. Because nothing says Christmas like a dead fish (I'm kidding - I don't really get this picture either).
To sum up, so far, the introduction of the Chrismukkah Calendar has been a success. There are still two doors left to be opened, however, so I can't say anything definite yet, but it sure looks promising. But that's this year, and we've yet to see what next year will bring. Maybe in 2019 he'll be wearing a Christmas hat while holding a cup of glögi in one hand and a menorah in the other - who knows!
Chrismukkah 2018
As I'm writing this, it's the 22nd of December. In Finland, the 24th is the big one. For the past couple of years, my fiancé and I have spent the 24th in Mexico. This year, however, our Chrismukkah will not look like this:
Nor will it look like the Finnish Christmas:
This year we'll be spending the 24th of December on a couple of different trains and a plane, just traveling. I would normally feel a little weird about that, but this year is different because... we are moving!
And not just moving house but moving to a different country altogether. The feeling is bittersweet because on one hand, we're sad to leave our group of great friends in Liège, but on the other hand, turning a new leaf in our crazy life is kind of exciting. Stay tuned for updates ;).
This is also my last blog post in 2018, and I'd like to thank everybody for the love and support you've given me throughout my blogging adventure! It means a lot!
With this picture of vin chaud (hot wine) in Liège, I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Chrismukkah, Happy Holidays, and - of course - a Happy New Year!
Cheers! L'chaim!
