Getting ready to share Christmas traditions

For the first time in over three years, the Cumming family will all be together for Christmas dinner this year. The family has expanded in the past few years and with the expansion new traditions will likely be established.
We will in our separate families maintain most of our common traditions. Instead of the Christmas dinner taking place at my mother’s home, my brother Don, and his wife, Mags, will host the family gathering. We will all contribute to the meal.
My youngest son is allergic to real Christmas trees. Knowing this, we asked both sons if they would prefer an artificial tree or a real tree. No sooner was the question asked, when, both in unison declared that it had to be a real tree. An artificial tree would break our customs. The natural Christmas tree will fill our living room.
Christmas is really a time of traditions and each family builds creates their own traditions. The traditions are an important part of continuing family celebrations.
My future daughter-in-law, Meesun, who is from Seoul Korea, will experience her first Canadian Christmas and is already excited about the day. In Korea, a Buddhist country, Christmas is a religious holiday and family time. Meesun’s family simply went to church. In Korea Christmas more a celebration of their religion. Korean families do exchange gifts on Christmas.
The big family Korean celebration occurs on the Lunar New Year.
While visiting two weeks ago in Winnipeg, Meesun and I walked through a grocery store and she wondered what mincemeat tarts were.
Mincemeat tarts or pies have always been part of our English Christmas traditional meal. I tried to explain that mincemeat was a mixture of chopped dried fruits and spices, combined with shredded suet, and was a tradition of Christmas. My grandmother Cumming always made her own mincemeat. It will be one more new food item that she will taste.
Food is an integral part to Christmas. Our meals follow the customs and traditions of our heritage. In my family the Christmas meal will include Turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, turnips, green beans, salads, cranberries and chestnut stuffing, Other families include cabbage rolls, wild rice and perogies.
One of our treats for our Christmas meal is steamed plum pudding with sterling sauce. It is accompanied by fruit cake, at least three kinds of short bread, sugar cookies and more sweets. “Dreams of sugar plums” still “dance in our heads” for our Christmas meal.
All of these treats will be new for Meesun. And my son Adam has tried to explain all the traditions and customs of his Canadian Christmas to her. She is really excited to be celebrating a Canadian Christmas. I hope that we can meet her expectations.
With the town lit up with lights and the snow on the ground, everything is proceeding towards a tradition Christmas celebration.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher