Kissing Santa and Breaking a Food Tradition
Kissing Santa and Breaking a Food Tradition
This holiday season I explained a Christmas song and convinced family white fish just doesn't work anymore.
Kissing Santa
My son listened to the Jackson 5’s “I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” the other day. We’ve heard it for years, but this time he asked “Why is the Mom kissing Santa?”
This turned into a couple more questions.
“Does Santa kiss every Mom in every house?”
“Why is he kissing them?”
“Do you kiss Santa?”
So all these years, he’s wondered about the values of Santa. The guy who slips down the chimney to give presents, but in return he gets both cookies and a snog.
Santa as the sneaky elderly gigilo / adulterous gift-giver with magical powers was a side of Kris Kringle didn’t examine very far but apparently my son’s mind was working in logical but misplaced ways.
I told him that the song was written about a Dad/Boyfriend/Partner that’s dressed like Santa, and the Mom is kissing him. Mom knows Santa. He’s pretending.
Thoughts I kept to myself in this fictional tableau: maybe this particular Mom is turned on that he has a nice furry suit on. They might be full of Christmas Eve dinner, nipping an aperitif, and are thrilled that all the presents are purchased and sitting under the tree. It might be a kiss of passion, but it’s more likely tenderness mixed with relief, relaxation, exhaustion and a slight buzz.
Now the Fitz and the Tantrums have a song about this:
Here’s the link to the song.
But let me tell you, when I explained that song my son’s eyes lit up, he smiled, and nodded his head up and down while saying “I SEE!”
Breaking Tradition
I’m a lady of Polish descent, and my Mother and Grandmother were born and raised in the old country. Christmas is a sacred time, especially Christmas Eve. There are things to do:
Eat dinner when the first star appears. This is usually around 5pm in Poland, but here in Seattle it’s usually overcast and/or raining and we’ll just start dinner at 5.
The Opłatek (basically a wafer/cracker) is shared along with good wishes between individuals. It’s a good tradition.
The unchanging, unwavering serving of white fish. Traditionally it was karp, as my Polish friend phrased it “a not very tasty fish taken from the lakes by land-locked people”. When I was little it was cod, and once or twice it was halibut. It is always floured, egg-dipped and then dragged through breadcrumbs and fried.
Here’s the problem with the fish: every Christmas Eve my two kids and my nephew would eat a bite and not eat the rest. It was usually either room temp and cold or sitting in the oven, as I was tired of standing by the frying pan loading batches of the fish into the oil right before dinner. A different friend said that her family solved this problem by putting a frying pan right in the middle of the table. I was not going that route!
So I decided to tell everyone that as citizens of Seattle we were going to have salmon for Christmas Eve. Pan-roasted.
What ensued for the next day was confusion. Questions. A secret conference between my Mom, Grandma and supportive sister about why in the world I would suggest to change what had never changed. My mom deferred to my Grandma; Grandma stood firm that this tradition was to remain.
I waited two weeks. Then in family group chat I asked everyone to text “white”, “salmon”, or “none” to the chat so that I’d know how much of the white fish to buy. The kids rapid-fired back with salmon. So did my sister. I said I didn’t want to waste food and spend time frying.
Surprisingly, with patience and evidence, Mom and Grandma agreed!
Here’s to you having a wonderful, peaceful, and delicious dinner this Holiday season, whatever traditions you choose to keep or break.
And if there’s a tradition that doesn’t work anymore for you, your family, or your friends… toss it!