Finally, a Holiday the French Celebrate

After a disappointing Halloween (Jason wouldn't even try on the catsuit I bought him...) and obviously nonexistent Thanksgiving in France, I was looking forward to Christmas! I had heard the French really know how to celebrate Christmas with true flair. So now I can attest that they do celebrate Noël, but I was surprised how different some of the traditions are here. For example, NO ONE decorates the outside of their houses with lights or anything, but at least the town squares are all decorated very beautifully. They also call Santa Claus Pere Noël, or “Father Christmas,” which we didn't quite understand until you see a common interpretation of his outfit. In some cases, he looks sort of like the Pope in long robes with a scepter and a big tall Catholic-looking hat (a "mitre"--thanks Wiki).

I noticed further differences when looking for Christmas decorations for the house. We packed very lightly, and I didn't bring ANY of my own own holiday decorations. We bought a small tree here, and we had the kids "help" decorate by printing out festive pictures for them to color, cut out and tape all over the house.  But some things needed to be searched for--like stockings. And tree skirts-- I'm sure I embarrassed myself plenty explaining to people that I wanted a skirt for my Christmas tree. They kept pointing to the women's clothing section. I couldn’t believe it as I went to store after store—they just didn’t really have any of these items. I finally found one style of stockings that I didn’t love, but it was better than nothing, so I bought three for the girls.

Do not be deceived! These stockings look a lot cuter than they actually are.  They are very cheaply made, but at least my girls finally got stockings to hang!

Apparently, the French do things more like the Dutch by putting empty shoes on the hearth rather than hanging stockings, and not even everyone here does that. When we explained to some of Jason’s coworkers about hanging stockings, they were so confused. They said, “You mean Father Christmas fills a tiny child’s sock for each of your young girls? Jason explained it wasn’t a real sock, and it was large and decorative and that it would hold quite a few things. Then they asked if we kept our kids up until midnight when Father Christmas came. Then WE were confused and asked, “You mean your kids stay awake and wait up for Santa? We tell ours to go to bed as quickly and as early as possible or Santa WON’T come.” They said that they either hire a Father Christmas to come and give presents to the kids or they take the kids outside and distract them somehow (usually looking up in the sky for unusual air traffic) while an accomplice puts the presents under the tree. When the kids come back inside the house, the person inside will say, “Oh you JUST missed Father Christmas. He was just here!" like he's the world's best reverse thief. He breaks in only to drop things off.  Then they open all the presents right then. In fact, one coworker told Jason she remembers one year as a little girl when her parents hired a Father Christmas who showed up completely drunk. She remembers smelling the strong alcohol on his breath, which is a different kind of heart-warming story. . .

We also noticed a big difference in what the French eat for dinner on Christmas Eve, which is when they have their biggest feast. In this region of Provence, they all have oysters for some reason as well as foie gras (goose liver paté). They also eat turkey with chestnuts, sometimes duck or goose, and lots of other fish and seafood. Around the grocery stores, while we couldn't find candy canes to save our freaking lives, we noticed that EVERYONE was buying these little cakes shaped like a wooden log called “Bûche de Noël.” We bought one because they looked good, but we didn’t realize the significance until we got home and did a little research. Apparently, these cakes represent Yule Logs (although we remained confused whether, in fact, we had succeeding in making the Yuletide gay).

The tradition comes from centuries ago when people lived much simpler lives. In those days, something like a well-stocked woodpile was the difference in surviving the winter or not. So when the days grew short and the night cold, just the ability to make a fire was cause for celebration. In France, a large log (many times a tree trunk) was chosen from the woodpile. It was decorated with ribbons and brought into the house with considerable fanfare - songs were sung and everyone enjoyed themselves. The log was placed ceremoniously on the hearth and blessed by the master of the house. This was all done on the 24th of December and the log was expected to burn until the first day of the New Year. So now, even though only some people still burn a Yule Log, everybody here eats Yule-log cake. These are beautiful works of art. Here are some examples, mostly in the "realistic" category:

Here is the buttercream log we bought, which fell into the "Pink & Cute" category. Classified as such due to the fact that it was pink, cute, and (BONUS) it featured a fake tiny mouse and a prop axe for "chopping" the cake. Jenica decided to eat all of her portion with the little axe.


One other thing we learned about the French Christmas Eve feast ("la gros souper") is the traditional 13 desserts following the meal to represent Christ and his twelve apostles (total number at the Last Supper). The desserts are unlike any American desserts, but I thought it was an interesting tradition. The bread in the background is one of the 13 desserts, and it "should always be torn and not cut to avoid bankruptcy."  I have no idea where that notion stems from, but it should be more fully explored by Circuit City, Blockbuster, and Lehman Brothers.

Here are my girls pictured on Christmas Eve.  Happy Holidays everyone!  Or I guess I should say "Bonnes Fetes!"