Three Christmas Memories

I'm starting my own meme of sharing Three Christmas Memories that you have, be they good or bad, hilarious or just plain odd. To start if off, I'm sharing with you some of my Christmas memories from the time that my family lived in Naples, Italy. Ah, the good old days...

1. A Half-lit Christmas Tree - My family lived in a villa in Italy as opposed to living in the Naval base housing. This came with it's own "complications" as you did not have barbed wire fencing and armed Marine checkpoints to guard your well-being and possessions. Thus, we were robbed a couple times. The Italians seemed to think that Americans are made of money. We made sure not to do things that advertised us as American. A Christmas tree is a very American tradition and a lighted Christmas tree seen through a window made your villa a target. Our holidays in Italy were spent with trees strung with lights only on the bottom.

2. Christmas Alley & Nativity Scenes - We used to visit Christmas Alley to do a little shopping. Christmas Alley consisted of a few tight alleys filled with booths selling all sorts of Christmas bobbles and Nativity figures. It was always crowded and my brother and I would cling onto our parents coats, purse, or hands with the threat of being lost in the crowd looming over our heads - or worse yet, being taken by gypsies. Nativity scenes were a large part of the Christmas market as people would add to theirs a little bit every year. Italian Nativity scenes are not like the standard American ones that stop with the figures of the Holy Family, the three kings, a shepherd or two with sheep and a single angel. Italian Nativity scenes include a whole town of figures, towns-people with abundant accompanying fauna and hosts of angels alike. It seemed as though the whole of heaven and earth were included in the Nativity scenes, no exceptions. I really enjoyed it.

3. Cigarettes in the Freezer- One year our gas ran out on Christmas Day. We had a gas range and oven, so no gas meant no cooked food. The problem was further complicated by the fact that Italians just don't work on Christmas - at all. My mom called up the bomboli guy and, in broken Italian, told him we needed more bomboli. With a bribe of a carton of cigarettes she got him to deliver that very day. Good thing Mom kept a carton in the freezer for just such emergencies - our Christmas dinner was saved!

Now I'm going to ruthlessly tag people - and you better play! ;)
Anastasia, Dixie, and Susan