But, I Will Miss That Christmas Is a Big Deal

Despite my last blog post on the shock of no separation of church and State in Scotland  (and my continuing surprise that my 3-year old is coming home from supposedly secular nursery school singing Christmas songs that talk about Mary having a baby and asking the innkeeper for room at the inn), there are some good things about the ubiquity of Christmas here.

While the anthropologist in me thinks about the Muslims who are feeling left out, the Christian in me really likes the fuss made over Christmas.  Without Thanksgiving to postpone celebration, the Christmas season (or Festive Period) starts here in mid-November and goes all the way into early January.

Edinburgh gets a Christmas market, complete with an outdoor skating rink, and stalls selling spiced wine, hot chocolate and chocolate-dipped marshmallows. But Dundee kicks off with Christmas Light Night, then the West End (the neighborhood where we live) has its own West End Christmas Light Night.  This is a free event, put on by the city/neighborhood, and it involves a concert in the local church, a pipe band to start things off (they even had Christmas lights on their bagpipes but I couldn't get a good picture), the lighting of the Christmas tree, a fireworks display, and Santa and others giving out free goodies to kids (a chocolate sampler, a coloring book, glow-glasses). Plus sparklers. 

Sparklers in front of the tree

More sparklers!

Santa posing with Audrey

We also took part in another Dundee Christmas tradition this year: the Singing Kettle Christmas show (I won the tickets by following a link on Twitter - even better!):

Specific instructions on attire

She's ready!

Though it's not certain he is...

Making use of the reindeer antlers sent by Nana

We still have another month and it is packed with Christmas possibilities - Christmas Fayres (yes, spelled like that) and events, many free, and the general festivity of a city that's decked with boughs of holly and where people have a little more fa-la-la-la-la than for the rest of the year.

And that, I will miss.

Christmas Light Night 2014 or Church and State, No Separation

Friday the 14th of November, 2014  marked the annual Christmas Light Night in Dundee. 

Waiting for the lights to be switched on

This is the night on which the Christmas tree in the city centre is switched on, and the Christmas season officially begins (at least from the point of view of stores and shoppers, if not the church).

If you are reading this in the US, you may be saying, hold on a minute here - the city government puts up a Christmas tree in the centre of town? And throws a party, complete with a torchlight parade, music, dancing, an appearance by Santa, fireworks (set to "Let it Go" much to the delight of the girls) but ALSO the aforementioned Christmas tree, lighted decorations with Christmas themes, and a Nativity play? What happened to separation of Church and State?

Reform Street greetings

The answer, as far as I can tell in Scotland, is "it doesn't really exist."  The common perception is"Well, everyone is Christian anyway, so it doesn't matter."  According to the 2011 census in Scotland, 54% of people say they are Christian, while 37% claim "no religion."  Muslims are 1.4% of the population, and all others (Hindu, Jewish, Sikh, or Another Religion) are .9% of the population.  Audrey goes to a Catholic school which is part of the state-supported school system - she went because there were places there, not so much because we wanted her to be in Catholic school, but it is tuition-free - again, a big no-no in the States, and a big so-what in Scotland.

So, Christmas Light Night 2014. 

The Christmas Tree, lit up

The City Centre gets a teacup ride for the occasion

...and really large Disney balloons...

Preparing to go out, with our Santa hats

Bonus: One-minute video of the Light Night event during which the band plays a cover of A-Ha's "Take On Me" on the bagpipes. Seriously Awesome.

Caution: Objects in Mirror Are Older Than They Appear, or Approaching Forty on Facebook

I have somewhat over 300 friends on Facebook, and I would guess that 90% of them I met before I was an adult.  I'll draw the line arbitrarily at about age 21 for that; in other words, if I met you after I left college, you're in the 10%.  But if you are among the vast majority of my FB friends, I met you when I was between 14 and 19.  And this has some consequences.  For example, I recently noticed that among those of you who have kids approaching (or already in) double digits, I'll be scrolling through my Newsfeed and all of the sudden I'll see YOU...well, the you I knew when we first met and we were 15.  Except it's not you. It's your child.  This is disconcerting.

Also making me do double-takes nowadays - if I met you when you were 15 and we were good friends, chances are excellent that I met your parents.  And it has recently become alarming to me that I'll be scrolling through the Newsfeed and all of the sudden I'll see YOUR PARENT...except it's really you.  The math supports me on this one - if you were born when your parents were around 25 (not that unusual in the 70's), when you were 15 and I met your parents, they were...about 40. And voila, the alternate title of this post.

And a special note about Eddie. I am not Eddie's friend on Facebook, because he is the little brother of my sister's elementary school best friend (figure out that relationship!) But he and his wife recently had a baby, because, you know, they are in their thirties, and it's normal to have a kid then.  But I have extremely clear memories of Eddie when he was three (which is the same age as my younger daughter is now).  So in a brain-bending twist, seeing him and his baby has caused me to imagine my three year old as a mom. And it is just too strange.

 So next time I like a photo of your child (even though, most of the time, I have never met your child) or if I hesitate before I like a photo of you (although you will never actually know this), it's just because I am coming to terms with getting older where everyone can see me, on social media. Where the 15-year-olds I remember have become the 40-year-old parents, and I am no exception. 

I Miss Halloween

Monkey and Princess, October 2012

Our last Halloween in the States, Audrey was 4 and Claire was almost 15 months old. We followed the Providence, RI routine - we met up at Brown St. Park, had the Halloween parade, and then trick-or-treated back toward our house.  Claire was just making the connection between going to houses, saying Trick or Treat, and getting candy...she was amazed that this kept working at each house.

Audrey was in her element, hanging out with friends and going door to door - Paul told her she was collecting candy for him, and she still believed it.

Monkey Claire learning to trick or treat, October 2012

Brown St. Parade (our friend "Rod Stewart" in the foreground)

Last year, we had only been in Scotland a month at Halloween, and Audrey had just started school a week before, so we knew very few people.  We heard about a few Halloween parties, but weren't invited. Trick or Treating didn't seem to be a "thing" - we saw some older kids roaming around but our house is off the beaten path so we didn't get any trick or treaters.   Audrey was a little disappointed; Claire was too young to know the difference.

This year, we planned to try to trick or treat, starting with some friends who were expecting us, and then go from there, but at the last minute we were invited by Audrey's school friend's mom to go trick or treating in their neighborhood and then go on to a Halloween party.  We drove over there and had a critical mass of 6 kids between the ages of 3 and 10, and we started looking for likely houses.  In their neighborhood (maybe 30-40 houses), about 4 has their lights on, the code for "open for trick or treating" (at least in the US, I assume it also holds in Scotland as well). The process is much more involved, though; instead of bopping from house to house and collecting candy, you are invited in and asked for your performance - a joke, a song, a dance.  After the first house I came up with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat" and got Audrey, Claire, and Audrey's school friend to sing along - it went something like this (bear in mind I made this up on the fly...no pun intended):

Twinkle, twinkle little bat

How I wonder where you're at

Flying up in the sky

Flying low and flying high

Twinkle, twinkle little bat

How I wonder where you're at.

People seemed to like this (at least it was something...all the Halloween songs and jokes that are out there, and I couldn't remember a THING). So at each house, the kids got several pieces of candy, sometimes fruit, and also a little money (for their "punch boxes" no idea what this is, and the all-knowing Internet is no help, a search for this term just gives me boxing equipment).  After trick or treating to the 4 available houses, we went to the party at the community center.  It was a smallish gym, stuffed with kids (aged a few weeks to about 12 years) who were dancing to loud music with disco lights (I remember a jazzy version of the Scooby Doo theme), and their parents resting at tables in the back of the hall.  It was definitely kid friendly - only 1 pound admission and juice and snacks for just a small donation, but it was hot and loud, and Claire was ready for bed so we made an exit, leaving Audrey with her school friend and her parents. We finally ended up at our friends' house (the ones who had been expecting us originally) and chatted with them a few minutes.  Since they are not Scottish, they gave Claire plenty of candy, and didn't even demand a performance.  They were complaining they hadn't had any trick or treaters, but we told them they needed to turn on their front light - and, as if to prove our point, as we left their house, three young teens came up to their door. 

Facebook friends,  I love seeing pictures of your kids in their costumes, with their candy.  I also love the pictures of groups of kids meeting up and traveling around your neighborhoods, because it reminds me that maybe next year we'll be back in the States, and back to celebrating Halloween for real instead of it being an imported holiday!

Wood Fairy and grumpy Princess, October 2014