Christmas in America

When I couldn't convince my parents to take up Christmas in its entirety, I tried talking them into at least giving me a present or two. We finally compromised on a Christmas cake, which was essentially a strawberry shortcake with a skinny marzipan snowman on top, next to the letters, Merry X'Mas! I later learned that strawberry shortcake was not part of the usual Christmas tradition. The cake, however, was very good.

I think I might've had an unhealthy obsession with toys. I was among many of my friends who grew up under parents who didn't "believe" in toys. I played with the one Barbie doll I had until it lost most of its limbs. I played with my mother's toy car collection, using my father's collection of American matchboxes as roads. Mostly, I was bored out of my mind, often staring out the window of our fourth floor apartment at the crows perched atop a roof of another apartment building. Sometimes I would go to my friend Della's house, where there were no toys. Her bedroom consisted of a bed. My friend Akiko didn't have toys either. The only person I know who had toys was Nami (or was that the girl with the hamster?), and our friendship pretty much ended shortly after I was caught stealing her toys.

I must have been around 12 when I approached my father about planning some sort of special Christmas dinner. My mother wasn't home that night, so I was thinking along the lines of a nice hotel dinner the following evening. My father, who was reading the evening newspaper in his usual chair, suddenly got up and said, "Let's not wait. Let's go out tonight." We both grabbed our coats and he led me outside. We walked across the street toward a small ramen-noodle stand. He ordered himself a bottle of beer, two bowls of noodles, then turned to me and said, "Merry Christmas."

I'm glad my family stuck to the traditional Japanese New Year celebration now that I've become an observer of American Christmas. I should say a novice observer because I know my mother-in-law secretly laughs at my admittedly skimpy Christmas decor. At the height of her holiday decorating mission not long ago, she had a couple dozen small to midsized Christmas trees all over the house, each one with a special decor and name. She had a singing Santa Claus hanging on the wall by the front door and special ornaments and lights everywhere. I hear she used to keep the Christmas tree well into February, until her family finally begged her to take it down earlier.

Now that I'm on the gift-giving side of Christmas, I'm wondering if I can convince my American family to observe a little of the ascetic Japanese New Year. Anyone up for some sake and noodles?