Christmas Cheer

I promised my friends snow for Christmas. They were all coming from the desert, craving that one element of Christmas cheer I could guarantee living so close to the mountains. While it only ever rains in town, snow blankets the surrounding mountains during the winter. But after a freezing November, Christmas in Foum Oudi was barely even cold enough to warrant a steaming cup of hot chocolate. No snow. No Christmas trees or cards. No twinkling lights. No carols on the radio or Salvation Army Santas. Christmas was not in the air.

The snow I missed. And the twinkling lights on the portly Fraser that my family usually buys this time of year. Evading a month of listening to the same songs, however, was a blessing, the absence of kitsch Christmas lawn décor a relief. Plus, when I ran out of eggs, all the stores were open. Measured by the standards of one Sarah Thornton—my college roommate who arrived our senior year toting three bins of Christmas decorations, adorned the apartment before the turkey was done roasting, and never took them down after the holiday—I’m a veritable Scrooge. Christmas in Morocco was a breath of fresh air.

But I did my best to recreate the Christmas spirit for my guests. I gathered olive branches in a vase and topped one off with a yellow star. Handmade stockings cut from old T-shirts hung from the windows. I baked three batches of cookies—chocolate chip, peanut butter, and ginger molasses—and served pancakes on Christmas morning. And I listened to carols for 48 hours, courtesy of Kyla’s iPod. Despite being my first Christmas away from home, there was cheer aplenty.

Published February 14, 2013