Christmas here is quite low key, there’s less hype and less preparation. It will be our first Christmas in Africa and we intend to do it in style.
There’s quite a lot of our traditions that just don’t translate. Most Malawians know of Father Christmas/Santa but not the whole presents in the sock thing on Christmas eve and most house don’t have chimneys! The personalised video message from Santa to the kids (set up by sister in law via a website) was just baffling! I tried to explain what mincemeat is and the fact that we only eat at Christmas, we’re going to make some this weekend. Our pile of presents feels excessive here, but is much smaller than in previous years, we’ve only had 3 Christmas cards and I sent a handful back to the UK.
Today I introduced a load of ex-pats to the very Anglican Christingle, with somewhat limited supplies – birthday cake candles as the only other option was really big practical ones; apples instead of oranges (none to be found in Blantyre this week, although a few days ago there were loads); paper red stripe because the lady in Shoprite refused to sell me the nice ribbon as they couldn’t find the price and some odd sweets and chopped up marshmallows. Our group of mums and kids enjoyed making the Christingle and hearing about the symbolism which encourages us to look forward to seeing the story completed with Christ’s death and resurrection.
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