Kimo's Advent Calendar:
Behind Door #1.
Every Christmas my grandmother upon receipt of a gift would announce demurely, "Christmas is for children and merchants", and with the look of "you shouldn't have" immediately admonished you for "wasting your money", even when it was utilitarian and something she needed. In our household, Christmas was always about the children and overstuffed with traditions, party's, and holiday cheer, for it was indeed an unparalleled event for the young ones and the merchants, as we were eagerly indulged by our often overzealous parents and grandparents.
The Christmas tradition I am most fond of is Advent. As a child our family celebrated the festivities usually with a large German style Advent Calender being delivered in the mail from my Grandparents and from December 1st. to the 24th. each of us received a little gift, having been mysteriously deposited in Secret Santa's sack (which was a 3 1/2 foot tall hand painted Annalee doll of Kris Kringle with a big green burlap sack). Every morning, I would wake up bright and surly and go find and open the corresponding door on the Advent Calendar and then reach into the sack to find what Secret Santa had left me.
A hand painted Annalee Doll, dozens of which would
festively festooned our home for the holidays.
Christmas was a magical time in our family and we were encouraged to believe in it's magic for as long as we allowed ourselves. We would have as many as three Christmas trees, with decorations in every room and fresh garlands running up the stairs, over the mantle and around the pillars, inside and outside the house. But what I enjoyed the most was creating the magic for my younger brother and sister, who were several years younger than I was. My job every Christmas eve was assembling all the toys that needed to be assembled, installing batteries, and wrap, wrap wrapping until the wee hours of the night, and than placing all the gifts under the tree when the moment was right, and my siblings were all nestled away, snug in their beds.
In the spirit of good tidings I thought I would unite some of the many multicultural traditions that make the Hawaiian Holiday Season uniquely Hawaiian buy offering an Advent Door a day until Kalikimaka(Christmas), featuring a Holiday word or tradition found here in Hawai'i!
Hau'oli Hikina / Happy Advent
May the season of giving bless you for your generosity, kindness,
and good cheer!
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