Christmas 2.0

How the Grinch gave Christmas back (52)

When last I whined at you, I was kvetching about how Christmas in Lisbon is terrible. As always here, things change. What seems overwhelming and not-right at the beginning becomes special in its own way once you put aside your expectations.

Christmas Eve we went to church for a potluck dinner. When I say our church is international, it’s hard to illustrate how completely the church embodies that word. You have to do some work to find two people from the same country. Plus, it’s not a clique situation - the people from the Phillipines don’t all sit together. This potluck dinner, where we were actively encouraged to bring a dish from our home country, resulted in the best meal I’ve ever eaten. So many incredible flavors, so well prepared, all on the same plate. Mixing and mingling, dinner with new friends, praying with someone whose name you’ve drawn out of a hat, and then karaoke Christmas carols, it was a heartwarming night. And that’s what I had been missing. The heartwarming feeling of Christmas. This more than checked the box. We almost topped it off by walking home instead of taking the metro to see more of the amazing public displays of lights, but well, we were beat. Next year!

I’ve noticed that Christmas decorations are added a little later in the season than in the U.S. A couple of the metro Santas showed up early December - on a station wall here or there. Slowly the others started appearing.

At a party recently I met someone who also is in love with nativities. I’d seen the one in Rossio Square at the Christmas Market and fallen in love.

The Rossio nativity is about 8’ wide and the figures are tiny. It took me forever to find the Baby Jesus. Scott said find the spice seller and go left. (Spice seller??) I finally found the spice seller (I’d gotten distracted by the donkey cart with the apples) and still couldn’t find him.

She said there was a big one by her, so couple of days ago I went to visit. She lives in Oeiras, an adorable little town by the sea. It’s a mix of tight suburban housing and smaller-scale Lisbon building cheek by jowl in the historic section, and absolutely lousy with gorgeous parks. We had a very authentic Indian lunch at a hole in the wall in one of the splendid alleys all throughout the historic center. The architecture was fabulous, and I kept drooling over the unique tile designs. I’m totally hooked on the town.

At their local mall a larger scale nativity awaited us. Approximately 20’ long, and fully lit. What a treat to see inside the buildings!

Not sure how I feel about the fact that it was animatronic.

While shopping the sales for sweaters, we found a fabulous sale on Christmas goods. (Classic - go shopping for clothes and come home with something for the house.) So now my tree is looking less like a Charlie Brown tree.

I’ve always wanted to try bigger lights!

Yesterday Scott and I were walking home from the vet along an area of antique stores, when an amazing nativity caught my eye. Thinking I must bring my friend, I popped in to ask the owner how long he thinks his display will be up. He said he will take it down January 7, when most nativities are taken down. We fell into chatting, as you do, and he said there are all these others I must see - many from the 1700s! He made me a list, and now I’ve got a project for next year!

Love from Lisbon,

Amy (& Scott)