Seoung Hee (Sarah) Yoo, Christmas Eve, Tue 56

Christmas Eve

 

Snowflakes are trickling and lights are twinkling. The city is painted in red and green lights that brighten the tranquil night. Christmas Eve enchants the city with laughter, joy and excitement. People are hasty to finish their preparations. Fresh meat and vegetables are bought for an extravagant dinner and presents and decorations are bought to rejoice this symbolic event.

People walk in and out of shops in competition to buy a spectacular cake for this occasion. People rush into the shops to buy the cake of their choice before they are sold off to other families. Sometimes, only the sample pictures of the most elaborately designed cakes are left on the empty shelves because they have already been sold out. Even in the supermarket, people push their trolleys from aisle to aisle to buy the best ingredients for the special dinner. After ensuring that the ingredients are fresh, they head home for other preparations need to be completed.

At home, all the women in the family start working in the kitchen to make immense amounts of food that will probably be too much to finish. While the mother does most of the cooking, the children will assist her with the easy tasks such as boiling potatoes and chopping onion. The mother is usually always the busy one who flurries around the kitchen seasoning and marinating the main meal. The smell of chicken, beef, patty, cooked vegetables and other delicacies rises through the chimney tops and intoxicates the whole town.

Meanwhile, after helping in the kitchen, the children will help decorate the house with delicate ornaments and fancy accessories. First, a handful of stockings are hung on the fireplace. Some families would hang more stockings in aspiration for more luck and if not, more presents. Second, the Christmas tree is gently placed in the living room. The children place the Christmas lights that spark in various colors around the tree. Not satisfied enough, they would decorate it with Christmas ornaments, decorations cut out from colored paper and most importantly, a gold star above the tree. Now that the decoration is complete, the sweet smell of cooked food creep into the living room. The children follow the smell into the dining hall to find the dinner table already set. Families from around the town gather around their dining table in glee. Some say our prayers, some sing carols and some dig straight into their food.

After dinner, all the members of the family help each other carry the empty plates back into the kitchen. Cleaning up is always the exhausting part of big events. However, it is all worth it for the presents that will be awaiting beneath the tree the next day.