How Rachel celebrated Christmas...

This is the contribution of guest author Rachel in the by @Eza Chavez started series “Christmas at our home stories”.

My Christmas celebration has had different shapes and has changed considerably over the years. I had to wait a year before my first Christmas, although I can't remember anything about it. So I was almost a year when these days arrived. On December 27, somewhere between two and three o'clock in the night, I thought it was time to leave the warm womb and land on Earth. Unfortunately, that was accompanied by oxygen starvation, but should that not ruin the Christmas joy, because it was just behind us.

For years, we went to my grandfather and grandmother in Vlissingen, wherever there was German and sometimes Swiss family. We celebrated my birthday there too. I can't remember much of those early years, except that there was no doubt a very good meal, because both my mom and my grandmother were able to cook well. They lived near the beach, so a walk on the beach will also have taken place regularly and gifts were certainly given.

At one point I wanted to be home with my birthday and so Christmas was also celebrated at home. The Swiss family would often come to stay with us, which was often cozy. I got along with my nephew and niece. They started to speak Dutch better and better, although French was their native language. There was always a Christmas tree that I rigged with my mother. Often we also went to buy presents together in advance and went to the luxury Beehive, where we bought the most fun gifts. My mother and aunt spent hours in the kitchen for the most delicious dishes and dinner was a party. It was all cozy, because we didn't see the family often. Both aunts left abroad as an au pair in 1970 and married there.