Noël 2015

Christmas for the French is very much like Thanksgiving for Americans.  It's a very family oriented event, and it often includes very specific dishes for their big meal.  While I see these foods in the grocery store every year, I'm not too sure what they do with them, as we've never been considered family to anybody and been invited to share.

Until this year.  We have now experienced our first French Christmas as guests in a French home, and I thought I'd share it with you.

A lovely family

We met our hostess in our country dance class.  Later, her daughter joined the class, so we also knew her.  When our dance class didn't continue this year, we joined the fairly new chorale group.  It seems to be populated with half the country dance people!  So we are still in contact with a number of old friends, including our hostess. 

When we got to her house, we also met her son for the first time.  And we met her nearly 90-year-old mother and her brother.  They are originally of Spanish descent.  Another guest was Portuguese, while a couple who has been sharing the date with her for decades were both born in France but have Italian roots.  So in reality, with our being American, it was a very international gathering. 

A Christmas selfie

I think the daughter must have gotten a selfie stick as a gift, because she spent the whole afternoon playing with it.  I haven't seen any of the results yet, but some of them included me.

We started out grouped around the coffee table in the living room, being served very traditional hors-oeuvres.  We had two colors of fish eggs, some smoked salmon, and foie gras, all on toast rounds.  And champagne.  The surprise was guacamole with chips, which I wouldn't have considered the same kind of festive!  I think the only traditional thing missing were the raw oysters.

Ready for the traditional Christmas feast

Then it was time for the main meal.  It actually was quite similar to our Thanksgiving, with not quite as many dishes and without the presentation of the uncut bird.

Instead of turkey, which is quite common, we had capon with a chestnut stuffing.  There was a lovely mushroom casserole and green beans with garlic slivers. 

I finally decided that the main meal was our Thanksgiving, and the starter course was New Year's, all rolled into one!

A fashion lesson

Becoming the decor

During the meal, the daughter was trying to fashion my new velour top.  She borrowed her mother's scarf, but that just really wasn't right. 

Then the hostess' brother got in the act and decided I needed an ornament.

Unusual hair decoration

The clown amongst us

I'm not too sure what he was doing, I felt rather silly being the object of attention, but then he dropped the ball.  Despite being plastic, it broke into a million pieces, which he then decided would decorate my hair.

I needed not to have felt too silly, as he then went on to wear the remaining ornament on his nose as well as steal some of the table decoration for his hair.

Whoever thinks the French are stuffy should spend a little quality time with them!

An old-fashioned Christmas songfest

Gathered around the Christmas tree

As a few of us were in the local chorale, the hostess thought it would be fun to sing some of our Christmas songs, so we all relocated to the living room again.

Alpine Queen glued to the music

Doc Leo adding to the entertainment

Fortunately we had the words from chorale, as we don't have the French translations down on well-known songs we only know in English!

I think our hostess was very happy to have somebody else be able to actually participate, as the other guests mostly just listened.

Mother and grandmother

It was very much a family event, but half the guests fell into the friends category.  In reality, it was like an old-fashioned Christmas in a modern setting.  Fairly simple with everybody participating in one aspect or another. 

Family did cooking, guests brought their own meal contribution, and everybody provided the entertainment.  

Even the grandma had a good time.

Cousins practicing their serving skills

To finish it all off, while the rest of us were relaxing and singing, the two cousins, who are fairly close, served us all plates of dessert. 

There was a bakery Buche (log), with lots of Grand Marnier flavoring (orange), a homemade one covered with a chestnut icing, and the very classic Mousse au Chocolat, which everybody knows how to make except me!

It was a totally lovely meal, with totally lovely ambiance, and totally lovely hospitality.  It was a very nice way to spend our first French Christmas with the locals.  I hope your day was just as lovely in whatever way you spent it.