Yes, I spent pretty much every major holiday at my friend’s house this year. I already wrote about Halloween…so now I’m going to tell you about Christmas.
For Christmas, I had no idea that in Colombia they don’t have Santa Clause. They think the idea of a fat dude, in red footy-pajamas, riding magical flying quadrupeds, and free-falling down chimneys to eat our food and leave us gifts, is silly. Instead – they believe Baby Jesus brings you presents.
They also don’t have gigantic evergreens indoors…at the most they put a small tree outside with lights. Blinky lights.
Medellin LOVES their blinky lights. On the tree, on the balcony, over the streets. (Its actually really cool looking) And the blinky lights all blink at different speeds (even on the same patio), so its all twinkly and stuff all night. I love it.
So this Christmas, being my first Christmas ever out of the USA, I decided to teach my friend how to cook for Christmas (he wanted to learn, and I love to teach). But instead of making traditional American turkey and stuffing, and fish, and the whole shebang…or well, I’m still not sure what traditional Medellin Christmas dinner is.
(Pretty much what every other meal is here, fried meat, with fried plantains, beans, rice, and a tiny salad…just to be healthy.)
There seemed to be some outdoor, impromptu fire pits, and lots of milk-based gelatinous desserts, some full of large chunks of wood (aka. cinnamon bark) and called (deceptively) Natilla…
(not to be confused with the ever so decadent chocolate hazelnut spread Nutella.) Natilla is pretty good, if you don’t mind the day old pudding texture. (Its like harder pudding….which the fact that I ate it and liked it shows how good it is considering my aversion to slimy foods. I don’t even like Jell-O really.)
No this Christmas we had homemade meat spaghetti sauce and apple pie. Yes, we went to the La Minorista (the indoor farmer’s market), and came back to spend hours slaving over the stove making homemade meat sauce. Sauce with pork, and sausage, and a ridiculous amount of basil and fresh herbs.
There was also my favourite holiday dish ever.. APPLE PIE (ok, so I’ll make up a holiday if it means I get to have apple pie).
It is so incredibly American..but I love apple pie and actually get quite upset if it is not made for every holiday. So I decided to make homemade apple pie (homemade the crust and all). And teach my friend how to peel apples for his first time.
My friend never had peeled apples, let alone with a knife, yet this kid has some crazy savant knife skills.
HE ACTUALLY GOT A WHOLE APPLE PEELED IN ONE PIECE!
(I’ve been peeling apples for years and have only done that like twice!)
It was the most non-Colombian-American traditional Christmas I think either of us ever had, but I had so much fun being in another country, learning about Baby Jesus vs. Santa Clause
( I really thought Santa was universal, and I’m still pretty sure he’d win in a fight against baby Jesus),
and cooking all day in the kitchen to have, well, just really yummy dinner!
This was the apple pie the next day. We devoured it. Apple pie is not just great for holidays…cold apple pie also makes a delicious breakfast (its fruit, its healthy…as healthy as any other food in Medellin), and lunch, and midday snack….
I loved being in Medellin for Christmas, and getting to celebrate it with my friend and his family. I want to spend more holidays in other countries to see how else these holidays are celebrated.
From brian wallace:
i love colombia.i spent 3 weeks with my friend sandra and her family at there home in bello.i thought at first her mom was fatting me up for slaughter,because she was always feeding me.sandra introduced me to( i think the whole family).i visited alot of different barrios in medellin and bello.i really enjoy there version of life.i am going back the first week of december for 2-3 months, my friends our setting me up with a apartment in bello.this will be my first chistmas outside u.s. and i think it will be great!i have the feeling they apreciate life and christmas alot more than we do here. brian in seattle
From Danib:
I love Medellin and the area. Im going back in October for Altavoz Music Festival again and looking to move down there sometime late 2013 or early 2014
From Paulette:
I haven’t seen the Christmas lights in Medellin since I was eight years old! that was the first (and so far the last) time I have spent Christmas outside of the U.S. I was visiting my father’s side of the family for the first time (they are all located in Bogota and Medellin) and I remember most of us–uncles, aunts, cousins, everyone–venturing to one of my uncle’s farms up in the foothills in Medellin for the week of Christmas, and spending the holiday there. I recall the food being somewhat traditional when it came to the meals (Bandeja Paisa, Fritanga) but I do remember receiving a number of gifts, all from “baby Jesus.” I was so excited to see that you are now the only person outside of my family I have found who knows what that is! I grew up receiving Christmas gifts from my father from “baby Jesus” and my mother, a non-Colombian, along with all of my friends, never understood why. I still enjoy this, as my father still does this. It is part of my childhood and I love it
From Danib:
Im glad I could bring back some nostalgia for you. I didn’t get the ‘Baby Jesus’ thing either at first; but i guess it can be anymore ridiculous than a morbidly obese man, in red feety pajamas, riding magical flying reindeer, and magically fitting down chimneys to bribe us out of food with presents.
I actually love spending the holidays in Medellin. My goal now is to go back to the states, make money, help get my Colombian boyfriend to the USA to meet my family, then come back to live in Medellin. This country is amazing!
But damn!, is Paisa Spanish hard!!!!
Cheers!