Holiday Series: Christmas

The Advent post was mostly about our family and what we do to prepare for Christmas.  We took a low-key approach to the actual holiday, lounging around in our PJs and Skyping with both families.  We went to a Catholic mass on Christmas Eve (an education in Peruvian time- we went to several churches, one had a service advertised to start at 5:30pm, but at 5:50pm they were still setting up mics and putting out paraments (the cloth that goes on the altar) so we headed over to the church that was supposed to start at 6pm and their service was actually in session).  This post will focus more on the general things we saw as the way that Peruvians celebrate Christmas.  Here is a link to my Facebook album including lots of pictures of an Arequipeñan Christmas.

Decorating: There isn’t any gateway holding Christmas decorating back (since Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here).  The malls and many shops had their Christmas decorations up by Halloween.  It was a little weird to go trick-or-treating (done at stores here rather than homes) with a 3 story Christmas tree as a backdrop to the costumed kids.  Decorations typically include lots of garland and lights.

Sample of Christmas decorations for sale

Another Christmas shop

Many of the lights flash and/or play tinny Christmas music.  Christmas stores pop up all over the place and many have multiple display lights going at the same time.  Experience the magic!  Video of tinny Christmas music lights 

Many people put lights up on the outside of their homes.  Coming from Minnesota, I found it particularly amusing that they were often taped to the stucco or concrete walls with packing tape.

Santa Claus: Santa Claus (called Papa Noel) isn’t a big figure.  Peru is largely a Catholic country, and the emphasis is very much on the nativity story.  Other expats told us that Santa doesn’t bring presents to Peruvian kids and that it is just in the past few years (malls appeared on the scene about 5 years ago) that there has even been a big Santa influx.  We saw Papa Noel in the main square and I think he just said "Hi" to Miss M and didn't ask her what she wanted for Christmas.  The department stores had a lot of Santa merchandise (plates, ornaments, and other decorations made in China).

Miss M and Papa Noel

Nativity Scenes everywhere, including public parks: It was a bit odd for me to see Nativities all around, especially in the public squares.  Every city seemed to have a public nativity and many of them were sponsored by the police or government agencies.  Neighborhoods and businesses have nativities out, as well as your everyday citizens.  Almost without exception, baby Jesus is either covered up with a cloth or not in the manger. He makes his appearance late Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day.

Life sized straw nativity in our city park.
Includes ox, llama, reindeer and flamingo.

Nativity in a gated community near our house.
Note that Jesus is covered up.

Nativity scene at the post office (picture taken after Christmas)

Nativities seem to have a LOT of animals. You can buy many different kinds (the store displays reminded me of Noah's ark in their variety of animals, but there were many more than two of every kind).  I don't recall having pandas, tigers, or turkeys in my stateside nativities.  They sell crumpled style paper so you can make your own snow-capped mountain for your nativity scene.

Lions and tigers and bears...and ducks and seals and turkeys...
and llamas and hens and.......

Nativity display in another community.

Close up of the animal display.

I saw this paper everywhere, but didn't
realize what it was for until I saw this display.

Miss M and I accidentally viewed a police nativity.  They were inviting people in as we walked by.  It was really elaborate- the size of a two car garage in width and about a car's length in depth.  They used Barbie dolls and other small creatures and animated them with movement.  There were dancers from various parts of Peru as well as scenes like bull fighting, chickens pecking and guinea pigs running around on the ground.  They also had a reenactment of the nativity story, starting with Gabriel coming to Mary, then showing Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem, and ending with the wise men traveling and presenting gifts to the Christ child.

Police Nativity setup- left side

Police Nativity setup- right side

I regret to inform you that I apparently have no video or photographs of my favorite part of the scene.  Police GI Joe dolls rappelled from a helicopter to rescue Papa Noel who had gotten stuck in the chimney. (You can see his legs sticking out of the chimney on the right side of the right side picture.)  Perhaps I will be able to capture it next year on a quality camera device now that we have found our camera.  After that, two GI Joe dolls dressed as policemen came down from the ceiling to rescue some bedraggled Barbies and children from a smoking (literally smoking) building, complete with bullets soundtrack.  (Remember, this display was sponsored by the police.)  There was no charge to view the show.  I have heard from more than one person that the police force is corrupt here and I'm wondering if this is part of a public relations effort.  Regardless, it was a fun display to see.

Here is a video clip of the nativity scene (annunciation to visit of the magi).  

Here is a link to my YouTube channel, which has other Christmas clips and videos from the nativity.  I am afraid the video quality on my phone isn't that great- we'll have to try again next year.

Church:  We went to a Catholic mass for Christmas Eve.  The Sunday services we have attended seem to start on time, but that wasn't our experience with Mass.  We couldn't figure out when church services were, so we decided to head downtown where there are several churches in hopes of finding one.  We got there around 4:30pm, and the church closest to the square had a service at 6.  We stopped in at the tourist help desk, who called around and found a 5:30 service.  We got there at about 5:20 and looked around the church (which had an involved nativity up front, complete with running water river and waterfall).  Then we looked at the various icons and ended with the confession booths..... because despite the fact that 5:30 came and went, there was no service starting. People were working on setting up microphones and putting up the paraments (fabric coverings for the altar) after 5:30.  Come 5:50 and no signs of the service starting anytime soon, we decided to head back to the 6pm church. Upon arrival, church was actually in session.  They sang a couple of Christmas songs we knew (What Child is This and the Little Drummer Boy) but they were by soloists.  And the drummer boy doesn't say "pa-rum-pum-pum-pum" in Spanish.  The rest was a bit difficult to follow as it was in Spanish.  The church was packed out, however.

Church #1 (15 minutes after the advertised start time).

A portion of the first church's nativity display.

Food: The traditional Christmas meal includes turkey (way more expensive here than the States- on sale, it’s over $2/lb.), applesauce, champagne, and panetón (a special kind of sweet yeast bread style cake studded with dried fruit).  There are other traditional foods, too…you can buy a meal kit from all the grocery stores where they package up the standard fare and they have cheap versions up to expensive ones.  Panetón is a HUGE thing here….one grocery store swapped out a full aisle to have these cakes and every aisle in the store has the top shelf storage filled to the ceiling with boxes of these cakes.  You can buy a single cake or a box of six.

Two page spread of Paneton.
There were more pages than just these two.

So, in summary....Jesus and the nativity story are really big and are highlighted by everyone, everywhere. Special food abounds, including the ever present panetón.  Santa isn't a big deal (yet...I'm curious to see what it will be like in a generation or so).  And there is the traditional Pervuian focus on fancy decorations and fun party gear.  Oh...and there was a massive fireworks explosion at midnight on Christmas, which we are coming to realize is the standard holiday cheer around these parts.

See other posts in the holiday series:

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Advent

Christmas (that's this post)

New Years

Easter

Mother's Day