Creating Holiday Traditions

 

Creating New Traditions

Our move to Spain brought about a great downsizing from our 1/2 acre yard with a 2000sq ft ranch to a 800 sq ft flat. I of course mis piddling around in the yard and the community it brought with our wonderful neighbors. It was a great space for holiday decorations. It was a tradition we started the year we moved in. 

• We made milk jug lanterns to line the walk to the house. Each one had a face drawn in sharpie to make them Halloween-esc.
• There was a TP roll skeleton that was painted white with a plastic jack-o-lantern for a head.
• A ghost made from a styrofoam ball, an old wire coat hanger and some grey cheese cloth.
• Pumpkins of course (We almost never carved them because the chipmunks and squirrels would devour them....They did this even if we didn't carve them but it took them longer) This led to wild pumpkin vines sprouting up into random parts of the yard each year,,,A great cycle.
• The first years I planted some mums that came back every year after that.
• And each year our neighbor Ms. Linda always gave us a fun holiday themed flowerbed decoration from the dollar tree.

We knew that we wouldn't have a yard so we left them all in the US. But what were we to do in Spain. Would Halloween even be a thing here? We read various things but were not sure what to expect. 

During the summer our Spanish teacher told me that Day of the Dead is celebrated but it not a joyous occasion like I experienced in Guatemala. We saw costumes but were not sure how trick-or treating would work since you need a key to get into the residential areas of any buildings. We bought a little bit of candy just incase. The cable company also dedicated an entire movie streaming channel to horror flics. A trip to a large outdoor mall had a tunnel made entirely of lit plastic pumpkins...yes I made a point to walk through it.

We found the few Halloween decorations that we brought with us and bought a set of Halloween window clings. I used a day of the dead themed decorative paper book I picked up a few years ago to make paper frames that we filled with photos of family members that we have lost over the years, It was our day of the dead alter. (top photo) We watched Coco and enjoyed the cooler temps.

The day of Halloween we saw many children dressed up in costume at the school right by our flat. That night we went out to see what was happening in town. We did witness trick-or-treating. Most bars and shops below the residential areas had signs welcoming tick-or-treaters. The following two days I saw that the florist were doing a booming business but did not see anything else in particular. The only cemetery I know of is way out on the edge of town. I am sure that there must be others but I have not seen them.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Spain so work and school proceeded as normal. They do sell turkey in the meat markets but usually only as chunks for a stew. So we opted for chicken breasts. Cranberries only exist in the dried form as they are a new world fruit. I did an internet search and found a can of cranberry sauce for 8 Euros...no thanks. The people I spoke to thought they were red blueberries; blueberries and cranberries are called the same thing here (Arrandanos). That combined with the absence of pumpkins I made a rice pudding for desert with dried cranberries instead of raisins. Stuffing was concocted from old baguette chunks and fresh veggies were plentiful. 

Since Thanks giving was my favorite holiday before...I am looking for a new favorite holiday.

Christmas requires its own post maybe two so I will leave with a pic of out tree. Its the first artificial tree we have had in 10 years but more on that later.