Christmas in Paris

As Christmas rolls by, I try to make the time-appropriate blog entry have some sort of meaning or relevance to that holiday, even if it means going out of my way to rack my brain for the most remote issue or topic...much as I do for July 4.  Well, this is this year’s feeble attempt at a seasonally appropriate blog entry.

 We celebrated Christmas in Paris from 1979 to 1989 – whoa, covered the 80s there.  1978 was the last Christmas spent in our house in Gaithersburg before moving to Paris, and by December 1990 we were back in that same house again. 

 The weather in Paris is much milder than Washington, DC area.  In summer, it rarely exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and in winter it rarely drops below freezing (though it does get cold) and almost never snows.  About the only thing I don’t like about snow is having to drive through heavy amounts of it on the roads.  Given that, in Paris, we almost never had to drive within the city itself and could get by either walking or taking the Metro, I’d say that ends up being the worst of both worlds in terms of cold weather: cold enough to be unpleasant but not cold enough for snow. 

 The news report which came on brought back memories: they said that in Paris for the holiday seasons, the city will be lit up with extravagant lighting arrangements (by that I take it they mean, MORE extravagant and elaborate than in prior years).  For my part, I do recall plenty of that when I was there, particularly lights in the trees around Ave. Matignon and the Champs Elysees, and the Eiffel Tower itself lit up.  What I remember most of all, in that regard, were the elaborate window displays at the Galeries Lafayette.  Fortunately, once we moved into Paris proper in 1984, we were now within walking distance of that immense department store.  They really knocked themselves out: fantastic window displays, with GI Joe, Smurfs, Legos, Barbie, you name it.  And not merely the stationary mannequins you’d usually see most of the year: this stuff actually MOVED (Kim Cattrall NOT included).  In fact, my dad would refer to them as “moving windows”, and us precocious little kids would correct him, “Dad, the windows themselves aren’t moving!”

 There were also chestnut sellers on the street, but I’m not a big fan of that type of nut.  Fortunately the heat was certainly enjoyable, if not the food.

 Another major deal was midnight mass.  When we were living in the US we would always go to Christmas mass on Christmas morning, which I do NOT remember fondly.  We’d have to interrupt playing with the toys to go to church, of all places.  Not fun (what does church and God have to do with Christmas?  Jesus didn’t bring me all that stuff, Santa did.  Come on!)   In Paris we went to St. Joseph’s, and one year my dad decided to try this midnight mass thing.  If we went at midnight at Christmas Eve, we’d be off the hook for mass the next morning.  Great idea!  We went with that from then on.  More recently we went back to Christmas morning mass, but the midnight mass memories from Paris are still there.  One year we braved St. Augustine’s, the church down the street from us, which didn’t seem to have heat – which is probably why we only went ONE year. 

 Actually, St. Joseph’s started out as one of these more traditional churches in the cross format with old style statues and creaky wooden pews – old enough that you couldn’t tell if the church dated from 1850 or 1920.  Then they tore the place down and redid everything as one of these ultramodern IKEA churches, spread out more like a fan (Nissan Pavilion seating – minus the mosh pit and mixing desk) with the quasi-abstract sign of the cross imagery.  Sooner or later I imagine even St Peters will get the IKEA treatment.

 Oh yeah.  I might as well throw this in.  I remember back in the 70s, while still in the US, we’d get the Sears catalog, the holiday edition as I recall.  And it would have all sorts of totally cool NFL stuff.  What we liked the most, and what we did order, were those jackets with the leather sleeves.  Of course I got the Minnesota Vikings one; at the time they still had the older “Vikings” script with the large V, instead of the newer one that’s kind of a stencil design.  Much of the currently available Vikings merchandise is still available with that logo.  They don’t sell those jackets anymore, though.  Of course my brother got the Steelers jacket, in black and yellow.  I don’t really know or understand why we should associate football, of all sports (if any) with Christmas.  Maybe it’s because NFL-related gear tended to be on our Santa’s list even back then – also because unlike baseball, for which the season ends in October before any real snow comes to the US, football reaches its peak during Christmas time.

 Hopefully everyone, everywhere – even Paris – will have a Merry Christmas this year.  Joyeux Noel!