Tis the most wonderful time of the year

My Favourite Christmas Memory

One of my favourite Christmas memories is of our (me and parents) first Christmas in Saudi. It was a strange one.

In the June my mum and I had moved out there to live with my dad; he worked over there and was only able to come back to the UK twice a year. My older sister had started her own family and my brother was in the army, so my mum thought it was the perfect time to join my dad. Unfortunately the unrest in the region – the first gulf war – meant we were evacuated back to the UK in the September time, but for some reason we were allowed to go back out there for a week at Christmas – bizarre.

We didn’t have any Christmas decorations and couldn’t just go to the shops to buy them as it’s a very religious – Muslim – country. There was no festive wrapping paper, no depictions of Santa Claus, and certainly no chance of snow. We didn’t even have a Christmas tree. It was the opposite of every Christmas I’d ever known in my short 7/8 year life. But, it also turned out to be one of my favourite.

While there was no celebration of Christmas as such in Saudi, that didn’t stop the shop keepers stocking up on “seasons greetings” cards – most of which had palm trees, or the back rooms filled with items that could loosely be described as festive – it was like a Black Market Christmas.

My mum and me decorated the house as best we could. There was a tree made of cards on the wall, and we got hold of polystyrene baubles and teddy bears, which we covered in glitter and sequins. Orange slices were baked in the oven, and added to cinnamon sticks. We stuck cloves in oranges and criss-crossed them in ribbon. I think we even made pop-corn garlands. It was a truly homemade Christmas.

My dad also managed to get a turkey – bless the GI-JOES and their secret ways – to cook on Christmas day, even though we was going to be working until 14:00. We didn’t open any presents until he got home. Although I may have opened my stocking – a brightly coloured sock we bought especially. I have a feeling the presents we just wrapping in plain red and green wrapping paper and drew holly on it; maybe we cut them out and stuck them on.

It was weird. But it was great. A make do Christmas that turned out to be one of my favourite memories growing up.