It Came Upon a Midnight Clear Barbie

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear Barbie

A debate that occurred regularly in our house could have been called "French Christmas or English Christmas?"  My mother came from Acadian stock and my father's parents were British.

My mother felt Christmas began with everyone who was old enough attending  midnight mass. After mass, you woke up the little ones and the réveillon began.  Rabbit pie was the featured treat.  People went to bed at dawn and turkey dinner was served in the evening of the 25th.

My father wanted everyone to hang stockings and go to bed on Christmas Eve.  Then we could wake up early to open gifts.  (As a child, I interpreted early as 3 AM, not popular but in retrospect a nice meld of the two traditions).  There was children's mass at 9 and we could play with our new toys all day until the turkey dinner was served.

When we were little the English tradition prevailed but, over time, the scheduling got more French.  My brother was an altar boy and my mother was so proud she made him a cassock and surplice of his own.  There was some in the sacristy but they were of dubious hygiene, often needed repair and the right size was not always available.

When he was 9 or possibly 10 years old, he was asked to serve at Midnight Mass.  In those days, mass was in Latin and after the gospel there was a long prayer called the Confiteor.  The altar boys would crouch, heads down, on the floor and recite it with the priest.  The congregation knelt and bowed their heads.  At the end of the prayer, we lifted our heads and three of the four altar boys did too.

But not my brother, he'd fallen asleep.