Christmas in Israel

The best thing about being in Israel in these weeks before Christmas is the complete and utter lack of the tacky, stressful feeling that Christmas brings on in most European countries.

They are not spamming the airwaves with annoying Christmas songs. The shops are not full of hideous color combinations of tinsel and epilepsy-inducing lights. And there is not the pressure to “SHOP SHOP SHOP!!! ONLY 15 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!!”

Nice.

Instead, it’s easy to relax. Despite the lack of pressure, there is still a sensation of Christmas in the air. You know the tingling, excited feeling that tickles your spine and warms your belly with thoughts of sitting with the family and enjoying each others’ company?

I have that right now just from pure anticipation. I look forward to gingerbread cookies, warm glögg, the frosty air, the Christmas tree twinkling quietly outside the window. I drool as I think of my mother making the Christmas ham, and how my dad and I might yet again plan another gingerbread house, buy the dough and the candy for decorating it, and then do absolutely nothing at all except eating the sweets. We would probably eat the dough raw too, if it weren’t so hermetically sealed.

Certain classmates at the Ulpan do randomly burst into Christmas songs, however. I’m not sure whether they’re trying to annoy me or what, since they’re Jewish and they know I don’t like Christmas songs… But it hasn’t annoyed me yet. I’d much rather hear it coming from someone’s mouth than from everywhere else.

Mm. I could get used to this.