This year, for the first time in a decade, there will be no Canadian troops eating their traditional Christmas turkey dinner a day early or two days late, because on the day itself, the meal will be something out of a tin, eaten in the shade of a patrol vehicle.
For the first time in a decade, we are not at war, a wonderful Christmas blessing.
Nevertheless, there are many people who will spend Christmas half-way around the world – teachers, missionaries, medical people, engineers, volunteers with NGOs, and yes, military personnel. Canada still has a strong military presence in Afghanistan and various other places.
Dinner might be boiled goat and rice, greetings from loved ones brief and with a weird long-distance-telephone echo, and gifts whatever could be scrounged from the local market. Some homesick co-worker might have decorated a potted plant with paper snowflakes and wads of scrunched-up foil saved from care packages from home. There might be strings of popcorn, until someone notices they attract bugs. Or Kleenex flowers tied to the “tree” with string. A small pink teddy bear tops the “tree”. But it is still a Christmas tree, and beautiful.
Closer to home, many of us have at least one family member who will be spending Christmas eve and day at work – tow truck operators, transportation and communications people, security guards, people in the service industry, musicians, health care workers, emergency service personnel – the list is long.
Farmers work on Christmas – no matter what the day, cows still have to be milked and livestock fed. The day begins long before the sun comes up, as it always does.
Christmas is another working day for people who work at hospitals, too. Illness and injury happen every day of the year. At Christmas, as many patients as possible are home with families if only for a few hours, and the mood is usually festive. Sometimes local choirs appear to sing carols in the halls, and people drop in to offer special greetings. There are always staff members who bring trays of delicious homemade cookies to pass around, and the decorations are beautiful. Some people volunteer to work the holiday, because their co-workers and patients have become somewhat of a second family they truly care about.
There are service station staff and convenience store clerks smiling and wishing customers a Merry Christmas as they pop in for a coffee and a couple of lottery tickets. Some have volunteered to work the shift for the extra pay, while others are simply the lowest in seniority – or the owner who chose to work so the staff could stay home with their families.
The fortunate among us might celebrate the holidays at a fancy restaurant or resort, and that means people are working. They will have their holiday dinner later, but on the big day itself, the customers’ needs come first. It is reminiscent of an earlier age, when the lord and lady of the manor, along with their guests, spent Christmas dining at tables laden with more elegant foods than they could ever hope to eat. The next day, the servants got to take the boxed-up leftovers from the sumptuous meal to their own families, giving rise to one theory on the origin of Boxing Day.
While many of us dream of a white Christmas, snow plow operators are praying for a green one. They have spent too many Christmases on the road – or where they hope the road is – sipping coffee from a Thermos and eating a turkey sandwich someone hurriedly threw together the moment the call came in.
Police officers, firefighters and paramedics also know that the worse the weather is, the less likely they are to be enjoying Christmas dinner with their families.
The last place any of them want to be is gathered at the scene of a car crash or house fire, or on a snowy highway, yet that is exactly where they will be should the need arise. And we are grateful. Rudolph’s red nose is nothing compared to that lovely blue glow of a snow plow in the distance, guiding us safely home.
From all of us at the Advance-Times – may your Christmas dinner be festive, whether it is shared with family, friends, co-workers or total strangers, and may all of you have a safe and happy holiday.