Sugar cookies. Paper tree.

Christmas overseas has always been a bit tricky for me to figure out. How much of our family customs do we try to keep? What of the new culture do we try to add in?

We have spent two Christmas' in southern Africa and both were very different. The few Christmas traditions we did keep were our Christmas tree (although it was paper and a bit small) and making and decorating sugar cookies. For the cookies we always found friends or neighbors to include in the fun and share our custom with, otherwise we tried to participate in the various Christmas activities going on around us.

A few churches in town got together for a carol service that we greatly enjoyed because it reminded us of home. One thing that was most different for me personally was to go to church on Christmas day.

Our second Christmas, we decided to be even more like our friends and we went to the rural home of some of our co-workers. This is what most people from the city did and we took advantage of an invitation to join our friends. To be honest, not much of Christmas eve or Christmas felt like Christmas as we knew it. We enjoyed time with friends' relatives, going to visit and being visited, and of course having a big meal that included meat.

The thing that struck us the most was how no one really talked about the birth of Jesus that day. It was a good reminder to us of how easy it can be to forget why we celebrate Christmas at all if we don't choose to set our minds on Christ.