The Holidays in Argentina

“Christmas in July” now has a new meaning for me after celebrating my first summer Christmas. It’s weird, but in many ways it’s the best of both worlds. It’s Christmas traditions plus lemonade and ice cream and sunshine and flowers. I actually got sunburned while doing my last minute shopping on Christmas Eve!

Argentines don’t really celebrate Christmas all month long like we do, but with so many North Americans in one house we couldn’t help making a couple hundred dozen cookies. We made up some plates of cookies to deliver to businesses in the neighborhood. Our recipients were either over-joyed or completely confused. Americans have a reputation of having an overabundance of Christmas cheer, thanks to our pervasive Christmas movies. We were happy to confirm the reputation.
Argentines celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and then all night long. We started with a potluck dinner at the church at 9:00. We had Brazilian chicken cordon bleu, American green bean casserole, and Argentine grilled meat, all delicious. Having already opened their presents, some of the kids brought their new toys to play with. My favorite was a plastic tea set that was actually a plastic mate set. To make the evening good and South American, a very kind, stray dog wandered in. We couldn’t get it to leave until we all left around 11:30 to watch fireworks from the Pastors’ roof. If you’re reading this, you’re probably from Idaho and, like me, are accustomed to a Fourth of July fireworks show by the city and a couple of rascally rebels who set off reservation-bought fireworks from their houses. I have never seen an entire city of fireworks going off at the same time. Well, now I’ve seen it twice. At midnight on Christmas and New Years everyone lights fireworks. From the rooftop, it looked like the horizon was exploding. Apparently in small towns it is common to spend all night visiting neighbors and family members’ houses. Here in the city, people stay up chatting with family or go out dancing and drinking. Our Argentine team members stayed up late drinking mate on the sidewalk. The rest of us went to bed so we could wake up and start all over again with the “real” Christmas celebration.

Juan working on the grilled meat


The Christmas Eve dinner crew

Just like out tea sets but mate!!

We practiced our circus act on the way 































On Christmas Day, I got to skype with my goofy family in the afternoon. We got together as a team before dinner to read the Christmas story aloud (in three languages), do a gift exchange, and play four on the couch. I love playing four on the couch, but skyping with my family was by far the best part of the day. Although Anndee’s apple pie was pretty stellar too…


New Year’s Eve is a similar celebration: family, friends, fireworks, no sleep. Ours was extra special because we combined it with Juan’s birthday party. He has been super excited all month about the goat he was going to prepare for us. He bought it at the beginning of December because they are a hot item during the holidays and difficult to find for New Years. That means we’ve had a goat in our freezer all month. It was more entertaining before he put it bag. Retrieving ice was a harrowing task with a dead goat staring you down the whole time. The grilled goat was very good. The goat organs actually tasted good too, except with every bite my brain was screaming, “You should not be eating this!!” We introduced the Argentines to two more American favorites: ice cream floats and nerts. We don’t have any root beer here, but the coke, orange, and lemon soda variations were pretty tasty. Nerts is a hard game for beginners, especially with a couple experts around the table. Damaris is very competitive, but after a couple rounds she was a true convert. I see many tournaments in our future.

A cooked goat

Friends share goat legs

The birthday boy and his first float

Damaris with her Fanta float


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