My First American Christmas: Eva Abramian’s Christmas Story, Traditions, and Family Recipes
My First American Christmas
As we approach what will be a unique Christmas season in a challenging year,
board member and company member, Eva Abramian, shares a unique story from Christmas past
Prior to that Christmas in 1994, we were used to celebrating the holiday after the New Year, in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. You see, Armenians as part of the Apostolic church have kept the tradition of celebrating Christ’s birth on January 6th. Although, the festivities would start on New Year’s Eve. The New Year's table was always full, even when the times were tough. And the times were tough! We had just experienced the collapse of the Soviet Union and independent Armenia was not doing well economically. However, as a child I had no clue. I thought mom liked to skip eating eggs for breakfast, I thought she liked to drink tea from a tiny cup. I didn’t know she was rationing. She’d even make us new outfits from old pairs of her clothing, sometimes sewing by candlelight when our lights were off during the “dark times” when electricity was scarce. But all her prep paid off for New Years. The table was set with tolma (stuffed grape leaves), ham, blinchik (crepe filled with ground beef, a Russian appetizer), at least three different types of salad, tuh-tu (pickled vegetables), cheese, and greens. That night we were told that Santa Claus or as I knew him, “The Winter Grandpa'', would visit during the night and we would find something special waiting for us under our pillows when we awoke the next morning, on New Year's Day. Only the children received gifts, and it was just one gift per child. I do not remember adults ever exchanging gifts. Right after midnight on New Years Eve, we would start visiting our family and friends, and neighbors’ homes, and my dad would always take cognac. This visiting of family and friends tradition would last for days, and sometimes weeks.
Christmas on January 6th was much quieter, and more Christ centered than what I noticed in America, which seemed to be centered more on Santa and gifts. There were no gifts exchanged. On January 5th, Christmas Eve, we would attend church service, light a candle for our loved ones and pray, then we would light a candle and bring it home, symbolizing the light of Christ coming into our home. Some would bring holy water, and blessed salt as well. Dinner was simple, typically with red wine, trout fish, rice pilaf mixed with raisins (my aunt Susan says it's symbolic; that the rice are the nations, and the raisins are the disciples going into them). We’d pray before dinner and say lots of toasts.
My first Christmas in America was overwhelming, to say the least. My aunts, Susan and Anush, took me Christmas shopping. They kept asking me what I wanted. I came from modesty and wasn’t able to say anything. I think it was becoming frustrating for them, constantly holding up items and asking, “This? Or this?”. I distinctly remember them holding up two nightgowns, a grey one with a teddy bear on it, and a pink one with colorful ice cream on it. Seven-year-old me really wanted to be liked and accepted. I took a moment to think of which choice would be the correct answer. If I say bear, they’ll think I’m simple, if I say ice cream, they’ll think I’m wild. They took my silence as indecisiveness and bought both, making me cringe with embarrassment.
I went from sharing a streetlight with neighbors in Armenia due to limited electricity, to walking down streets of Pasadena looking at homes covered with Christmas lights and decorations. I don’t think I can explain that experience, except that it was…captivating. On December 25th, we had a huge dinner at my uncle’s house, where my family was staying since we had only immigrated to America a month and a half before. All my other aunts and uncles and cousins joined. I remember a whole roasted pig on the table and my uncle joking that I’d have to eat the pig’s nose. I was laughing because I knew it was a joke but horrified that he might mean it. I remember one uncle playing the piano, another playing the accordion, my cousin playing dhol (an Armenian percussion drum) everyone else dancing and singing along. I got to sing and recite poems; it was all very thrilling. I received multiple gifts, there was so much wrapping paper piled up, and after each gift I’d go and kiss the person who gave it. It was such an overwhelmingly exciting, and high-spirited night, full of love, joy and laughter. Later, I asked, does this mean we won’t be celebrating Christ’s birth on January 6th, anymore? The answer was, we are the first Christian nation, our religion is very much a part of our identity, of course we will, don’t worry, we’ll celebrate both. And…..we have. Looking back, I always thank God for that one special Christmas, where I got to experience the blessings of such love and joy from my family.
Pictured Left: Eva (left) wearing her teddy bear nightgown, singing with her cousin Ani (right). Gata, an armenian pastry, is seen in the foreground
Pictured Right: Eva’s uncles playing piano and accordion
From Our Home to Yours
An Abramian Family Recipe
Gata:
Traditional Armenian pastry
Prep time
50 mins
Cook time
25 min
Ready in
1 hour 15 min
Yields
20-24 pieces
Ingredients for Dough
3 cups (each 250ml) flour
1 cup sour cream, or yogurt
2 eggs
250gr butter
3/4 baking soda, combined with 2 drops of vinegar
Ingredients for Filling
2 cups of flour
1 cup sugar
250g butter
1/5 teaspoon vanillin (vanilla extract can be used as a substitute)
Instructions
Mix the following ingredients: flour with salt and baking soda.
Add the butter, the egg and sour cream (or yogurt) and start mashing all ingredients together.
Divide the dough into three parts, and place them for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Prepare the filling: Mix sugar,vanillin and flour. Take the butter and rub it into flour dough. Make sure once you're done the dough looks like sand.
Shape the dough with rolling pin into 1-1.5 cm phyllo and add the filling as it is shown in the picture.
One more time you need to shape the dough into 3 rolls. Brush the dough with the beaten egg. You can also draw lines on the dough as it is shown in the picture by using a fork.
Cut the dough into medium size pieces.
Bake them in the oven for 20-25min at 175C(350 F). Use baking paper.
(Recipe from Hubpages- Armenian pastry -Traditional Gata)