24 Days of Martin – Day 10: International Celebrations

Martin waves goodbye to the bus driver and hops off the last step.  “Bye!  See you tomorrow!!”.  As the bus drives off Martin runs across the driveway, up the front door steps and yanks the door open all the while yelling “Mom!  Mom!  MOM!!”.

Bells from the wreath are jingling as Mom comes into the living room to see what the commotion is all about.  “What is it, Martin?”, she asks him, slightly worried for Martin, and slightly worried for the wreath.  She would need to remember to send Martin out in a bit to sweep up all the pine needles he disturbed.

“Did you know that not everyone celebrates Christmas!?!?”, squealed Martin.

“Yes, Martin.  I did know not everyone celebrates Christmas.”, Mom agreed.  “If you take off your boots and put your backpack away, I’ll hang up your coat and we can have some hot chocolate and cookies while you tell me all about what traditions you learned about today.”

“Deal!”, hollered Martin as he ran off to his room.

Five Minutes Later

Mom and Martin are sitting at the kitchen table.  Martin, trying to get more mini-marshmallows into his hot chocolate while Mom’s back is turned to get cookies, begins to tell his story to Mom, “We had a special lesson during Library Time today.  Miss Phoebe had a whole list of celebrations that take place in December that are related to Christmas but take place on different days, and a bunch of celebrations that don’t even have anything to do with Christmas!  I think I might make a ‘Holiday Celebration Calendar’ for the Christmas Carnival!”, Martin exclaimed.   “And you know what the best part is?” he asked slyly, “none of the new stuff involves Germany!!”  Martin declared.  He grabbed a fist full of mini-marshmallows and stuffed them in his mouth for emphasis.

Mom shook her head and smiled.  She took a small sip of her hot chocolate letting Martin revel in his declaration.  “You are so silly with Christmas and Germany!”  Mom waited a few more moments for Martin to calm down and continued, “What countries are involved then?”

Martin scrunched his forehead and scratched his chin. “Let me think.  Miss Phoebe talked about United Kingdom, Australia, Venezuela, Italy, Poland….  I’m sure there were more but that’s what I remember right now. She gave us a handout, wanna see it?”  Martin was up and out of his chair, heading to his bedroom before Mom could even respond.  He returned with the handout, panting, “I forgot Iceland, and Belgium, and Portugal, and a whole lot of other countries, see.”  Martin handed the handout to Mom.

She reached across the table to take the handout.  Glancing quickly, Mom shook her head and agreed.  “Yes, there are a lot of countries here.  And these are a lot of different types of celebrations.  Anything else Miss Phoebe wanted you guys to know about December and January celebrations?”, she asked.

“We have to pick a tradition and write a paper on it.  I picked the Yule Lads.  Otto picked the 12 Days of Christmas, and Mags is going to do “Las Posadas”.  We have to give a short speech about our papers in class next week.”  Martin widened his eyes and wiggled his eyebrows.  He liked giving presentations.  “We are all going to get together over at Mags’s house this weekend to do research and write our papers.  Is it okay if I take three of our encyclopedias with me?”.

Mom leaned back, took a final sip of her hot chocolate, and smiled.  “Of course!  I know how much you three love research.  And let’s go a little easy on the papers.  It’s just a report, not a full-fledged presentation!”

Rolling his eyes, Martin gave his Mom a quick peck on the cheek and a hug around her neck.  “Of course, Mom!  We’ll keep them short!”