December 9, 2008

Argentine Christmas Traditions?

Hello again!

Whoops. Better turn the language setting on Word to Ingles so that I’m not dealing with all sorts of red squiggles.

There we go.

So, this week has been full of travel. Did you know that I hate traveling? I love going to all sorts of places, I just hate the travel. It was another Zone Conference this week, so another trip to Mendoza. And there’s another trip there in the works for the 22nd for a Christmas Party. It’ll be fun there, but before and after, not so much.

Don’t really know what I’ll do for Christmas here. Argentina seems to have no Christmas traditions of its own. Mostly they’re all stolen from the US. There are tons of Santa Clauses with elves and snow. In Argentina. It’s summer here. So, Santa Claus and Christmas trees here are not an adopted tradition from European immigrants like they are in the US, but are stolen from TV and movies. But they do have one inherited Christmas tradition that does not exist in the US. They have panetone. Only here they call it pan dulce, or sweet bread. They have the traditional kind with fruits inside, but they also have kinds with chololate chips or almonds or other things. They also have smaller, pound cake-sized versions called budin. I have a goal of getting a taste for the fruity kind so that I can help you eat your yearly panetone, Dad. So far I’ve only had a chocolate chip budin.

There’ll be more next week.

Love,
Will