Christmas Gifts

Fall

It’s now fall in America and autumn over here. The same season with different names and different cultures. I used to think that the US didn’t really have a culture. It was just a watered down conglomerate of cultures mixed with a hefty portion of modern consumerism. But, on living there I found much culture, particularly in the season we call autumn and they call fall.

I also discovered that whilst the US lead the way in the delivery of movies, serials, and Starbucks, that they (well the ones I met) are way more traditional then us Europeans. The guys carry your shopping (I grew up thinking you had to pay people to do that), they throw ‘showers’ (not the bathroom kind – the party kind) and the woman still do crafts (the paper and scissors kind not the witch kind). Even the homes are more classically decorated. So it not surprising that on entering an autumnal home, you will find spice candles lit in the bathroom, ivy and fall leaves arranged on the mantle-piece and miniature strange looking pumpkin things arranged in clusters on any available surface.

So as I was a student of culture last year in Cali, I attempted to embrace every new experience and, of course, get to the bottom of the mini-pumpkin situation. Well that’s what I told everyone. I couldn’t let on that my independant, busy, modern woman self, was more than just intrigued by this creative domesticity. In true Stepford fashion, the candles and the crafts overtook me. Soon I found myself spending my Saturday afternoons giddily cutting and gluing and making and baking at girls ‘get-together’ parties. A glass of sparkling grape in one hand and a Hershey Kisses in the other, we talked, and chatted and dreamed like little girls or old wives. I loved it.

Though I left America, America didn’t quite leave me. So as the leaves started to turn this year, a flurry of candle buying and leave collection took place. I also visited hobby-craft (somewhere I had never been before) to buy crafty stuff and complained the whole way around that it was so limited. Oh dear. Anyway, I emerged armed with tissue paper and skeleton leaves and have proceeded to spend the last week decorating the house for ‘Fall’. A little trip to Ikea nailed the candles and table runner.

All this to say. I love Autumn and now Autumn is in my house. Sigh of contentment and much smiles of happiness. I’m all cultured.