Preparing for Christmas in Riyadh

By this time last year, we had set up our Christmas tree and we were packing our bags to go home to see our families for the holiday. This year, we had some different circumstances. Due to the fact that we didn’t think we would have a passport in time for Harris to travel (we do now!) we didn’t plan on leaving for the winter break. While living in Riyadh isn’t hard from a convenience standpoint, there are certainly aspects of it that are not easy. But we had to make do this year and prepare to spend our two week vacation with our slightly smaller family unit.

Since my family has always traditionally started Christmas preparations as soon as Thanksgiving was over, we got a head start this year! Shannon’s parents were staying with us, but because I had to work on Thanksgiving and they were flying home that day, we celebrated with them the weekend before. Then they got to help us set up the house for Christmas.

We set up our tree this year while listening to Christmas music as a family. We even got to unpack and set up our nativity set, which is a weird tradition that has been in my family for generations. It all started with a traditional wooden hand-carved nativity set that was passed down from generation to generation. When my uncles were small, one of them took one of the figurines from the set and played with it like an action figure. When they broke the piece, they replaced it with a different toy. So the once traditional wooden nativity set then had a random toy to fill the space. From that moment on, the tradition was to have each member of the family add an animal or contribution from their past year every year. When I moved out of my parents’ house, my sister was given the traditional family nativity mosaic and my mom gave me a brand new small nativity to start my own. Now, it is a sprawling masterpiece full of dinosaurs, llamas, and bulls. It is a totally random collection that doesn’t look right or fit together, but serves as a yearly celebration of past memories for me. I look forward to passing that on to Harris when he gets older.

With the house and tree set up, it was time to get some presents. So Shannon and I set off for the mall one weekend with the baby. We tried our best to adjust to our surroundings. There would be no Christmas music blaring through the countless malls. But we were out to make it the closest to “authentic” as possible. We set off and got to the mall, stopped at Starbucks for some holiday hot chocolates, and we were surprised to find sort-of-holiday themed paper cups. They didn’t say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, but the festive red and green color scheme and decorations seemed to step right up to the line between secular and non-denominational Christmas. I found the tactful insistence on holiday cups to be encouraging. Then, Shannon and I put our headphones in with Spotify Christmas playlists on to pretend we were getting the US mall holiday experience and we split up to go get presents.

After a few hours of shopping, one or two prayer closures, and a pitstop for me to feed the baby, we reconvened for dinner and went home. When we got there, we threw some Christmas movies on and began wrapping our presents. And yes, we were wrapping them in wrapping paper that says “Happy Birthday” because there is no Christmas wrapping paper here. We’re just going to pretend they are “Happy Birthday Jesus” messages.

Shortly after, Shannon and one of our neighbors hosted a Christmas cookie party at our house. Shannon got together with some friends at the beginning of the year and they set up some special ladies only social events throughout the year. This was one that she signed up to set up and host. Each of the 25-30 women or so who attended brought 24 cookies. I think the rules were that 12 were for everyone to eat while there, and 12 to swap. The idea was that each woman would leave with a collection of 12 different cookies to take home. My role in this was to clean the kitchen and living room, build a fire for them, and take the baby upstairs for some daddy time during the evening. From the sounds of it on a different floor, they all had a wonderful time. We also attended a special holiday event at our school where parents all brought their children to do crafts, eat cookies, and meet Santa. Since Harris is on a strict milk only diet, he avoided the cookies. Due to his lack of hand eye coordination and ability to hold his own body weight in a seated position,

or his own head upright, he passed on the crafts. But he did get to meet Santa!

It’s crazy to think that this time last year we were going to the States to see our families, then off to Berlin for New Years. We had an amazing time then, and we will now. But thinking about those two as mirror events one year apart highlights the stark differences in where we are in our lives. Now as I sit here, we are starting our winter break and we're a few days before Christmas. I have obviously been counting down the days. We will be staying in town for most of it. We will be reuniting a small sect of the family by way of Shannon’s sisters coming to visit for Christmas. We look forward to showing them around Riyadh and some of the outer areas of Riyadh. We’ll show them some of our favorite places and things to do. We look forward to some time with them, a proper Christmas dinner, some presents, and some Harris time with them. After they leave, we are planning a short trip to Bahrain for New Years Eve and a few days outside of the Kingdom with Harris. We’re looking forward to our two weeks of well deserved rest and family time.