The chorus of the famous French Christmas song "Petit Papa Noël" includes "n'oublie pas mon petit soulier" (don't forget my little shoe, please Santa). One of the sweetest French traditions: shoe shining on Christmas Eve, placing the little shoes under the tree and then waking up to find them full of chocolate papillotes. Colette was very well-intentioned, but hadn't quite understood: she got four pairs of shoes for her and four for Romy and placed them all under the tree. Xavier explained it is only one pair, and well-shined, so they did hers and Romy's together.
Xavier's dad inspecting the work of Christmas Eve - souliers full and piles of presents.
Chocolate papillotes include words of wisdom - to be read aloud together.
Another tradition I like in France (especially Provence) is the crèche at the foot of the Christmas tree. Of course our crèche is made up of hand crafted/painted figurines from Aix (Fouques family). We picked out the traditional characters, but added a band of Provençale folks, tiny lavender plants and an olive tree for the setting.
1 comment:
I love the Christmas traditions, sweets in the shoes, the "ban", creche at the foot of the tree. What a lovely holiday and thank you for sharing! Merry Christmas!
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