A Swiss Thank You at Christmas

                                                   Hoping to improve on the cordial relations with my neighbours in my tiny Swiss village nestled in the Jura foot hills, I decided to make Christmas cakes and offer them as gifts.

Last year it was “le pudding” proferred as thanks to all those who help me and my British/Swiss family’s life run a little easier throughout the year.  My censorious Swiss husband was happier about this year’s cake as by tradition it did not contain any lucky coins.  Last year’s pudding with its deadly cargo of a fifty centimes piece (no sixpences handy), capable of choking Marylse our seventy year old dog walker or Danny the controller at the déchetterie (recycling plant), left him feeling decidedly mal à l’aise and checking the insurance policies.

He ran himself into the ground, unnecessarily in my opinion and amidst much mutterings of “les microbes!” (germs supposedly from the dirty coin), reciting a health warning with each delivery.  This only left my poor neighbours befuddled and confused as to the exact nature of this “gift.” 

 ”What happened to make a wish?” I had shouted at him in exasperation.

He had one exstatic moment last Christmas day when our own pudding’s lucky coin failed to turn up on anyone’s plate and he excitedly suggested that maybe I had forgotten to put coins in ALL of them.  I replied that it was more likely that one pudding contained two coins…In any case, I assured him, in this insurance obsessed country I was undoubtedly insured against Fernando the school caretaker suing me for cracking a tooth.

So this year, following on from last year’s pudding fiasco, I made traditional English Christmas cakes (without coins) for Marlyse, Danny, Aline and Marie-Claude the school teachers, and Marie-Thérèse in the épicerie – the lady with the hard life and the steel heart that softens for my pyjama clad five year old sleepily collecting croissants on a Sunday morning.

Upon delivery there were the usual polite “ooh la las” followed by “oopla” from the more spirited amongst them when surprised by the weight of a kilo of dried fruit drenched in a quarter bottle of brandy with proper iced snow scene, santa’s sleigh et al, they caught them about knee height.

In this age of pre-packaged goods and shop bought desserts, not to mention the dreaded forecourt bouquet,  offering gifts of home-made food is essentially an offering of your time and effort and a message that says they are worth it. 

Gratitude comes in subtle form from these shy, reserved Swiss.  I was puzzled and amused when the first scrubbed and neatly folded (I swear in some cases ironed!) tartan cake ribbons and pristine santa ornements were returned to me via my letter box.  Then it occurred to me that this was their way of saying thank you, showing respect and of course being Swiss they were instinctively recycling. 

Footnote:  There are many traditions and superstitions surrounding the Christmas Pudding. Some traditions say to make the pudding by the 25th Sunday after Trinity, with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and His Disciples.  It is said that setting the brandy aflame represents Christ’s passion. A sprig of holly as garnish is a reminder of his ‘Crown of Thorns.’ Holly supposedly brought good luck and had special healing powers.   Some families add coins to the pudding for luck.  Everyone then stirs the pudding and makes a wish. Those who get the coins in their serving get wealth, health, happiness, and their wish will come true. 

Copyright Jules Ritter 2007