Christmas in Lyon

Maybe it's because we don't watch French TV. Or because we no longer have young kids. But Christmas in France seems less frazzled, frantic, and frenzied than in America. Sure, people still get out and shop for presents, but I don't see the same gluttonous spending-spree mentality amongst the people here. There's no such thing as "Black Friday." Malls don't stay open until midnight (they do, however, open on Sundays, which is a big no-no throughout the rest of the year). Shoppers seem to go casually about their business, strolling along at a leisurely pace, hardly paying attention to the longer lines at the cashier and hoards of people in the streets.

Here in Lyon, nighttime in December feels festive and gay (using, of course, that good old-fashioned definition). Many streets glow with Christmas lights and other leftover decorations from the Fête des Lumières. White flocked Christmas trees in large red pots line our own street. Throughout town, shop windows are often cheerfully decorated with greenery, tinsel, and colorful baubles (often blue, purple, pink and silver rather than red & gold). But sadly, hardly anybody decorates their own apartment balconies. Last year I went through the trouble of stringing lights on our balcony, but without an outdoor plug it was impractical -- we had to leave the windows open to accommodate the extension cord, and it was brutally cold!

Santa is a fairly rare sight in France. Kids can get their photos taken with Père Noël in the big malls, and he makes an annual appearance on a horse-drawn sleigh in the parc de la Tête d'Or, but I haven't seen Santa decorations in homes or stores. Last year we went to Christmas dinner at a family's house in the country, and I didn't see a single lawn display featuring Saint Nick and his eight tiny reindeer. So sad.




Trees, however, are becoming a bigger deal here -- literally. Friends who have been in Lyon a long time said that it used to be that families might set up a very tiny "Charlie Brown" tree on top of a table. But now many grocery stores, marches, and florists in the city carry trees up to 2 meters tall. This week I've seen lots of folks dragging trees down the sidewalks or hoisting one over their shoulders. Even larger trees can be found in countryside cut-your-own tree farms, just like in the US, but for the second year in a row we elected to go with a student-run business that would deliver right to our doorstep -- and it was a bargain, the cheapest price I've seen so far. (No matter that the top of our tree is missing a few branches, it's all good!) The best part is not having to use one of those aggravating Christmas tree stands: the trees here come pre-mounted onto a large section of wood, cut in half so the base is flat and the trunk fits in a hole drilled in the bark.

The one Christmas tradition that the French seem to do even bigger and better than the U.S. is....drum roll...SWEETS! Entire aisles of the supermarkets are taken over by candy displays: crinkly cellophane sacks of Révillons, pyramids of Ferrero Rochers, boxes of Mon Chéri...it's all so good! And the pâtisseries have to keep up too, with all sorts of special Christmas cakes and treats, such as the bûche de Noël, a cake rolled up and decorated to look like a yule log.

No wonder I'm constantly singing "It's the most fattening time of the year!"