Remembrance of Flavors Past
Holiday food memories
By Barbara Chisholm, Fri., Dec. 21, 2001
Christmas: The Original Screenplay
Rashomon taught us we all view history differently, even if we were all present at the same event. Rodney King taught us (if you believe the jury in that case) that even filming an event doesn't capture the episode. I don't concur with the Los Angeles jury in their verdict, but I concur that film can lie.
Take a family Christmas film from my youth. I'm about 9 or 10 years old. My dad, predictably, decided to preserve the occasion on film. This was in the days before video, so filming involved bright kleig-type lights, a heavy camera, and (in my father's case) a storyline. See, my father, while quite incompetent mechanically, loved to make a production out of just about anything. And if a home movie isn't a production, than by God, what is?
Rather than the predictable movie of a clan beaming in front of a tree, opening presents, partaking of a meal, etc., etc., Dad devised a script! It had everything: comedy, drama, pathos, and thrills. The climax involved various members of the family attempting to sneak a taste. First, me and my younger sister are seen tiptoeing into the dining room which is laid out with an elegant buffet groaning with turkey, dressing, vegetables, frozen cranberry salad -- the works. We run our fingers along the turkey, lick them, grab a cookie, and run. Then my uncle and brother meander into the same room. Checking to make sure they're alone, they quickly pour themselves a snort of wine, toss it back, wipe the glasses clean on their shirttails, and beat it. Another brother and my brother-in-law come into the room and attempt the same thing. Only this time, in classic Hollywood fashion, they are caught by the disapproving marm played by my sister.
While filming, Dad realized that my sisters' surprised reaction (a brilliant mime of hands to face) was a bit out of the frame. So he had her repeat it closer in the frame. Of course, the movie was never edited and the finished product is an awkward double take followed by the men's defeated exit.
Okay, so isn't Steven Spielberg. And the players aren't going to win any awards, and the events aren't even true. But there really was a Christmas with lots of family, lots of hamming it up, and lots of wonderful food on an elegant buffet laid out with sterling and china and crystal. All in attendance agree to that. And those elements still define Christmas for me.
