My mother was born in 1926, and her childhood Christmas in the village of Atammik began very early in the morning of December 24th.
She and her five siblings went to bed at six o'clock on the evening of the 23rd and were woken up at two o'clock. Then it was Christmas in the small village.
- On the 23rd, we had received a gift from the trading manager. We all got ship's biscuits, sugar, coffee and rice. And there was something for the whole family. In the evening we were sent to bed early. But it was hard to fall asleep, because it was so exciting to see what our little house would look like.
- Early the next morning, at two o'clock and at the latest at three o'clock, we were woken up, because the adults always danced around the Christmas tree at four o'clock in the morning, and we children arrived at five o'clock. It took place at school. The day before, we had been up with a little thing for the one we had drawn our name on.
- The adults had made the Christmas tree from juniper berries. It was so beautiful. I even think they were more beautiful than the ones you can buy today. They stood so beautifully with candles, roses and Christmas hearts that the adults made. There wasn't much paper, so we children didn't help cut it. But we were allowed to have the leftovers that the adults couldn't use for anything. We put them in our schoolbooks and swapped them with each other.
Newspapers on the walls
- After we had danced around the Christmas tree and exchanged our gifts, which were usually a candle and some treats like figs and candy, we children would go around and invite people for coffee. And the day went by going to each other's houses for coffee.
- At home, we had received our gift from our parents. It's not like today, the big gift table. We usually got something we needed in advance. A couple of slippers or some clothes. But how nice it was.
- It was so exciting to invite people for coffee. Because for Christmas all the families had stuck newspapers on the walls. Newspapers they had received from Nuuk. We knocked and didn't even have time to look at the ones we came to, because it was so exciting with all the newspaper pages on the walls. At Christmas we really learned to read Danish, my mother laughs, because they didn't understand much of the texts, but the pictures were exciting.
- But it was so cozy in the small homes. There were candles, which we didn't normally see in homes. They were only used on special occasions. Everything sparkled so beautifully.
- The whole day was spent having coffee with each other. And in the evening we got something special to eat. We usually got rice porridge with berries, or we got brown beans cooked with bay leaves and sugar. It was just some of the best we could get. On the 25th we usually got Greenlandic food.
Christmas in Nuuk
- It was so nice to celebrate Christmas that way. That's why it was a bit of a letdown for me when I came to Nuuk in 1951. Even then, people lived differently here. It was like a little more lonely.
- But it was also here that I saw a real Christmas tree for the first time. And then my own first Christmas tree was to be eaten by sheep.
- I was a friend of a painter, Ivan. Together with his children we went out to buy a Christmas tree for Christmas Eve. And it was very exciting for me because I had never seen such a Christmas tree before. When we got home, I put it on the roof of the coal house. And then it turned out that it was blown away at night and the tree fell down.
- There was a lot of noise outside in the morning. And I didn't think it had anything to do with me. But when they called me laughing, I went out. And then I saw the poor Christmas tree on the ground. There weren't many needles left on it, and all around it were lots of sheep. And I just started to hoot. At that time I couldn't see anything funny about my first tree being eaten by sheep.
New Year
But back in Atammik, we are heading towards the New Year.
- The time between Christmas and New Year passed very peacefully and pleasantly with coffee and cake at each other's houses. The adults had a day to enjoy themselves, and the young people also had a day.
- On December 30th, exactly at midnight, a shot rang out. A single shot and no more. That was when people shot to see off the old year. And then we knew that the old year was going to waste. And they competed to see who could shoot first, because you got a gift from the store manager if you were the first to fire the shot.
- On the 31st we went to church at 11:30 p.m. and at midnight the shots started to be fired, and we had entered the new year. You had nothing but guns back then. All the new things about rockets didn't come until long after I had moved to Nuuk, says my mother Asuba Eugenius.
