It's Christmas season in the Low Countries.  This is the eighth December that this American family has spent in Europe, and every year it feels like the cultural overlap becomes a little bit greater.  Does this mean that Dutch holiday celebrations are taking on more and more of an American flavor?  Does this mean that our family has taken on more and more of a Dutch flavor?  Or have we found a way to blend holiday traditions that allows us to meet somewhere in the middle?  To a certain extent, I think all three of these possibilities might be true.

I genuinely believe that Dutch Christmases have become noticeably more "American," since we first moved to the Netherlands.  Christmas decorations are more abundant and more available than when we spent our first winter here.  Things like Christmas shopping and Christmas music seem to have become a bigger deal to the population at large.  The city has more activities like the Rembrandtplein's "Winterland," and they start earlier in the month.  And it also makes a big difference that the winters have been more "wintry" -- with a lot more snow and ice over the last three winters than anything that we experienced in the first five winters that we spent here in Amsterdam.

Our family has also adapted to celebrating the holiday season in this part of the world.  We've figured out places where we can acquire specialty items like saffron and cardamom (to make Lussekatter for Santa Lucia Day)... and the kind of pumpkins that can be made into pumpkin pie... and Christmas decorations (I highly recommend the Intratuin on the Nobelweg for any Americans seeking to deck their proverbial halls).  And we've come to enjoy the unique aspects of celebrating Christmas in this part of the world -- with all the olibollenkramen (mobile bakeries), cozy little brown cafes, and sparkling lights on long, dark nights.  I'm guessing it also helps that our family has grown considerably in the years since we first moved to the Netherlands.  It feels a lot different to be celebrating Christmas with two adults and a small toddler (like back in December 2003) than it feels to be celebrating with three noisy children filling the house with their songs, shrieks, and laughter (Have you seen the YouTube clip of our kids dancing in the Christmas Spirit of the 1980s?  It would definitely give you an idea of what the kids bring to the holiday celebrations!).

In any event, we're enjoying this holiday season.  Yesterday evening, we had a party / open house for people from our church, and it really ended up being a lovely evening together with friends.  To me, it felt like a blending of worlds.  American traditions blended harmoniously with European traditions -- hot apple cider and Moldovian wine... Singing Christmas carols and engaging in deep, thoughtful conversation.  I don't know how else to explain it except to say that I felt like singing "There's no place like home for the holidays."