Keeping It Real: Traditions, old and new

Christmas is just 14 jolly days away. I’m sure some of you have or are still gathering presents for family and friends. Others are probably planning and preparing for family and friends to visit. For me, it reminds me of traditions my family had.

This time of year always conjures the wonderful smell of tamales. Along with Christmas ham, both my mother and father’s sides of the family would make tamales.

Conveniently for us, both my parents’ families live in the same city: Santa Maria. This city name should ring a bell for those of you who attended last week’s History of Stephen 101. There will be a quiz next time. You’ve been warned.

Anyway, both families have different ways of making the tamales. I’ll start with my mom’s side first since that’s the simplest explanation. My mom’s aunt spends a great deal of time making the tamales which are great, but what really pulls it together is her special sauce.

For the longest time, many of my relatives — including my mom — have asked her what the recipe is, but as far as I know, she hasn’t let slip how to make it.

Her house was always the first stop on Christmas Eve. My brother and I would come in and grab some tamales and sit at the table in the garage, savoring every bite. We made sure not to fill up too much because we still had to go to my dad’s side of the family, too.

Now, let me preface this next part by saying that my dad comes from a family of 14 brothers and sisters. Most of those have married and have had children. Some of those children have married and have had more children. Needless to say, there’s a lot of people.

The Real’s, my dad’s side, have a specific day planned out to make the tamales. Bet you can’t guess the name. It’s Tamale Day.

Tamale Day is something that has been a part of the Real family for many years. Due to a surplus in workers (i.e. family members), an assembly line is formed. In the beginning, someone spreads the masa (corn flour dough) on the corn husks. Next comes the fillings. We usually do beef, chicken and vegetarian. For the oddballs in the family, we do make some sweet tamales which usually consist of olives, cinnamon and brown sugar.

The final stage is wrapping them. Once they are very carefully wrapped and packed, we store them until Christmas Eve. A few of my aunts will then spend half the day cooking the tamales in giant pots. Tip: The best way to reheat a tamale is by steaming them.

That was just one tradition on the Real side. There is also the gift exchange for kids from toddler age to junior high. Yes, my dad’s side is large enough to have age-specific events. High school and up could participate in what we called the White Elephant.

White Elephant is where someone chooses a gift and then the person after them can either steal that gift or pick a new one from the pile. The game has different names and different rules. One of ours was that if a gift is stolen two times, it’s frozen until the final person.

This last tradition isn’t necessarily a Christmas one. We usually play it on major holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. It is another game with many names, but we called it Knockout. I recently played it up here with my girlfriend’s sister and her kids and they called it Lightning.

Regardless of name, the goal is to be the last one standing and not get knocked out by the person behind you. Using two basketballs, people shoot from the free throw line. Someone is knocked out when the person behind them makes their basketball before they do.

My family spices it up by having 50 cent buy-in and an additional 50 cents for an extra “life.” So essentially it’s a double elimination. Christmas is when the pot is the largest.

I’m normally a humble person, but I would like to state that I have not been defeated in that event. That is all.

On top of all the tamales we get that day, a friend of the family, Ophelia, had her own restaurant and would bring bags full of tamales over for us. My grandpa would store them in his freezer and send us back to Bakersfield with enough tamales for weeks.

I’m going to warn you, it’s going to get a bit sad here. My grandpa, Baudelio Real, died when I was around 3 and my grandma, Rosario Real, died when I was 10. On my mom’s side, my grandma Jessie Canales died of cancer before I was born. My grandpa Frank Canales (or Pop to me and my brother) died in August of 2016.

Pop’s house is where we always stayed, even when drove up for the weekends. It’s where my brother and I spent some of our summers. It was my own private retreat from the rest of the world. My mother and her two older brothers decided to sell the house after he died.

As a kid, I just looked forward to these holidays for the food and for seeing family and for going to the beach. I’ve come to appreciate their significance as I got older, though. To me, traditions are a way to keep my grandparents alive and to celebrate the sacrifices they made for the rest of the family. I hope that in the years to come I can create my own traditions to pass down to my family.

This is where I’d like to segue into an article that I’m working on currently. It’s about what traditions people in the area have for Christmas. So, if you’re willing to share, email me what traditions you and your family have for the holidays.

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Stephen Real

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