Smiles on faces, the six foreign exchange students admit they will miss their homes as they spend thousands of miles away from home during the holiday season. photo illustration by Gus Esquinca

story by Ana Garcia

Whether in the El Paso desert, the Swiss Alps or the warm summer season of Brazil, there is one commonality when it comes to Christmas: family.

With eyes about to spill over with tears, foreign exchange student Eileen Hoffman fights back emotions as she recounts what she will miss most this Christmas, as she spends the holiday more than 5,323 miles from her home, Gambach, Germany.

“On Dec. 24, we drive to my grandmother’s house and there are 25 people in a room,” Hoffman said. “It’s so small and nobody can move, but I love it.”

Julia Stocklin hopes her memories of the Swiss winter wonderland, glimmering markets and her family will cushion the distance of more than 5,182 miles from home.

“In my hometown, everything is really close, so when there is a Christmas holiday, I loved to walk from my house to downtown across a really nice Christmas market,” Stocklin said. “Downtown there are many lights and if it’s cold and there is snow, then there is a perfect atmosphere.”

Anna Novaes from Brazil experiences the greatest change in her environment with an absence of her usual summer vacation.

“Our summer vacation is during Christmas, and the school year has already ended,” Novaes said. “It’s very warm and we usually go to the beach.”

However,  there are similarities.

“The government puts Christmas lights in the main Avenues and buildings,” Novaes said. “We also have a tree that goes in the middle of the lake in my city and it’s huge.”

In Germany, trees are plentiful, and Hoffman and her family also take great pride in their Christmas tree and its ornamentation, as the event is a great significance.

“Dec. 24 begins with decorating the tree,” Hoffman said. “Everybody still has their pajamas on and we all do it together. I could never do it without them, but now I’m going to have to.”

As children in the states wait until the last week of December to see what Santa has brought, Hoffman waits less than one week into the month.

“On Dec. 6 we have St. Nicholas day, which is like Santa Claus, but we celebrate it on the sixth because Dec. 24 is Christ’s birthday, so we separate it,” Hoffman said.

Chris Van Nieuwkoop from the Netherlands will also miss out on his country’s spin on Santa Claus, Sinterklaas. Sinterklass is an old bishop who drops candy and presents down the chimney. Children then leave their shoes by the stove to wake and find them with gifts on Dec. 5.

Novaes and other Brazilian children are also very familiar with the shoe routine, but for them it falls under the Santa Claus named Papai Noel.

Once the decorations have been put up, scents of salmon, potatoes and vegetables beckon Hoffman and her siblings back downstairs on the evening before Christmas.

“We have dinner, and before we open our presents, we sing Christmas songs,” Hoffman said. “My brother plays guitar, I play piano, and we sing. I could never open presents without singing; it’s like we’re thanking that we have presents, and that’s when Christmas really starts for me.”

While presents are some of the least important things for Hoffman, she is grateful for the tradition of a mobile that follows the Advent calendar. This calendar offers a small present everyday of December prior to Christmas Day. Though she is far from home, she still participates in the ritual.

“My mom sent [a calendar] for me and for my host sister and they were self-made,” Hoffman said. “You wrap the candy bars in present paper, but [my mother] ran out of that so she made little sacks out of cloth and put in the candy.”

The Advent calendar is a ritual unique to all of Germany, and one in which Hoffman and others across the nation practice. The tradition follows Hoffman out of her house and into the classroom, and becomes a habit to show off to fellow friends.

“Every morning when I go downstairs, I get my present and go to school,” Hoffman said. “There everybody is asking, ‘Oh what did you get in your Advent calendar?’ and they’ll say I got this or that, so it’s fun to see what everyone got.”

Advent is also familiar for Amanda Higgins from Sweden.

“[Christmas] starts the first of Advent,” Higgins said. “The whole town is lit with lights and the first Sunday we bake and make Christmas candy.”

Stocklin agrees that it will not be easy to cope with the fact that she will not see the same faces and hear the laughs she has come to love.

“My family and I used to eat dinner all together, talked about what is going on in our lives, about feelings, religion and politics,” Stocklin said. “That is what I really miss.”

Six days after their new Christmases begin, Hoffman and Stocklin will travel farther down the new journey of the season with New Year’s.

“Last year, I celebrated with my friends and we walked to a different town and met a lot of new people,” Hoffman said. “We have champagne and everybody drinks a lot.”

Once the spirits are consumed, the games begin. All across Europe, a game is played that will tell the person’s fortune for the year to come.

“We used to play a game where you took a piece of lead which you heat over a candle in a spoon, then you keep this lead in a bowl of water and the lead takes a form,” Stocklin said. “Once the lead takes form, you decide what it is, and then you look at a book to see what it means.”

For New Year’s, the Hoffman family makes a special home cooked meal.

“When I was younger we celebrated together and we had a special food called a raclet,” Hoffman said. “It’s where you have a small pan and you cook a few things and heat it up. It’s fun because everyone is crowded around one thing.”

In the last minutes of the year, Stocklin hurries outside with her family as they turn their heads up to the delight of a New Year’s Switzerland sky.

“At 12 o’clock we clink glasses,” Stocklin said. “We have a big boat that travels down a river. It lets go a big firework show which the whole city can enjoy.”

Closer to their temporary homes, the annual lighting of the San Jacinto Plaza brings a breath of fresh air, and the magic is almost as concrete as a substance that can be treasured in the palm of a child’s hand. Off in the distance, on Scenic drive, houses cast shadows of a perfect southwest Christmas; however, it is the soft warmth of a fire and table emanating laughter and blissful joy that surpass any of the desert’s beauty.

These are the sites which those who call El Paso home are used to, and as beautiful as they may be, Hoffman and Stocklin cannot substitute them with the memories of their very own white Christmas.

“The Christmas markets are magical,” Stocklin said. “The atmosphere is unique. The smell from cinnamon, Christmas trees and snow is a wonderful combination, and a necessity for a great Christmas.”