Catching the Spirit

From their very first Christmas in the United States, Strong and Thu Hong Nguyen were fascinated by the American celebration of the holiday. As Buddhists from Vietnam, they had never exchanged gifts, never sung carols, never trimmed a tree.

“But we watched and we took notes and we learned fast,” said Thu Hong Nguyen, recalling her wide-eyed curiosity at the colorful customs in her new country. “And we have been celebrating it the same way ever since.”

The Nguyens string lights outside their Santa Ana home and buy chocolates and nuts for their next-door neighbors, their mail carrier and their gardener. On Christmas Day, loved ones stream into the Nguyens’ modest three-bedroom home to help them enjoy the holiday.

For many immigrants like the Nguyens, this country is now home, and while they don’t celebrate the birth of Jesus, they have taken in the holiday spirit, customs and traditions and made them their own.

The Nguyens, married for 12 years, realized this year just how powerful a hold the season has on their family. They were planning to cancel festivities because their money, time and energies were being devoted to a new restaurant they’d opened.

But they had to face their eldest child, Tammy, 9, who had written a letter to Santa about what she wanted for Christmas. The parents capitulated. They took their customary first step to open the holiday season by buying a tree--paying $4.99, about all they could afford. Skipping Christmas, they decided, would have been too big a disappointment not only for Tammy but also her siblings, Tien, 4, and Tuan, 1.

“We are so busy working to make a living that sometimes we forget that our family and children need moments like this to just be together and enjoy and love each other,” Strong Nguyen said. “This day is for our children.”

It certainly wasn’t that way in Vietnam, where Thu Hong recalls envying the wealthy Christian families that celebrated Christmas with trees and gifts. There, the Buddhists joined the majority of non-Christians in a loud, raucous day in which everyone jammed the streets--on foot or on bicycles or motorbikes.

“Ask any Vietnamese how they celebrate it back home and they will all tell you about clogging up the street,” said Strong Nguyen, 44, laughing at the memory.

At the Nguyens’, friends and relatives come bearing gifts. The women bring home-cooked Vietnamese dishes such as spring rolls and sweet rice, and the men bring cards and spirits. Some play card games. The rest sing, led by Strong Nguyen, who once traveled and entertained with Vietnamese cabaret singers.

They sing Vietnamese folk songs and reminisce about their homeland before the war against the Communists forced them to flee. When the visitors leave late in the evening, it is the children’s turn to celebrate.

“When everyone is gone,” Tammy said, “we open our presents from Mom and Dad and from Old Man Christmas,” better known as Santa Claus.

Their holiday is complete only after the family gathers around the tree, which this year is decorated with red and silver ball ornaments, red bows, bead garlands and three strands of lights.

“Christmas for us is like everything else in America,” said Thu Hong Nguyen. “It started out as something different, something new, and it has become a tradition for us as well as for the new generation represented by our children.”