The Christmas season was a time of celebration in our home, however it was not just because of presents or stockings, although there were those too, it was the traditional Christian Christmas season. I was raised Episcopalian and our lives were deeply rooted in the church. I am one of six children in my family with 17 years between myself and my oldest brother. My parents had grown up in the Congressional Church (my mother) and the Quaker Church (my father). However, they were seeking a more liturgical based worship and appreciated the music and rituals of the Episcopal Church. These practices also fit in my mother’s British heritage. My grandfather Middleton came to the US by way of Canada in approximately 1910 at the age of six. He often spoke about his fond memories of Christmas in England. He and his family immigrated to Connecticut after WWI, where he lived until moving to Rhode Island with my Grandmother in the 1920s. Growing up every Christmas my mother would share the British traditions that she grew up with, and perhaps the most impressionable was the flaming pudding. My mother would make the pudding and then after Christmas dinner she would get everything ready in the kitchen, adding the brandy to the pudding and bringing the flaming pudding to the table. I do not recall anyone ever eating the pudding, but it was always a capstone to dinner. After dinner, my father would read A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. These memories mean so much to me, as my father passed away in 2022. I am grateful to have these traditions to share with my own family.

– Elizabeth Soucy

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant