Memories are made of this

Like every year, December starts with Christmas fever. Shopping centres try to outdo each other in terms of Christmas decorations; the first Christmas trees and lights appear on the streets, in office buildings and in our houses. And what about us? Our blood pressure goes up and we get into a real state. The race around the shops begins and our shopping bags fill with ingredients for the Christmas dinner. We run around frustrated trying to find presents for our loved ones and, like every year, end up buying another pair of thick socks for our dads. How do we remember our most beautiful Christmas holidays? Usually these are the ones which took place a long time ago, which become more colourful as time goes by – those with Christmas trees reaching the ceiling and Father Christmas with his beard and paunch bringing a huge sack of presents.  The heroes of this special feature tell us about their favourite Christmas memories from their childhoods.

Robert Dobrzycki
CEE managing partner of Panattoni Europe
Christmas has always been one of the most important occasions in the whole year to meet the family and friends. It so happens that there were a lot of women in this circle and I have to admit that such days were not always easy for me and my younger brother to bear.  As you can imagine, there used to be a lot caressing and kissing by grandmothers and all the aunts. Nowadays I recollect these moments with affection, but at the time I was not keen on leaving my hiding place. When I was a little older I used to be responsible for helping my Dad bring a Christmas tree home, as it had to be a fresh tree. Now I associate Christmas first of all with the beautiful smell of fir trees. Christmas is also rich in food. For me the greatest distress was caused by eating borscht. This was a necessary condition which you had to fulfil in order to be allowed to open your presents. I am still not very fond of this soup. Of course we used to know all the nooks and crannies of the house, so no present was a secret for us. Besides, December used to be generally full of presents because my birthday also falls in this month. We would spend the free holiday time walking in the forest and skating on the lakes, which there are no shortage of in Masuria, where I am from. I also remember that even when we were teenagers our parents were still insisting that Father Christmas existed. I think this was a good approach, even though I was much more prone to believe that my dog would  finally speak with a human voice. (Editor’s note: In Polish folklore animals  can speak at midnight on Christmas Eve.)

Grzegorz Pękalski
president of the management board of Libra Project
I  have had the dubious pleasure of being Father Christmas for the last seven years, since the children in my family reached a relatively conscious age. However, I would like to warn all the enthusiasts of Christmas that this is not such an easy task as it might seem. First of all you have to be prepared to cope with the rising temperature of your body resulting from squeezing yourself into a thick outfit. I would like to warn everybody that overheating is just part of the job and that is why giving presents should not last more than 30 minutes. But this is not the worst thing – it is the terrible beard made of cotton wool, which gets into your ears and mouth and tickles you in an unpleasant way. And now about the pleasant things: if somebody feels that nobody ever notices them, in this role you are sure to attract exceptional attention. The second pleasant moment involves arousing the excitement of the kids. While the 5-year-old or older ones concentrate on exposing the person behind the outfit, the smaller ones are so impressed that their emotions get the better of them and their excitement at Santa giving them presents is boundless. In any case, I find there are more disadvantages to this role, and every year I promise myself that this the last time. But who would bring the presents then?

Ben Bannatyne
managing director of ProLogis (Central Europe)
Celebrating Christmas on December 24th was a big surprise for me when I came to Poland. As was the carp swimming around in my mother-in-law’s bath – a most bizarre sight. Christmas Eve is also a time for celebration in Scotland, but this tends to be a big night out on the town with friends, with the 25th being reserved for family and Christmas traditions. Poland certainly captures the whole meaning of the holiday much more – being much more focused on the family rather than the commercial hype.

Wojciech Ciurzyński
president of the management board of Polnord

I associate Christmas with family, tradition and eating. Every year I spend it in the same way. About 20 people sit down to Christmas Eve supper, including close and distant family. There is a big Christmas tree, carols, lots of traditional Christmas dishes and even more presents. My favourite among the Christmas dishes is the stuffed carp,  but to tell the truth, I only eat it at Christmas – it clearly tastes better at this time. I remember when my parents bought a carp and I used to watch it with great interest as it swam in the bath. Later I could not understand what happened to it, why it had disappeared, because my parents had spared me the sight of the swimming carp being transformed into a stuffed fish. Of course you can’t have Christmas Eve without Santa Claus. When I was a child I used to look forward to seeing him impatiently. In a sense I still believe in him, I associate him with waiting for something nice, and after all, this is what everybody needs, regardless of their age. Without this belief Christmas would be sadder. Our Christmas tree is always big, beautiful and colourful. There are baubles, sweets, paper chains and different decorations on it. In the past there used to be wrappers instead of sweets because I ate the sweets as soon as I could and arranged the wrappers so neatly that nobody was able to figure out that they had been empty inside for a long time. I also remember singing Christmas carols from my childhood, which I used to like very much. At Christmas we meet up with our family and friends once again. After days spent in this way, I always think that it needs to be changed, that I should go away somewhere. But when December comes and another Christmas Eve is approaching, nobody in my family wants to hear about going anywhere. So we spend it as we always do – in a traditional, pleasant and family-oriented way.

Andrew Stear
managing director of RED Projects

The present I always wanted and never got was a Scalextric model car racing set. I didn’t think my father was in a good enough financial position to buy us one, so I could never pluck up the courage to ask him. So I had to make do with cheaper toys. My most vivid holiday memory was when I was somewhat older and staying in the El Dorado Hotel in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Suddenly the hotel was surrounded by Guatemalan army soldiers, dressed like German soldiers and installing machine gun emplacements around the hotel. I was told by the hotel management that this was to protect the hotel because there was a conference of Central American heads of state. I asked the management if they could put me on a tourist day trip to get away from the rather intimidating atmosphere in the hotel and that is what they did! There is also an army involvement in one of my memories as a kid. I was at an army kids’ Christmas party in Libya when I was about four years old. Santa Claus came in with his sack. I took one look at him and shouted “That’s my Dad!” – and went up and pulled off his beard. That’s when I stopped believing in Father Christmas.

Zbigniew Zajączkowski
president of the management board of Eiffage Budownictwo Mitex
Gifts under the Christmas tree always appeared the night before Christmas Eve.  Father Christmas brought them and according to my parents always had so many presents to give that he arrived late at night, so I could not see him with my own eyes.  On this December day, when my parents were at work, my older brother and I decided to check if our Mum had bought any treats for Christmas. It was traditional for my Mum to save exquisite sweets (such as chocolate marshmallows in golden wrappings or a chocolate mix) for special occasions. It was also traditional for both of us to carry out inspections of one of the cupboards, which we used to open in a way only we knew about. On that day not only the delicacies appeared before our eyes, but also my dream toy dumper truck that I had spotted in the scout supplies depot and which was everything I wanted – turning wheels, opening doors, a lifting platform, etc. Of course we were sure to nibble a little on the stash of sweets. Seeing my complete astonishment, my brother quickly dispelled my illusions regarding the supposed benefactor – Santa Claus. The magic was gone. However, I soon found out that I could direct my requests for presents to my parents, so it was not so bad after all.

Holger Schmidtmayr
member of the board of Sparkassen Immobilien

As a child I had hundreds of wishes and, of course, not all of them could be fulfilled. However, growing older often also means becoming more realistic and modest. This is a quality I also appreciate business-wise when managing other people’s assets. Of course there are still a lot of things I wish for, but most of them cannot just be placed under a Christmas tree anymore. I’m a father of five so there are a lot of funny stories to tell. But last year my 15-year-old son Patrick capped it all. Trying to douse the candles he actually set himself on fire. Nothing serious happened, but the whole family still laughs when remembering him jumping around the tree like crazy. Back in the day, my four older siblings were all extremely talented at lying and keeping secrets – and the non-existence of Father Christmas was no exception. I was as old as nine by the time my schoolmates told me the truth. Finding this out was really disturbing. Still I think there is nothing wrong with putting some biscuits on the windowsill on Christmas Eve – you can never be sure, can you?

Sławomir Doliński
chairman of the supervisory board of Dolcan
I always associate Christmas with the warmth of hearth and home, the closeness of loved ones, comfort, calmness and delicious Christmas Eve dishes. I try to transfer the recollections of my childhood years and the traditions to the present day, especially as the head of a big family – the husband and father of three children. However, a great deal has changed over the years. Now Christmas is a completely different holiday than in the past. The approach to it is also different, resulting from a change in lifestyles, but also due to other factors, such as the commercialisation of this event all over the world. For me Christmas is first of all a time of reflection, rest and memories. I remember particularly warmly the times when I used to dress up as Father Christmas for all the children in the family and the neighbours’ kids. It is a great feeling when you see the happy eyes of the youngest ones, trustfully fixed on Santa Claus, waiting for their presents. There was a lot of joy and laughter then, but also some uncertainty when I pulled the rod out of the bag and openly wondered who it was for. In the end I usually handed it to one of the adults, to the joy of the kids. (Editor’s note: Children who have been bad over the year are given a rod instead of a present according to Polish tradition.)

Indrek Allmann
architect at Pluss

As an architect I can only give conceptional answers to the questions about Christmas I was given by ‘Eurobuild CEE’. So, here we go:. How would I describe Christmas in Estonia? Snow. What’s the funniest Christmas-related story I remember? Waiting for the snow. What gift do I still wish to get one day? Lots of snow. What was my worst present ever? No snow. What is my favourite Christmas moment or story about? Snowing. Would I be able to spend Christmas in Africa or some hot place with no snow? No! (In the photo: Hannah Eliel and Cathleen Marie, Indrek’s daugters, enjoying the benefits of the Estonian winter)

Sean J. Clifton
associate director of Jestico+Whiles

From the age of six a tradition was started in our house that I would draw a huge Christmas picture on our living room window using spray snow. I started off with snowmen and snowflakes, but ended up with complete snow-covered villages. You could already tell I had a thing for architecture. Once when we were sitting in the attic space of our house in England looking for the Christmas decorations, I asked my Dad if Father Christmas really existed. He told me “I’m afraid not really son,” but I did not fully believe him. I have never really stopped believing in Father Christmas, and now understand he has a partner called Ježíšek in the Czech Republic! I always wanted a horse, as my grandfather was the chief inspector of British racecourses and I was often allowed to ride famous horses such as Red Rum. Mum persuaded him it may not be such a good idea, but did take me to riding lessons, where I was promptly bucked-off into a huge patch of stinging nettles! In time, however, I managed to stay on the horse for the duration of the ride! Unfortunately, I have never had a horse of my own.

Reinhard Schertler
managing director of S+B Gruppe

In Austria we believe in the ‘Christkind’ – the Christ-child, a traditional Christmas gift-bringer who is a sprite-like child, usually depicted with blond hair and angelic wings. As a child growing up in the mountains I strongly believed in such old customs for a long time, but I think I stopped believing in this one somewhere around the age of 12. In our folklore there is also a kind of anti-Santa – the ‘Krampus’, who is an ugly and hairy guy sent from hell to punish badly behaved kids. The Krampus goes around the houses on December 5th, while St Nicholas visits on December 6th.  So we try to hide ourselves from the Krampus and even nail and board up all the doors. When I was in kindergarten, every year my parents were very proud when I took part in the Christmas play. This year my little son will also take part in the nativity play and so I’m now a very proud parent too. And the best Christmas present I have ever had is being able to celebrate the holiday with my own kids.