A Sanchez Hawaiian Christmas Memory

We were invited to spend Christmas in Hawaii with older friends, who were devout Catholics. Tony and I were not Christians yet. We were young parents with two young children in tow.

Even though it was Hawaii I expected that we would have a tree with my special ornaments at Christmas. When we arrived in Lanai we were told that there were no Christmas trees on the island because of a strike. I had packed bread dough ornaments to decorate our Hawaiian Christmas tree. However, because of the tropical weather I unpacked long stretched out pieces of dough, dolls from around the world with no heads and arms. We had no Christmas tree and no ornaments. The only tree we saw all week belonged to a young woman at the local fabric store. We developed a friendship over a few days as Tony ordered some custom Hawaiian shirts. She had a small scraggily dry “Charlie Brown” tree.

On Christmas eve we went to midnight mass at a beautiful little white church with our friends. It was an amazing island service. A conch shell was blown and men, woman and children dressed in Hawaiian clothing and flowers walked in a processional to the front of the little church. A man dressed like a Hawaiian king carried the “Christ child” to the altar where he raised the child to God before placing him in a manger. It was one of the most moving Christmas eve services I have ever been too.

After church we went to the little fabric store, the young woman gave us her tree on Christmas Eve. We went to our condo decorated it with shells and homemade ornaments. It was a very special time with our family and friends. I always remember the memories of this long-ago Christmas.

-Livie Sanchez