Christmas Letter to My Sister poem by Maki Kureishi
Stanza 1:
Each year I decorate a Christmas tree
With trinkets from Bohri Bazar, Germany, Japan.
You’ll send home more from China
And Korea to please my daughter.
The speaker describes the annual tradition of decorating the Christmas tree in this stanza. The tree is adorned with ornaments collected from various places like Bohri Bazar, Germany, and Japan. The sister sends additional decorations from China and Korea, especially to delight the speaker's daughter. These trinkets symbolize the connection between the siblings despite their geographical separation and the continuation of traditions that tie them together.
Stanza 2
Each year I hang the glitter
Of our children up again.
Mother kept our own tree secret
Until Christmas Eve, when, doors thrown down wide,
It started us—a dour
Cypress from the garden, now enchanted
Bearing its fragile globes and stars
Like goblin fruits. I use
This stanza reminisces about the past, specifically how the speaker's mother used to keep their Christmas tree hidden until Christmas Eve, creating a magical reveal. The tree, described as a "dour cypress" from the garden, was transformed into something enchanting with its delicate ornaments. The phrase "goblin fruits" suggests a sense of wonder and otherworldliness, highlighting the magical atmosphere their mother created during Christmas.
Stanza 3:
A less dramatic Casuarina pine,
As you plant spices in Cologne, but though
Your backyard's fertile as a flowerpot,
They’ll not grow native yet are native
To the private landscape where we lived ,
alien and homegrown. Often
Here, the speaker contrasts their current Christmas tree, a less dramatic Casuarina pine, with the cypress tree from their childhood. The sister is mentioned planting spices in Cologne, which are foreign to the region but native to their shared childhood landscape. This reflects the idea of being "alien and homegrown"—a metaphor for their cultural identity, being rooted in one place but growing in another.
Stanza 4:
As a Christmas treat the Raja sent
His official elephant. We were shipwrecked on.
When the haunches rose like a trial wave
We learned to brace and sway.
Still practiced in equipoise
I teeter safe, and brace to my uncertainties
Survive, Anglo-Indian as a dark bungalow
You, among buildings that cut down our elephant to size, play house—never at home.
This stanza recounts a vivid memory of a Christmas treat from their past: a ride on the Raja's official elephant. The experience is described as if they were shipwrecked, with the elephant's movements compared to a rising wave. The speaker reflects on how this taught them balance and resilience, skills that continue to serve them in navigating life's uncertainties. The reference to "Anglo-Indian as a dark bungalow" suggests a mixed heritage and a sense of survival within a complex identity. The sister, in contrast, lives in a place where their shared past ("the elephant") is metaphorically diminished.
Stanza 5:
Always the long, repeated journeys looking for something you've left behind.
When we meet, all the doors swing open
for this is where we live; and this old child
are empty, echo to our timid
grown-up voices; and this old child,
who lifts a broken-toy face, is she
you or me? Only our scars mark where we built
our personal and nursery planet. Still,
The sister is described as being on constant journeys, searching for something elusive, perhaps a piece of their past. Despite these searches, when they reunite, it feels like home again, with doors metaphorically swinging open. The "old child" refers to the remnants of their younger selves, now reflected in their adult lives. The "broken-toy face" symbolizes the wear and tear of time, and the question of whether this child is the sister or the speaker underscores the shared scars and memories that have shaped them. Their "personal and nursery planet" refers to the world they built together as children, a private universe that still lingers in their lives.
Stanza 6:
we’ve kept the knack. I, middle-aged, fidget
with make-believe; you, homesick and not eager to come home.
are foreign everywhere. Live European,
stay haunted by the image of that makeshift geography we share.
In this stanza, the speaker acknowledges that despite the passage of time and the changes in their lives, they both still retain a "knack" for make-believe—the ability to escape into imagination. The speaker is middle-aged and still engages in make-believe, while the sister is homesick but reluctant to return home. The sister is described as feeling "foreign everywhere," living a European life but still haunted by the shared, improvised geography of their childhood.
Stanza 7:
So come December, I wish you peace with faith in make-believe:
and deck my inny tree
with blobs of cotton wool. Perhaps you stand
before a frozen pane, indifferent to carols,
snow, your fire tree; watching that large ghost, our elephant, lumbering by.
The final stanza is a Christmas wish from the speaker to their sister, wishing her peace and the ability to believe in the magic of make-believe once again. The speaker decorates their tree with cotton wool, a simple and imaginative gesture. The sister, possibly standing before a frozen window, is imagined as being indifferent to the typical Christmas symbols—carols, snow, and the fire-tree. Instead, she is haunted by the memory of their shared past, symbolized by the ghost of the elephant from their childhood.
This summary captures the essence of each stanza, emphasizing the themes of memory, shared heritage, cultural identity, and the enduring power of imagination in maintaining a connection across time and distance.
