and of course a great, big pan of cassava or farine pie that is sure to stretch through the holidays.

Almost everywhere you look there is a feeling of Christmas, whether you're driving along Front or Reid Streets with the lights zig-zagging above or in your own home where the tree is up and decorated in balls dripping of shiny tinsel.

But what catches everyone's attention is the aroma of Christmas foods -- the turkey stuffed with stuffing, the ham with a touch of honey and the Christmas pudding soaked in thick rich hard sauce. However, the cassava pie is by far the favourite dish.

Traditionally, after the presents are opened, stomachs are filled and the dishes are washed, Bermudians tend to go visiting friends and relatives sipping on bought or homemade egg nog. This also continues on Boxing Day.

Through the years, the "Bermuda Christmas'' has changed as the older generation remember spotting that perfect cedar tree days before Christmas Eve, cutting it down and taking it home, unlike today, when one either orders or buys a pine tree that has arrived on the Island by container, or brings out the faithful artificial tree.

Even the time that it takes to prepare for the Christmas holiday has changed.

Today, many cooks will start a week or more before the big day while years ago, all the preparations were done on Christmas Eve.

Mrs. Lucetta Williams said every year she prepares her cassava pie on Christmas Eve so that on Christmas morning she is able to have a piece for her breakfast.

She also makes Christmas pudding, fruit cake, and pound cake and for dinner she dines on turkey with stuffing, ham and "nowadays I like a green vegetable and rolls''.

"I normally go to a friend's home to see their Christmas tree and socialise,'' she said.

"When I was a little girl we had pork instead of turkey and we would cook the Christmas pudding outdoors,'' she said. "We also had a cedar Christmas tree which we would decorate with balloons. We went to church on Christmas morning and the gombeys would come around to your house later in the afternoon along with a certain family that played guitars and banjos. We would sing and dance and then we would follow them to someone else's house.

"You use to see family you had not seen in a whole year because they came from Somerset. It was a jolly time.'' Mrs. Williams also said when she was a little girl everyone grew their own cassava which had to be peeled, grated and soaked.

Ms Ruth Thomas said she too had a cedar tree for a Christmas tree.

"We would wonder over the land -- another name for private property -- and look for a beautifully shaped Christmas tree and you would remember where it was so you could go out with your saw and chop it down on Christmas Eve.

"We would stand the tree in the kitchen in a bucket of damp sand and then nail it to two planks of wood so it would stand up.'' Ms Thomas added: "Parents did not decorate the tree until after the children went to bed so that they would be surprised in the morning. We decorated with balloons and other homemade decorations along with citrus fruit. We also grew our own poinsettias.

"For Christmas dinner we had turkey, some people had their own turkeys which they had to catch and pluck, and we usually had an old fowl or rooster which we kept for the cassava pie.'' Ms Thomas also said they always had raisins and nuts after the Christmas dinner.

But the cassava pie remained the main event, she said.

"Making the pie was a big thing because you had to prepare it yourself and we would punch wholes in a kerosene can to use as a grater. We would soak the cassava in a dish pan.

"Children always had new clothes for Christmas dinner and they would receive practical things and musical instruments as Christmas presents. Most of the time fathers would make the toys by hand.

"Families and close friends visited and we would try and stay awake for the carollers because the carolling was so beautiful. People also went to midnight mass.'' She added that stores were open late on Christmas Eve because that's when people were paid.

Mrs. Helen Harbour said every year she makes cassava pie, pound cake, fruit cake and turkey with all the trimmings.

"When I was young I use to help my mother peel and grate the cassava after my father brought it in from the garden,'' Mrs. Harbour said. "We would do that on Christmas Eve and then at night we would go to town to see Santa Claus which was a big thing as we hardly ever went to town.

When we came back home my mother would put the pork in the oven and on Christmas day she would prepare the ham and we would go to church.

"We would open our presents first thing in the morning and every year we would get a doll, socks and our stockings would contain smaller gifts.'' Mrs. Harbour also said she had a cedar Christmas tree that was decorated with balloons, rope tinsel, Christmas cards and balls.

"We would have dinner and then go over to my grandmother's house where all my family was.

"A choir used to come around and sing and we would give them money. It is quite different today.''