Civil servant Susiane Koepsel, 50, is still getting used to not being the hostess of her family’s Christmas. The living room and yard of the new house are small, and there are no Santa decorations or tinsel on the door.
She lived for almost 40 years in the Navegantes neighborhood, in São Sebastião do Caí (RS), and there maintained the family tradition of decorating a small natural tree – an araucaria, a pine typical of southern Brazil. “Every beginning of the year, my father planted a new pine tree. Then, at the end of the year, this little pine tree was there.”
Today, her only Christmas decoration is a bag of pine nuts kept in a fruit basket. She left them damp for a few days and several are already sprouting. Susiane’s plan is to plant at least three pine trees in the condominium to maintain the tradition.
The seeds came from the land where his old house stood, which was four meters underwater and collapsed during the historic flood of the Caí River in May 2024. Only the walls of his son’s bathroom remained standing.
Susiane lived for a month with a friend and nine months in a rented house and, in March this year, signed the purchase of a unit in a 27-house condominium in a popular housing estate, in a higher part of the city.
She was one of the first residents of the city to benefit from the federal government’s assisted purchase program, which allowed people who lost their homes due to the climate tragedy to receive R$200,000 to buy their own home.
Since her move, with her two dogs Feio and Malvadeza, Susiane has managed to organize the arrival of her son, her daughter and her old neighbors. “It’s good to live here. It’s comfortable, it’s safe. We’re trying to find out who’s selling to Target.”
He nevertheless says he suffers from the difference compared to community life in the Navegantes district, close to native greenery and residents who have known each other for generations.
Every December 25, the family lunch became a big get-together with friends, and Susiane spent the week planning: leaving the pool clean, plenty of ice in the refrigerator, placing the barbecue on the terrace in the shade, placing the enclosure, forbidding guests from disturbing the chickens.
“Look, it was a joke. The Christmas party at my house never ended until midnight on the 25th,” he says. “It was the Big Family: they play loud music and there’s a lot of shouting to talk about it. And that’s what I like.”
Today, what remains of the house is a pile of wood, tiles and bricks covered with vines.
This Christmas, the traditional family celebration will take place at the sister’s house, which cannot accommodate many people. Additionally, the Navegantes neighborhood community is becoming smaller and smaller and more and more divided into different neighborhoods and towns in the region. Before the 2024 tragedy, residents were recovering from a destructive flood in November 2023.
“If I had the means, I would take mine and put them all here, to keep them close to me. Because once a week I go there (to the neighborhood). I’m connected, my soul demands it. Even if it’s just to stay for an hour.”
Retiree Dione Johann de Azevedo, 71, arrived at the co-ownership a few weeks ago on the recommendation of Susiane. “I got used to the house, I made friends with the neighbors. It’s easy to make friends with me,” he says.
The house where he lived with his daughter Amanda has been standing, but uninhabitable and abandoned since May 2024. Since then, they have occupied an apartment in a neighborhood near the river. “It’s horrible, only those who pass by know what it is. We buy things with sacrifices. We had everything. Very simple, but very cute,” he says.
Dione is set to spend Christmas with her other daughter, Milena, but says so far no one has said who will have what for dinner.
Lately, everyone has been focused on the changes and rebuilding expenses. Now, Dione is focusing on the gift she will receive in March, with the arrival of her grandson Théo. “He’s arriving in very good health. I’m really looking forward to seeing him,” she said. “It will help us. It’s a life, it’s a child, and a child is joy. It changes a lot.”
Seamstress Marlene Fuhr, 81, wanted to move before Christmas to the new house she is building in the Vila Rica neighborhood of São Sebastião do Caí, but delays in the delivery of doors and materials have delayed the completion of the work. However, he has already placed a wreath on the door.
Marlène lived for almost 60 years in the same place, in the commune of Matiel, rural area of Harmonia, until the flood of May 2024 destroyed the ceiling of the house.
Since then, she has lived with her daughter in her sister’s house, the same one where her family spent Christmas when she was a child. “When I got married, in 1963, I left that house and now I have been living for a year and a half in the same house where I was born,” he says.
She remembers Christmases with her family gathered around a natural pine tree, very large and thorny. “Every evening we lit candles and sang songs,” he remembers. Some she remembers the lyrics, like “Quiet night“, the German version of “Good night“; others, just the melody, which he hums to remember. “One day the tree almost burned down because of so many candles we lit. It was chaos until everything was erased.”
On Christmas Eve, families filled the neighborhood Lutheran church to celebrate the holiday. On the 25th, she and her four children received toys from their parents. The gifts she loved the most were the cloth dolls made by a local seamstress. “Santa Claus came and we had to hide so as not to see him drop off the presents. I don’t know how we believed those things,” says Marlene, laughing.
While waiting for the construction work to be completed before moving in, Marlene spends her time crocheting rugs and tablecloths, thus constituting her second set of houses in her life.
The work is expected to be completed in March and Marlene hopes to have a full table again at Christmas 2026. This year the party will be hosted by her youngest daughter, who escaped the floods.
Marlene notices how much the celebrations have changed over time: on Wednesday (24) evening, the family will make a secret friendship around an artificial pine tree – one of the purchases they still want to make for the new house.
“I think Christmas was supposed to be more spiritual. Today it’s all gifts, food and drinks,” he says. “It has to be a little different, but if there is unity in the family, it’s not a problem.”
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