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Oh yes! The year 2019 is finally coming to an end and that end comes after the Christmas season. Christmas is a season like no other because it celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ and that euphoria ushers in the New Year. For Christians, it is also a period of forgiveness, repentance, reconciliation and total submission to the Almighty God. A season associated with festivities, beautiful Christmas decorations on buildings, streets, houses and homes. Christmas is also a period to show appreciation, exchange visits, gift items and long distance travel with loved and cherished ones. Most workers and businesses experience a new season during Christmas because organizations appreciate their staff with freebies in cash, gifts, partying and merriment. Again, it is a time in the year when transportation on land and air skyrockets because of the rush. That same untold rush is also the reason cost of living also shoots up.
Now, did 2019 Christmas come to many as a surprise? Of course not! It gave eleven months full notice. The economic situation in the country might have choked some chicken-hearted celebrants into a tight corner, but for individuals who recognize the mood and temperament, celebrating Christmas is always an easy ride because it is part of the system. Christmas every year is planned, budgeted for and executed compulsorily. It is a season that comes once a year. Preparation for Christmas is not child’s play. It amounts to heavy spending which can equally be done with wisdom and caution. Apart from spending, women make enough foodstuffs available for the entire period. It is not a time to go to the farm to till the soil or harvest or trade seriously. All these would have been prepared ahead before the Christmas week because it is a season of ravishing choice meals. The Christmas season does not allow children to get punished for naughty behaviour; they are spared because it is the Yuletide and a more tolerant time.
Interestingly, Christmas is a worthy cause. The reminiscence of Christmas and its blockbuster celebrations for many is the reason for the desire to be among family and loved ones. To prove the necessity of Christmas in the hearts of many, a certain businessman built a twin duplex and big boys quarters. He moved into one, rented one out and carefully waited for a convenient time when the rent of the last apartment would accrue, to celebrate and offset Christmas expenses. Real Christmas celebrants know the joy, the happiness and fulfillment the season brings. I have not forgotten my late uncle who, by August, would place a ‘Don’t Touch’ sign on a particular tree where Okazi (a popular Eastern vegetable) grows. His reason was to allow the vegetable to propagate well for the Yuletide celebrations that run from Christmas to the New Year. Some communities do not bury the dead during the Yuletide as it is perceived to be a bad omen.
Generally, I vividly recollect the reminiscence of Christmas in the village then. As young primary school children, our parents who lived outside their hometown like other teachers would travel to their towns and villages the moment school vacated for Christmas and the first term holiday. This always came up towards the end of November and early December. On getting to the village to walk around and catch up on old times from the last visit, one would see these beautiful rose flowers that bloomed in thousands in very appreciable pink colours. They were a beautiful sight to behold. As they graciously sat close knitted to each other on the upscale, the eyes gazed high to catch glimpses of the bloom because they were not the crawly or spiral type of flowers. This was the first signal that Christmas was at hand. It was followed closely by the hazy dust that covers the roads, roofs and even inside the homes. In that admiration, we also saw young girls of our age and size in the village learning rigorous dance steps and they would urge us to join in the dance normally showcased during the Christmas period, to add to the merry making while being appreciated by onlookers who ‘sprayed’ money on us. Young men were not forgotten as they also prepared to showcase their masquerades. All artisans became fully engaged and spent nights in their shops to satisfy various customers in the last minute rush. I have not also forgotten my maternal cousins whose hair and scalp got burnt with relaxer, which caused them great damage, all in the preparation for Christmas. No one could say exactly if it was unskilled touch or poor quality of the relaxer that spoilt my cousin’s Christmas. As primary school children, we wore low haircut and plaited it as soon as school vacated for Christmas. Her other friends convinced her to relax her hair for a more beautiful look for the season. She yielded to that and came back with tears and pains from a badly burnt hair. On Christmas morning, the burnt hair had tangled so hard that her face got swollen and became an eyesore. It took the application of Vaseline jelly for about four days before she came back to life.
In some families, some children had the misfortune of not having their clothes ready because the tailor or seamstress did not finish making them. Such moments brought children very low when others were in high spirits. In one particular year, my relatives wailed openly and uncontrollably as if they lost a relative. But the genuine tears that flowed freely taught their mother to engage a tailor early enough so that her children would be as happy as other children and display their new set of Christmas clothes in the subsequent years.
Then, the Christmas polity is finally heated up when trips to various destinations are successful. As early as 4:00a.m, the roads become extremely busy for successful Christmas travellers. This happens when drivers, both commercial and private, are careful on the road and heed to traffic rules. On arrival, seeing faces one had not seen for years, the change of scene, greetings, hugs and admiration are all forms of Christmas celebrations.
Importantly, and worthy of note is the fact that Christmas should be spent with wisdom and caution knowing that there is life after the Yuletide. People who go on spending spree should rather remember others who might not be that comfortable. One might actually turn things around and shock a neighbour, friend, people in homes and even brothels with the seasonal love. Christmas should not only be spent within a particular household with the best for the celebrations. A gift is a gift. Everything must not be financially engaged. Giving one’s time, advice, foodstuff, financial support and new clothing are various ways of reaching out to others during this season. Celebrities can step out of their comfort zones, to show love to others during this Yuletide without publicizing it. Imagine a scenario where an ‘A’ list actor and actress stop to shower a roadside plantain roaster with Christmas gifts! How that day would be for an accomplished man to walk into a police cell to give hope to the inmates. What about security men and women at various points, can a kind hearted soul remember them not with remnant food, but worthy gift? Can a politician appreciate young people in his constituency, who do not know where the next school fees would come from? What will happen if pastors and their wives decide to do things the other way round and task themselves to feed the church from their personal pockets? People who stock their garages with fleet of cars they don’t often drive, of what use is that? You can give out two or three to people who do not have. Aunties and Mummies who stack bags and bags of clothes, worn and unworn, remember other sisters in the church, orphanages and streets. Life should not be about ‘Me, myself and I’. Spread out and share with others. As I said earlier, Christmas is also a period of forgiveness, repentance and total reconciliation in the life of Christians.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Christmas season will always come as far as there is life. Wives do not stretch your husbands to breaking point. Be wise in your decisions about Christmas spending. Life will surely continue after Christmas. Don’t spend the season without setting your priorities right. School fees will take centre stage within the next three or four weeks; house rent is waiting on the list, emergencies are bound to happen, as far as there is life. Again, it is not a season to eat and drink excessively without control. Do not drink and be picked from the gutter. One should not be a laughing stock because of another person’s free food and drink. Christmas is finally here!! Merry Christmas
