Compliments of the season and a happy new year in advance to you all 🙏
The festive season is one of joy, happiness and sharing. As a child, I remember that my friends and I looked forward to this period a lot. We would talk about imaginary plans that we hoped would come to pass. Things like having new fine clothes, shoes, eye glass, wristwatch, bags and Christmas hats.
Some of us would even bet on whose outfit would be more beautiful than the rest but it was all in the spirit of joy and happiness.
I remember that my mom used to do Christmas shopping for clothes and other accessories for the family quite early. I'm talking about as early as October. She would buys our clothes, shoes, eye glasses, wristwatches and hats in our respective colours (mine was pink) for both Christmas and new year and hides them in her big box. We would be clueless about it until the 24th of December when she would call each of us to wear our outfits for the first time simply to check for any adjustments.
Thinking about it now, I wonder how she usually got our sizes correctly. Seeing our brand new clothes would cause our hearts to swell in delight. We would start walking with our shoulders so high you would think we won a billion dollar lottery.
Decorations were a must this period and it was usually done on the 20th of December. My dad was also a Boney M l fan and their tapes were always on repeat all day at home (that's how I know so many Christmas songs off hand 😁).
That same 24th of December, she would then go to the market to buy all that was needed for cooking the customary rice and chicken. I don't know who made that rule but rice and chicken was a must for breakfast, lunch and dinner at that time.
I and my sister would be with her in the kitchen helping her out but in truth, we were just there to steal some small pieces of chicken when mum wasn't looking.
Before the 24th, my sister and I would make our hair with attachment (hair extensions) and we loved making center part Shana or watermelon. That was the name of the hairstyles we did.
My two younger brothers would visit the barber shop with Dad for some afro haircut. We would all be looking Sharp on Christmas day.
Come 25th of December, we would attend church for Christmas service which was great for us children as we would compare clothes, shoes, eye glass, wrist watch and hairstyles with our friends. The child with the overall best in appearance is called a boss and would hold that title till Easter.
After church comes eating and drinking. For us kids, mum would serve a mountain of rice in a large tray, splatter the chicken stew on it at the top and decorate the food with several pieces of chicken. She would then call all the children in our compound to come eat and that was where food wars began as we would be seen trying to out do the other in eating by fighting with our spoons. After eating, some bottles of Coca-Cola, Fanta or Sprite would be brought to us kids while the adults drank maltex, Amstel malt or vita-malt.
After this first batch of eating, mum would serve food in beautiful ceramic plates and ask me to take it to our neighbours and in return, they would also give something back. Sometimes these gifts were food, drinks or money.
The best part of this festive season is the going out part. My dad would take us to Amusement park or to the beach to have some fun. Sometimes, our uncles and aunts come over to celebrate with my family and other times, we pay them visits.
This festive season was always a joyful period for me growing up and I'm sure it was the same for kids as well because we were always treated lavishly with gifts, food, drinks and money.
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I appreciate your time reading my post.
Images source: Meta Ai