Christmas as a Child

My dear (single) mom would work all year through so that we could have food on the table and clothes on our backs. But in December it would be different to her in such that she felt like she worked all year long so we her kids could have an awesome Christmas. When the factory she worked in had their annual break-up my siblings and I would be very excited because we knew we would all go out shopping for new clothes YIPEE! Mom would have a special savings account she’d pump money into all year most year so we could enjoy that Christmas feeling I so fondly remember. She would spend her hard earned money with such joy I recall, because she loved all of us alike.

On the 25th of December at 7 am we would be merrily on our way to Christmas mass and wish all the old aunties and uncles of the congregation A Merry Christmas and of course sport off our new attire. My brother and I would be dressed alike and my mom and the girls would be the mirror image of what ever they would wear…I cringe with that though in mind today. Never the less, we all were convinced we looked sharp and extremely fashionable. With our friends we would compete and see whose clothes looked best, and we all won hands down in our innocent little heads. We shared laughs, ideas of what we thought father Christmas had brought us and whether he really existed. We even shared our sweets…

Then came the Christmas lunch ooooh wow. Granny cooked since the day before and said she only had a couple of hours sleep and nearly dosed off in church as dominee was a little “lang dradig” this year. She’d say that every year though, bless her cotton socks. The entire family would be seated at the table when the clock strikes 1 for mamma’s awesome selection of roasts, yellow rice with raisons and even the festive carrots and peas were delicious. She would make a traditional Christmas pudding from scratch and hide money in it, and each child and adult alike would be so excited and surprised that we found money in pudding. Wow, mamma was awesome she could make veggies taste leka and pudding grow money. Yoh old people are really kwaai.

Time for toys under the Christmas tree. As Gran’s home had no chimney she had to keep the door open for Santa to drop the gifts off. And every year Santa would remember that he had to stop at 28 Hercules Way were Gran lived to drop off gifts for my siblings, my cousins and yours truly. After lunch we would all go and play with our new toys quietly outside while the old people do what they do. I always wondered why Gran didn’t marry Santa the we would have toys all year through…eish she was so silly.

Today not much of all of this has changed. The only sad exception is that mommy and mamma are now in heaven delivering blessings to all God sends them to for they have died and become angels. Oh and now my cousins, my siblings and I have become the old people. Christmas lives on in us and will be passed on in great fashion to our children. Yes we have learned to be a little wiser in spending then our parents and grandparents, but we have an awesome Christmas all the same.

I wish you a Merry Christmas too. Where ever you are and who ever you would be celebrating it with – be blessed and remember the true meaning of Christmas as it was taught to you.