The 'lost' joys of Christmas

If there's one thing that i regret about getting older, it is the 'lost' joy of Christmas.

Christmas has always been my favorite season, my favorite holiday. Christmas was just so special! It was that single season where we were guaranteed to get at least two new outfits (my parents believed quite erroneously that children could go year in year out with the same old clothes and just be thankful to have clothes on our backs).

Christmas was that season where we always had a lot of kids in the house. My cousins (Tobore, Kevwe, Novo and sometimes Ese and Ejiro,as well as Mario) were usually the ones that added the flavour to our Christmas celebrations (again my parents weren't liberal and would never approve of our being with anyone else for holidays..even family!!).

Every Christmas we had fried rice (which we ate only twice each year, for christmas and for newyear's day),salad, chicken (but of course!). However we always spiced it up by baking cookies, chin-chin, cakes and everything else bake-able. Plus if my mum was in a really festive mood, we'd also have pepper-soup and maybe, just maybe some Banga soup. Of course the whole process being a very hectic one, it meant that all hands had to be on deck from the 24th. Yes, i loved christmas.

I can't really remember where the tradition changed, but somewhere along the line, we all outgrew christmas or maybe we just got bored of the usual tradition. Our cousins grew up just like us and figured out better things to do with their holidays, leaving us to ourselves for christmas. Of course with age each of my siblings started building their own private plans for the season, making it impossible and downright pointless to go through all the hectic preparations.

As christmas draws near, i remember with joy all the christmases past, and look forward to the celebrations i'll have with my kids someday soon. I know i'm not alone in feeling like the joy of christmas is lost, but today i have a different message..Christmas is the season set apart to remember the birth of the messiah, i believe thats the reason why its a season of giving (for naija sha every season is a season of giving lol).

This Christmas lets make it a point of duty to give, not just to our family and friends, but to the less-privileged one's, to the people who cry for our help daily. It may be a simple gift of a plate of cooked rice but it'll definitely put a smile on someone's face..Merry christmas in advance!!

now tell me, what was christmas like for you growing up?