I am about to bring you up-to-date about our Christmas when we were growing up. I have discovered that the definition of Christmas changes from time to time. The upcoming generation might totally lose the definition of Christmas, as I see we are losing it ourselves. The question I have for you is, what does Christmas mean to you?

We usually believe that Christmas is a holiday where we celebrate the birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ. But my idea differs from that because we are not even sure about how relevant the 25th of December is with the birth of the Lord, since the calendar used by most of the world was influenced by the Romans, which are against Christianity.

To me, December, or the festive season, is actually the time we can use to bond as families since most people are free from their duties. Back when we were young, we had the best out of Christmas. Villages were united and it would be the best time when it was the festive season. We got together with our brothers who came from work since they used to work very far from home in the big cities because there were no job opportunities in the village.

We all know that no matter how poor people are, there are always those who are poorer. So the people who were just poor would prepare meals and gifts on Christmas Eve. When we, the poorer, woke up on the 25th December morning, our parents would send us to go house-to-house requesting Christmas. We would entice ourselves with the desire to see inside the wrapped gifts so we would rush home to open the gifts.

All families would send their children to different houses, so the whole community could eat the same or similar meal. We would then come back home early so we could have breakfast with the whole family. We shared meals as if we were all related to one another, that’s when life was very nice and simple.

There are things which made it the best Christmas which included wearing new clothes for the first time in twelve months; eating meat, rice and different salads; these things were only done on December the 25th every year. Families would get together, reconcile and made sure everyone got along with each other. In the evening we would sit at a roundabout and listen to our elders telling us our family history and dance together.

Today Christmas is just the 25th of December and life has changed as times have changed. I guess it is inevitable too. I see that nowadays people only get drunk at Christmas and do things which lead to everyday regret. Our Christmas was worth longing for, for the whole eleven months.

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Tell us: What was your Christmas like as a child?