Merry Xmas Everyone!

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/cooked-food-on-black-pan-4543005/

This is in response to a question posed by @ericvancewalton. Check it out here

When you were a child, what did you look forward to most?

My answer:

Christmases were the highlight of my childhood and remain my fondest memories! I looked forward to celebrating it every year, for that reason, December was my favourite month.
Christmas in the 90's was super fun and I think everyone felt the Christmas frenzy, that even the cold harmattan wind couldn't dampen the excitement in the air. For Christmas' sakes alone, all sin was forgiven.

I always prayed for the term to quickly end and as soon as I am done with my terminal examinations, my own holiday started in earnest. Even the end-of-year parties in primary school added another colour to the whole anticipation.

In our neighbourhood, the first of December marked the beginning of celebrations, with Boney M Christmas songs, blaring from the City's Radio Station, songs like 'Feliz Navidad ', 'Jingle Bell', 'Mary Boy Child' and many others, set the mood perfectly.

Bells jingling in the marketplace, people shopping for food, drinks and clothes was all part of the bigger preparations. For me, it was clothes, eye glasses and electronic wristwatches, then the bangers and the Bisco fireworks which all made the festivity so thick.

How I looked forward to the Xmas movies shown on TV; Jesus of Nazareth, movies of Wonderlands where the good fairies bestowed luck on humble and unsuspecting people, making them super rich.

In my family, it was a tradition for us to spend Christmas with my grandfather, the only grandparent I had then but it was for a very brief period of time. We would travel to the village from the City around the 20th of December and have enough time to visit our families and relatives. We would all gather at our grandfather’s compound — a large family compound, housing a lot of buildings, built by my father and his brothers, this became a hub of activity. There would be nights of folklores, and hide and seek games. Stories would be exchanged by my cousins about their schools in bigger Cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt. I was the gang leader of the Children, the innovative one, so I would teach them new tricks like how to produce toy cars from coconut or banana stems and drive them around the large compound.

The Christmas Eve was dedicated to cooking, especially with the preparations of the chickens, turkeys and goats and their frying— this one would be in full swing and would keep us awake, our mouths in rhythmic movements as we chewed fried meat.

And as the clock struck midnight, a chant of joy would fill the air;

"Merry Xmas everyone , Merry Xmas everyone, Merry Xmas, same time next year."

Then we would all hug each other and wish each other a wonderful celebration into the New Year.

Jollof rice and meat stew with chicken and turkey, Malta and Ninja soda was ready by the morning of Christmas. In fact there was always so much food.

But when grandpa passed away, we stopped gathering in the village during the festive periods.The remaining part of my childhood, I spent subsequent Christmases in the City, but the village celebration was much more fun and memorable. Then I missed the most this communal lifestyle and neighbourliness which was almost like a religion.

On that morning, shortly after cooking, we'd start distributing food to every of the 22 households in our sub-quarter while they also reciprocated the gesture. You can just imagine how we had enormous amount of food at our disposal!

In the afternoons, we would visit various families, eating rice and chicken, even in the houses of distant families that till now I really can't explain how we were ever related.

My visit from house to house, to my neighbours and distant relatives was also an effort to make them compliment my new shoes and clothes and for advanced begging....lols ( we used this opportunity to rag for money to be put away in our saving boxes, for sweets and chocolates when the new school term began).

But One Christmas would stand out as my saddest Christmas ever! My Mom got my Christmas clothes and shoes and kept them away, wanting to surprise me on that day, only for me to discover that the trousers were oversized and I needed pins to be able to wear them at all. And after so much bragging about my shoes to everyone, I had to stuff the inside with tissue paper so they could fit. I just felt like the ground should open and swallow me up. That embarrassment was on another level as I couldn't go out but sulked all day because my Christmas was ruined.

But in all, Christmas was so much fun then. The end-of-year parties....flaunting our new clothes and shoes, the Christmas carols, the feasting, the travelling, the gifts, the 'fullhouse' with family, the banger and fireworks...and the tradition of everyone chorusing "Merry Xmas, everyone!, "Merry Xmas Everyone!!," ""Merry Xmas Everyone!!!" at midnight was just the perfect way to celebrate the season..... And I loved it all!

Thank you @ericvancewalton for the opportunity to digitalize our thoughts and memories.