What does Christmas mean to you?

 Christmas  is in the air, I can sniff it, can you? Stumbled upon a blogpost that asked a question, "how do we want to make Christ the centre of our Christmas celebrations?" The first thought that came to mind was well, we have been doing it since I was a kid, even before we knew that was what we were doing. By we,  I mean children in my nieghbourhood, we would get an old pillow, put it in a plain coloured pillow case, draw an ugly face on it , tie a rope round its neck and drag it round the whole nieghbourhood beating it mercilessly and chanting, " Judasi, ole, o pa Jesu je, ole" meaning, "Judas, thief, he ate up Jesus, thief. We would beat it till all the filling in the pillow would burst out and there would be nothing left. And oh, the fun we had doing that, we had been told on and on about Judas betrayal of Jesus, that nobody had any mercy on Judas. We would go from house to house and grown ups would give us money, coins to be precise, those were the days when Nigeria still spent coins. We would not come back home until the pillow had spilled out all it's contents. Compared to modern day Lagos, where neighbours  hardly know neighbours,and where no parent would allow their children out of their sight not to talk of to go roaming the streets because of the fear of kidnappers etc.

Neighbours exchanged porcelain dishes of piping hot jollof rice, fried meat and chicken across all religions, you do not have to be a Christian. Christmas was the busiest period for tailors, everyone both young and old would make a special "aso  odun" to be worn on Christmas day. Girls would do special Christmas hairstyles, "irun odun" and boys would have new haircuts. Perhaps the icing on the cake was a trip to father Christmas grotto, either at Kingsway, Leventis stores or UTC stores, those were the three departmental stores then. I was told that on one of such trips, instead of me being scared of father Christmas as most children used to be, I actually removed his beard out of curiosity and the poor guy had to sieze it from my grasp and quickly put it back on. Christmas celebration was on the streets, dancing, singing, eating from house to house, it was a communal thing.

Reminds me a little about "Let's go a-fishing", although with a little bit more seriousness,this is usually organized by  RCCG churches to celebrate Christmas, it entails  sharing of tracts, going through the streets telling people about Jesus, planting a new church and inviting those in the neigbourhood to worship and fellowship, cooking, and sharing of gifts in some instances.

It was on Christmas day that I commenced my parenting journey, I became a mother on Christmas day around 5pm thirteen years ago. When the baby

My first baby,God's Christmas present for the 2000. 

seemed to be slow in coming out, an hospital staff had joked that "this christmas baby might become a boxing day baby if she does not hurry up and come out". the hospital Santa Claus was with me in the delivery room. . The long awaited baby finally joined us around 5pm, I was so exhausted that I slept off and did not wake up until the following evening. Meanwhile,we did not know that the hospital had a policy of not charging for delivery of any baby born on Christmas day  until we were ready to leave and we asked for the bill, instead of the bill, what we were presented with was a red carpet treatment, snapping of photos with the owners and top management of the hospital and presentation of a notification of birth, what a wonderful way to spend Christmas. Since  then we usually celebrate Christmas with friends and loved ones and we have not missed our yearly  Christmas party,

Our Christmas party of year 2013. 

I have added giving out of take away packs of jollof rice and drinksto all the security guards manning the gates of my estate, drivers and all those on essential services, that we take their services for granted. I combine this with going a- fishing with my church either on Christmas eve or the day after Christmas.

To me, Christmas period is a time to wind down, to relax, to be merry, to forgive and forget, to overlook many things including wrongs. To catch up with old friends, to be thankful, to celebrate, to be merry, to share with friends and family. Now what about you? What does Christmas mean to you?