My Childhood Christmas Memory

An age old tradition has gone viral in the sky, Santa is moving around in his three piece gown carrying I don’t know what in his burnt out sleigh; gift I supposed? Three reindeer pulling the sleigh with pointed nose but an age old European tradition has watered down to fit the dying crown. The Santa clause generation that spanned throughout the ages is gone and there are no more boxes on the lawn, and an oversize inflated Santa waving to you with an unkempt bushy beard and deceiving eyes has something new for you. The call centers are lighting up with curious calls about santa’s whereabouts. They are tracking his movement and marking the date when he will land at their gate, anxious children gather around the Christmas tree singing Christmas songs and waiting for Santa to come along, but the night drags on and Santa was out of sight and the children fell asleep under the enchanting Christmas tree. The season has changed and that Christmas mood that was once buried in my gut has gone away, leaving my childhood memory empty and dry and a feeling of hope lingering in the sky. Everything comes with the Christmas spirit and you have to be part of it. It is the shopping, the cleaning and the slaughtering of animals, the cooking and the baking and the smell of sweet aroma coming from the kitchen that makes Christmas unique. It was just like yesterday, when I took on the household duty of the day, I was only thirteen years old when I brought Christmas in the home. I stripped all the windows and washed the curtains and clean the house from top to bottom and add a new coat of paint to the wall, and white wash the roots of the orange trees to prevent the slugs from crawling up the tree. I spend hours cleaning out the cabinet, removing every plate, glass. cup and saucer and wash them in soap and bleach water and when they were dry, I place them neatly inside. I work from morning till night with the Christmas hope strapped to my side and when night comes, I sit at the window and look at the star dazzling in the sky. We did not have a Christmas tree because I was living in the country so I had to create a make shift one with an up rooted coffee plant. I placed it into a pan and decorate with scraps and all that I could find and wrap the lights around it that was the creative spirit I had as a child, and it brought blessings to everyone in the community. And for the Christmas cake, I thought myself at thirteen how to bake, we didn’t have an oven so I prepare the ingredients for the cake and pour it into a cake tin that I bought at the market and place the tin in a big Dutch pot and put fire under the bottom and place a piece of zinc with fire on top and that was my make shift oven. The cake start to swell and the smell began to spread, and the Christmas cake came out well. Everyone was amazed at my creativity and wanted to be my childhood friend. We used to raise pigs and chicken and we had a little of everything and our Christmas table was full. But now those days are gone and I am sitting under the shade recalling my childhood Christmas memory.