Cherished Christmas Memories

21 days ago

Hello, beautiful people! Welcome to my blog. It's a pleasure to have you in this space. Once again, welcome 🤗

Christmas is the most anticipated festival in Nigeria, with most people looking forward to 25th December, and that includes me. I am a big fan of Christmas; I love Christmas so much.

Growing up as a kid, once we entered September, I always knew Christmas was around the corner; I could literally smell Christmas in the atmosphere. I was usually excited about the set of new clothes I was going to wear; it's not as if I didn't wear new clothes before Christmas, but there was just something special about the Christmas clothes.

I had a lot of best Christmas memories while growing up. People that celebrated Christmas in the late 90s and early 2000s would agree with me that Christmas celebration was much more interesting compared to now. These were times when things were still okay with Nigeria; there was no insecurity, and the love amongst neighbors was genuine.

I remember how my mom would wake up very early on the day of Christmas to prepare different varieties of food and give them to me and my siblings to share to neighbors, and we were happy doing that because those neighbors would give us money.

There were neighbors that gave more money, so I and my siblings would always argue over who would take food to those sets of neighbors, and since I am the oldest, I always win the argument.

Those were times when people were not scared of being poisoned by their neighbors because as you were taking food to share with your neighbors, they would also reciprocate the same while the Muslims would do the same during the sallah celebration.

Another beautiful memory I have is my dad always taking us to the zoo and amusement park during the holiday period. I usually had a beautiful experience as you would meet with different kids there, and because it's a festive period, this parks usually organizes games and dance competitions that the winners would go home with.

Traveling to the village is another beautiful memory about Christmas I can't forget in a hurry, meeting and bonding with cousins that also came to the village from different states.

This is usually a beautiful sight to behold; I can't forget the joy and smiles on my grandma's face seeing all her children and grandchildren together, living, rejoicing, and celebrating in love and harmony.

There's usually a masquerade dance during this period. Then at night some youth in the village play the talking drums, singing while some are dancing to the songs.

Though things are not the way they used to be, I have come to appreciate and cherish these memories.

These were days I would not mind going back to.