By Nashauna Drummond, Staff Reporter 
Jonkunnu, a major attraction of Christmas of old, would terrify and excite children who would line the streets to watch the parade. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
JONKONNU, grandmarket, fruitcake, sorrel and the cool Christmas breeze are all associated with Jamaican Christmas. However, over the years the way we celebrate this joyful season has changed. Lifestyle caught up with a few Jamaicans from different eras to find out how they remember celebrating Christmas and just how much things have changed.
Neil Johnson, a 24-year-old student in Kingston, says:
CHRISTMAS PAST
At Christmas, we used to go to my uncle's house in Spanish Town, St. Catherine. Christmas was a time for the whole family to have dinner and enjoy each other's company and that was very important.
It was the only time of the year that the whole family (four families) would meet up, so that's what we did every Christmas and it was a whole day affair. We would open our presents there and basically have a Christmas party.
We also attended the Advent Mass (either the midnight Mass or the one in the morning). After the Advent Mass we would place baby Jesus in the Nativity scene. My parents made sure we didn't lose sight of the fact that Christmas was to celebrate the birth of Christ.
CHRISTMAS PRESENT
Now all the children have grown up and have their own families. Some are overseas.
These days the venue for Christmas celebration has changed from my uncle's house to mine and not everyone comes. It's different, and not like the gatherings I used to look forward to when I could play with all my cousins.
I still go to Advent mass and still do Christmas decorations -- a tree and the Nativity scene.
I'm not that old but from what I've been told Christmas has become more like a commercial venture. For businesses this is the time for a sales boom, especially if you're selling merchandise or liquor. I don't even know what the Christmas tree mean, it's just something I've done for years. My mom says she puts it up because it's pretty and it's what people do.
Meada Henry, 46-year-old correctional officer who grew up in Craighead, Manchester, says:
CHRISTMAS PAST
When I was a child it felt like Christmas took years to come.
When we returned to school in September we couldn't wait. As it got closer to the season we would get pimento wood, because it burns with less smoke, to cook for Christmas. A week before the bid day we would kill a pig and my mom would smoke the front foot on pimento leaf. About two weeks before Christmas daddy would boil roots and give each of us a little bottle but we always drank it off so by Christmas he was the only one who had any left.
We never baked a cake, we had potato pudding (which is what we really wanted because we had cornmeal pudding the rest of the year) instead.
We would hang up our Christmas cards in the living room and use crepe paper to make decorations and balloons.
They would kill goats and cows in my community and my father would buy a lot of meat. We really looked forward to the food because that was the only time of year we had more than one type of meat -- pork, chicken and beef.
On Christmas day my dad would wake us up early and he would pray, read the Bible and have devotion. Breakfast was chocolate tea and sweet potato pudding. However, before eating we had to take breakfast to Miss. Maude (an elderly lady who had no one to care for her).
I always looked forward to getting new clothes and toys -- dolls for the girls and cars for the boys. The younger children had to go to church. Christmas morning was very solemn the morning was a time of worship evening for celebration.
We would have to eat dinner around the dining table (we called it dinette), but again we had to take some to Miss Maude. Adults had port wine or red label wine with dinner, we had sorrel.
On Boxing Day we would go to the fair at the All Age School in the day and the adults go in the evening.
CHRISTMAS PRESENT
These days people only seem to care about how much money they're going to make during the Christmas period and where they're going to go. It's all about selling, not about giving but receiving.
Back then you wouldn't be comfortable knowing that you had food but your neighbour didn't.
When my daughter was still living here I had my little tree and I bought her toys and books and baked Christmas cake. With all my children gone I just bake cake and go to church.
Christmas used to be nice because we waited so long so you made sure you enjoyed it.
I don't enjoy the Christmas the way I used to because it has become so commercialised. I'm not into it anymore.
