Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor
I JUST love Christmas, the colours, the carols, the bustle of shoppers in the plazas, the family gatherings, the food and the sound of carols on the radio. But I also love the happiness that is evident on the faces of children as they open their gifts.
I don't mind having my relatives home, because they all live abroad so when they are home we are too happy to be reunited to get on each other's nerves.
Being a country girl, I much prefer heading off to Chudleigh in Manchester for the peace and quiet of my best friend Yvonne Myrie's home. With the hectic activity of the weeks leading up to the big day, I just want to get away from living behind grills and sleeping in a room with windows open. I usually issue strict instructions not to be woken before I'm ready to stir but the odours wafting from the kitchen are too hard to resist.
One of the high points of the Christmas season for me is Grand Market activity in Christiana. The night is usually colder than the ones in hot, miserable Kingston and the scene on Main Street rivals that of carnival day parade. It's one big mass of flesh with everyone from as far as upper Trelawny; Robin's Hall in Manchester, Aenon Town and Sanguinetti in Clarendon, out to shop, enjoy a meal or just have fun.
The fun for me is watching everyone being so deliriously happy. I also get a chance to stop in with folks like Ivan Green and Selvin Newman at their business places and have a drink with my late father's cronies at Case's bar. I walk very slowly from one end of the street to the next and then pile in into one of the usually overloaded taxis to head back home in the wee hours. There is no space to park so we don't usually drive to town.
BIG BREAKFAST
Christmas day starts with a big breakfast of traditional favourites and sometimes if I'm lucky, I get to drink hell hot chocolate 'tea' from an enamel mug! That is usually accompanied by a few wedges of the crown bread from Spaldings Bakery - I must have that every year! All too soon it's dinner time with more of all the food we love to eat on a table set with china that only comes out of the cabinet that day. And should anyone drop in, they simply pull up a chair.
I also enjoy taking walks to have a chat with the Bonners, Tomlinsons, the Robertsons and others I did not see all year. The afternoon finds us going as far as Mandeville and May Pen to visit more relatives and as night falls, friends visiting from overseas come by for drinks, manish water, more cake and sorrel, fun and games.
Although my mother and siblings are overseas, we connect via the telephone if they are not here. I miss them, but truth be told, being in a hassle-free environment is how I prefer it.
