Warm fuzzy feeling of Christmas in the country

When I was a girl...

Published December 20, 2011
The Gleaner Positive Parenting

 

“Christmas was very peaceful, as an extended family we would meet for dinner and church,” recollects Leslie Ann-Brown, of the time spent back home in St Ann in the Yuletide season. 

“We’ll go all night shopping on Christmas Eve, everything was simple, yet exciting,” says the 29-year-old website developer, who is now living in Kingston and has a 2-year-old son.

Growing up, she said, the spirit of the season was different in the countryside.  “In St Ann there was a difference kind of warmth, which is missing in Kingston,” Brown recalls.  “When I came back this place was not sociable.”

Brown still misses the simplicity and the festivities back home. “I loved the grand market feel in St Ann; it was so much more personal.”

Photo: stock.xchng

 “I didn’t feel threatened there,” she reveals, adding with a chuckle, “There was not much of anything was there to steal anyways.”

It was about the spirit of good times, “We would have a good time listening to music, and being with your friends, shopping was more lyming than anything else.”

Christmas was something to look forward to spend time with family and friends; from making crafts and wreaths to decorate the home; savouring the aroma of the delicacies and simply enjoying the colourful decorations filling the home. 

“We used to spend time cooking, my dad cooked and mom was baking person, I used to bake too.”

PASSION FOR COOKING

Brown developed a passion for cooking inspired by her father, “I even went out with my dad to a training course, father and daughter cooking classes,” she informs.

The gifts then were more simple. “Clothes, cologne were the gifts that point time, there were no video games, they were not allowed at home,” Brown, whose family is tight knit and religious, says.

“I don’t get gifts anymore, now my son gets all the gifts,” Brown says. “My son gets computers and traditional gift, he got last year a tricycle and he has got more language learning devices.” 

But she said she finds the spirit and meaning of giving missing from Christmas these days. “The emphasis it seems is on giving expensive gifts and the load on the pocket is heavier, I personally cannot spend money on buying expensive gifts.”

What Brown misses about the Christmas warmth and spirit is the 'Christmas breeze’ in St Ann. “The wind used to cut through your clothes, we wore sweaters, it was a warm fuzzy feeling which I haven’t experienced in Kingston.”

In this day when greetings have gone ‘e’ or restricted to text messaging, Brown follows a practice diligently. She still sends a Christmas card to her best friend who is now in Trinidad.  “We used to write Christmas cards to each other since high school, and we have not broken this tradition for 17 years now.”

There are some traditions that transcend time and which haven’t changed, and possibly never would. “The food had remained the same, the day has remained the same, reverence and blessings for the year, in a way it still feels the same,” Brown says. “The most important thing is having the family and good friends around you.”