What will be different about Christmas this year?

Just thinking about this year’s Christmas excites me as much as it disturbs me. It’s the second week of November and trust me, Christmas is not in the air yet. I don’t feel yet; maybe you already do?

The last couple of months have been nothing short of trying for the country. And this is across varying economic cadres mind you, frankly speaking. While the low income/middle income earners are facing hundred and thousand woes, the big shots are becrying million and foreign exchange woes.

With Christmas just barely around the corner, a lot of changes will naturally follow in regards to traditional celebratory practices that are unique to the end of year festivities.

Change in menus for one. With the price of a bag of rice soaring to as much as N22,000 and the likelihood that it may continue its climb by year ending, the traditional rice meals during the festive season may see a major replacement this year. Personally, it may not be so much of a bad thing since I believe we already consume a lot of rice in this country as it is. I’ll like to see it therefore as a blessing in disguise of some sort. Thankfully, there are a lot of food items to experiment with and still have a good time. From our staples, yam, potatoes, the abounding fresh vegetables and fruits, rice may not be sourly missed from festive tables this season. If you are stuck, Instagram has loads of Nigerian professional chefs who teach you how to make amazing meals from our local ingredients. You should try some online digging.

End of year travel down to the village may not be trending this year. Well for one, the roads are bad, air fares are on the rise and the frequencies of flight cancellations are still unpredictable. The drudgery about travelling down for Christmas this year isn’t just that the fares and the process of travelling seems tedious. The expenses that will be incurred for the duration of your trip, many of which would be unbudgeted for, are likely to leave you far spent before the year runs out. Yes, you haven’t seen your family in the east for so long. Maybe a visit in November isn’t so bad and maybe a ‘noiseless’ visit isn’t so ‘demeaning’ for a ‘Lagosian’ like you. And thanks to technology, you can now make video calls with whoever and wherever they are in the world and see them not just hear them. Yes, it may not be like seeing them real time but then, we don’t always get what we want, do we? Maybe not this year.

I don’t feel a lot of a Christmas trees, lights and all the merriness of Christmas will abound this year. I mean, it’s the 2nd week in November already and 6 weeks till Christmas and usually at this time, you could tell from the atmosphere and shopping patterns that Christmas was around the corner. Haven’t seen much of that this period. Maybe we’ll catch on later as the time approaches or maybe not, time will tell.

One thing I absolutely love about my country is the resilience of her people and the unflinching belief that tomorrow will be better some day. Whether on a big scale or a small scale, despite the economic challenges and the animosity towards the government and their policies, ‘tis the season to be jolly.

 

KOSISO UGWUEDE